Reading Jeremy Clarkson’s car review used to be such a hoot.
Even for disinterested in cars people like this writer, there was the fascination of Clarkson’s language as he wrote about some topic which had nothing to do with the motor vehicle itself.
After taking you through English lanes discussing the Emperor Hadrian and his similarity to Winston Churchill (they both liked building walls), Clarkson would segue into lambasting a Range Rover Evoque Convertible in the final few paragraphs. It was great.
Similarly, discussion on Mr Burton (2025), the story of the teenage years of Richard Jenkins and his school teacher P.H. Burton before the former became Richard Burton, turned to another recent production with only a very tenuous connection.
Netflix’s The Thursday Murder Club (2025) initiated much more discussion than the film we had just viewed. The question was asked: “Why couldn’t The Thursday Murder Club have the look of Mr Burton, which looked like a feature film?” The other looked like an episode of a weekly British television show, such as the much-loved Midsomer Murders.
To wit: One looked serious, the other looked flippant.
Arguably Mr Burton was set in a 1940s Welsh coal mining town and TTMC in modern times in a sun-drenched Sussex but the two productions were gaps apart in what appeared on screen. Their only connection being both are British productions with excellent leading players.
Toby Jones plays the titular role and it’s one of his best. Honest, educated, polite, urbane and disappointed could describe his character. Mr Burton enjoys teaching in the small Welsh village but yearns to be a playwright, a career denied him by the outbreak of World War II.
He takes an interest in a male student – Harry Lawtey as Jenkins – when the boy is set a punishment of remembering a passage from Shakespeare. Jenkins plays rugby instead but, when challenged by the teacher as he leaves the pitch, delivers the text verbatim.
Burton’s interest is piqued when the boy says: “Hardly a punishment sir. I enjoyed it.”
The lad, who lives in tough circumstances with his sister, her husband and children, becomes a project for the teacher, who begins a drama society and encourages the boy to join.
From there the gradual steps from repeating Shakespearean lines as though they are a grocery list to being taught the pauses, inflections and vowel sounds that make it so great are executed.
Burton requests Jenkins move into the boarding house he shares with local widow Mam Smith (Lesley Manville) and eventually adopts him to smooth the boy’s entry into university.
Though Mr Burton has lived in Mrs Smith’s house for a long time, there has never been any thought of the two sharing a relationship but the village men soon believe that he and Jenkins are together.
When Burton “buys” the student’s’ adoption permission from Jenkins’ drunken father this is brought home to the boy in stark terms. He turns to drink and sexual dalliance with women as counter strikes.
Abandoning Mr Burton after all he has done for him, Jenkins – now Richard Burton – spends eight years developing his career but drunkenness and debauchery have the better of him. He cries out for help when he leads a theatrical production of Henry V and Mr Burton joins him to provide the confidence to take the stage.
After more disgraceful behaviour to his mentor, the young actor finally realises his ingratitude and delivers an exhilarating Prince Hal.
While Jones is magnificent, Lawtey is close behind. An Englishman born in Oxford, Lawtey plays a young Welshman with astonishing aplomb. His graduation from late teenage schoolboy to exotic-looking mid 20-year-old is also beautifully handled.
Manville, still in the penalty box for Mrs Harris Goes to Paris (2022), is typically good as Mrs Smith.
The film’s introduction includes a quote of Elizabeth Taylor, twice married to Richard Burton:
“Without Philip Burton there would have been no Richard Burton.”
This film says that and more.
4
I WRIGHT 