This superior TV movie covers a lot of the same ground as the Daniel Day-Lewis drama In the Name of the Father, which documented the difficult relationship between Gerry Conlon, wrongly convicted of the IRA Guildford pub bombing, and his father, Guiseppe, whom he implicated and who died in prison. The script is based almost solely around love letters written by the aged Guiseppe, who was frequently in bad health, from his English prison cell to his devoted wife, Sarah. Barry McGovern and Stella McCusker give luminous central performances and the direction is unobtrusive and understated. Fans of the hit film The Commitments will have no difficulty in spotting Bronagh Gallagher in the supportring cast here as Anne Conlon. The script was made by Irish state broadcaster RTE after earlier being rejected by the BBC and ITV. When shown in Ireland it achieved the highest ever ratings for a made-for-TV film.


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