By Cookie 'N' Screen
There are always three paths for child actors. There is the fading into obscurity where you don’t actually know if they existed in the first place; just robots created by the Disney Company. There is also the crack route, otherwise known as the ‘Lindsey Loh-lane,” where the pressure of fame causes them to turn to booze and drugs. Then there is a lighter path where the child star naturally progresses into adulthood with talent and a fruitful career in acting. You’d be forgiven, for a second, in thinking that Daniel Radcliffe was hovering down the first two. But once you watch his new drama A Young Doctor’s Notebook, you may change your mind
There are always three paths for child actors. There is the fading into obscurity where you don’t actually know if they existed in the first place; just robots created by the Disney Company. There is also the crack route, otherwise known as the ‘Lindsey Loh-lane,” where the pressure of fame causes them to turn to booze and drugs. Then there is a lighter path where the child star naturally progresses into adulthood with talent and a fruitful career in acting. You’d be forgiven, for a second, in thinking that Daniel Radcliffe was hovering down the first two. But once you watch his new drama A Young Doctor’s Notebook, you may change your mind
A Young Doctor’s Notebook sees Radcliffe play alongside John Hamm. Playing old and young versions of the same man, the pair tell the story of a young Russian Doctor who is sent out to desolate countryside to work in a desolate hospital. Pretty much abandoned in the freezing cold, the Doctor finds himself out of depth. The drama and comedy comes from the interaction from the older and younger doctor, flitting between the events happening for the older version and his memories through a diary. As events catch up with him, a darker side to the man is revealed.
Series One hit our television screens last year boasting a black comedy. Hailed by many critics as a superb show, the first instalment was brief but fantastic. Hamm and Radcliffe are two sides of the same coin, managing perfectly to showcase different ages of the same man. On the Hamm side, here is an experienced man whose addictions and troubles have finally caught up with him. Addicted to morphine and arrested for stealing it from the hospital he works in, Hamm adds the earnest need to help himself and his sorrow for what he has done. He has wisdom although he is not altogether wise. Hamm plays the character well, removing himself from previous roles and creating something new, likeable and hateful at the same time.
Series One hit our television screens last year boasting a black comedy. Hailed by many critics as a superb show, the first instalment was brief but fantastic. Hamm and Radcliffe are two sides of the same coin, managing perfectly to showcase different ages of the same man. On the Hamm side, here is an experienced man whose addictions and troubles have finally caught up with him. Addicted to morphine and arrested for stealing it from the hospital he works in, Hamm adds the earnest need to help himself and his sorrow for what he has done. He has wisdom although he is not altogether wise. Hamm plays the character well, removing himself from previous roles and creating something new, likeable and hateful at the same time.
But more exceptionally is Daniel Radcliffe’s descent into adulthood and becoming this ridiculously talented actor. There are a lot of people who will disagree but I think Radcliffe is finding his feet, creating this resume in good acting. It’s brilliant to watch him grow as a performer and in this series, you see him master the comedy and the addiction, the drama and the bleak laughs. It is at times a difficult watch, with about as much gore as you can think. But Radcliffe is absorbing as the younger Doctor.
So tonight, Sky Arts 1 kicks of Season 2 and there is much excitement in the air. As we left, the older version of the Doctor is in prison, struggling with a morphine addiction and the younger one is struggling with the ramifications of the mess he has got himself into. Ending on such a poignant and sorrow-filled ending, the next series kicks off with Older Doctor in rehab and Younger Doctor still struggling. Brilliantly seeing how past and present argue constantly with each other, this is a must see. Don’t miss it!
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