Nolly is Helena Bonham-Carter’s Baby’s Day Ouch

Imagine the star attraction of a soap opera for seventeen years, suddenly being told one fine day that she is sacked !!What happens then? Director Peter Hoar and writer Russell T Davies get together once again after the irresistible Doctor Who, for a moving funny and provocative plunge into the world of daytime soap operas which occupied housewife’s afternoon slot all over the world from the 1960s to the 80s, particularly in Britain with shows like Coronation Street and, lower down the scale, Crossroads featuring daytime darling Noele Gordon.This is the story of the feisty hotheaded redheaded Noele Gordon, Nolly to friends and foes, who lost her job as the leading light of Crossroads seventeen years after lording over the soap ensuring it generated sufficient lather over the years.On paper, this sounds like a dry drab daytime disaster plot. But look at what Davies and Hoar have done to it! Sheer magic!! From one highly disgruntled soap queen’s sob story, Nolly transforms into a universally resonant story of dealing with the inevitable failure after stardom. A lot of the credit, if not almost all of it, must go to Helena Bonham-Carter. We have seen this wonderful actress transform into so many people in front of us, from Lady Jane in Lady Jane to Queen Elizabeth in The King’s Speech. Bonham-Carter’s transformative powers are phenomenal.But what she has done in Nolly is incomparable with anything in her past. In Helena Bonham-Carter’s care Noele Gordon comes alive in a way that is a stand-alone achievement.I haven’t seen any of Noele Gordon’s works in Crossroads where she played a bossy motel owner, or anywhere else .Watching Bonham-Carter play Noele, I got an exact idea of what this soap queen was like, and also, why she got sacked so unceremoniously. The moment she gets to know why—and it comes in Episode 3 of this succinct and articulate biopic of a woman, an actress and a rebel who defies analysis — is so poignant and effective, it upturns all of the character’s self-belief without ruffling her outwardly.The three-part series (economy toh koi in goro log se sikhe) delves fluently into Noele’s life and through her, we get an opulent overview of the daily-soap culture in Britain which flourishes to this day.While Helena Bonham-Carter presides unchallenged as the queen of the show, all the other actors playing her co-stars in the soap Crossroads are so brilliant, so 1980s without resorting to props and postures is it like being transported into the era without a jot of self-congratulations.Special mention of Augustus Prew as Noele’s very special friend Tony Adams who lives across the street bang opposite her and runs to her home tucking his shirt whenever Noele beckons from her window.Tony’s selfless devotion to Noele is heartbreaking. In one particularly memorable sequence Tony takes Neole/Nolly on a bus ride filled with enthusiastic fans. He just moves back and lets her enjoy her stardom. Goosebumps.Nolly is suffused with memorable moments and characters, all so effortlessly lined up that we don’t feel emotionally manipulated for even a second. Put this on your won’t-miss list.Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based journalist. He has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out.Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News, India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.