This is a re-release of the original title <a href=">Salting the Battlefield (2014). Following the events in <a href=">Turks & Caicos (2014) Johnny Worricker and Margot Tyrell are in Europe trying to stay one step ahead of the Security Service. Through his old friend and colleague Rollo, he's managed to plant a story in The Independent about the source of the Prime Minister's "bridge" fund, but it gains little traction. Running low on cash, Worricker realizes that they'll have to go home. He pursues getting the story out by contacting The Independent's editor Belinda Kay and telling her the whole story. Meanwhile Jill Tankard, the head of MI-5, begins feeding information to Deputy Prime Minister Anthea Catcheside suggesting that the PM may be on his way out. For Worricker, he realizes too late that he too is a pawn in a much larger game. The Johnny Worricker trilogy concludes with Salting the Battlefield. Our hero with his ex girlfriend, Margot (Helena Bonham-Carter) are criss- crossing Europe trying to stay one step ahead of the security services and a vengeful Prime Minister. However if you must go out for a coffee early in the morning then chances are you will be spotted.<br/><br/>Worricker is being watched, his family and friends are being watched. He is running out of cash and he needs to make a move to reach an endgame.<br/><br/>The film does not mention a date, the name of the governing political party but we can guess this is a New Labour administration set a few years ago and although writer/director has stated that Alec Beasley is a new type of Prime Minister and Ralph Fiennes gives him a healthy dash of Lambert La Roux (The media mogul from a previous Hare play, Pravda) we can sense there is a lot of Tony Blair imbued in the character and events.<br/><br/>We do reach an end game as Worricker feeds the press and confronts the Prime Minister, not without Beasley asking difficult but loaded questions in return which was a very New Labour thing to do.<br/><br/>The Worricker trilogies have been enjoyable, despite the location shooting they were very much glorified stage plays, almost bottle dramas. I did feel Hare the writer would had benefited from someone else directing who would had bought a more visual flair and pacy action.<br/><br/>What we do get are uniformly well acted dramas, sterlingly led by a very feline Bill Nighy but they required more demands from the viewers than it needed because it was stilted here and there. And while there are far better endings of trilogies, remember this was made for TV. And yes I do know there is quite a lot of great TV work out there (particular in the TV show/series area), but I still think this warrants a 7 rather than a 6. The acting alone is really superb and while the story may be predictable (especially if you've seen the previous two entries), it still works.<br/><br/>Do you have to have seen the other two movies? I reckon not, but you do get the relationships between certain characters a lot quicker if you do. And they are fun to watch or at least entertaining and suspenseful enough to warrant that.
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378 weeks ago