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Filth
MOVIE: PBS, Sunday 11/16 at 9:00p (90 minutes)


9.5

based on 11 reviews
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based on 2 votes
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Official Show Site

Starring Julie Walters, Hugh Bonneville, and Alun Armstrong

The life of Mary Whitehouse, the British activist who fought the BBC over television decency standards, is explored in the latest installment in the Masterpiece Contemporary series.

GENRE(S):	Drama
CREATED BY:	Rebecca Eaton Leanne Klein
FIRST AIR DATE:	November 16, 2008

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Entertainment Weekly Adam Markovitz

The plot--based on a true story--drags, but Walters is a hoot as a prig who thinks she can stave off the swingin' '60s with a wagging finger.

Los Angeles Times Mary McNamara

A lively, thought-provoking and often humorous quasi-biopic of a real-life crusader in which there are no angels, or devils either, just a nation in the midst of change for which not everyone is prepared.

Orlando Sentinel Hal Boedeker

Brilliant acting propels this slight satire about Mary Whitehouse.

The New York Times Anita Gates

The script, by Amanda Coe, has a dexterous sense of fun.

Variety Brian Lowry

As played by Julie Walters, Filth is a surprisingly affectionate and sympathetic portrait of a character who easily could have been presented as a priggish scold.

San Francisco Chronicle Tim Goodman

Screenwriter Amanda Coe is to be credited not only for developing such rich characterizations, but also for the delicacy of the show's satiric point of view.

Philadelphia Daily News Ellen Gray

Yet for all the gentle ridicule heaped on Walters' character in Filth, her Mary is closer to a three-dimensional figure than Whitehouse's nemesis, BBC head Sir Hugh Greene (Hugh Bonneville).

Wall Street Journal Dorothy Rabinowitz

Clearly, the creators of Filth (Amanda Coe, writer, Andy De Emmony, director) had their problems settling down to a comfortable tone for this figure who was, after all, famous entirely for her career on behalf of censorship. Julie Walters, who portrays her with grand and ebullient sympathy, shows evidence of no similar problems.

LA Weekly Robert Abele

Filth too often comes off like a strained attempt at reversing the dynamic of a Marx Brothers movie, with Whitehouse the silly, charming agitator and Greene the insufferable aesthete foil with steam blowing out of his ears.

Boston Globe Matthew Gilbert

Walters makes the movie seem like more than it is. She gives us a fully dimensional woman--an art teacher--who is idealistic, self-righteous, humorless, God-fearing, affectionate toward her students, driven, and not any one of those qualities to a great extreme.

USA Today Robert Bianco

Rather than balance, what you get from Filth is a gratingly smug superiority that mocks both sides while failing to make any point of its own.

The average user rating for this tv show is 9.5 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Kevin C. gave it a9:
Great performances and a fair portrayal of the real concerns that traditionalists have in the on-going culture wars. Still a timely issue 50 years on.

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Filth MOVIE: PBS, Sunday 11/16 at 9:00p (90 minutes)

Filth
MOVIE: PBS, Sunday 11/16 at 9:00p (90 minutes)