ME AND MRS JONES


Although this one-off drama (100 minutes) due to be aired late 2002 it was filmed from 30 July 2001 to September 2001 around the halls of Westminster in London.

Philip and Caroline

Cast


Synopsis

Robson stars as Liam Marple, is the undercover tabloid journalist behind Mrs Jones - one of the country's most talked about gossip columns. Now Liam's editor at the Daily Echo, Jane Gallagher (Hawes) wants him to focus his energies on a more serious subject: The Prime Minister, Laura Bowden (Goodhall, who Philip worked with in Cassidy) who is currently fighting a General Election. Laura has to convince a sceptical public that she's as good as her predecessor whilst at home she has two kids to bring up and a husband.

Posing as a party fundraiser, Liam manages to gatecrash an Important event to gain material for another highly critical article about the government under his pseudonym Mrs Jones. At first he has very negative views on her but his encounter with the Prime Minister provides more than column inches; to Liam's surprise she changes his views on not only an intellectual level, but an emotional one. There is a powerful attraction between them and they soon embark on a secret affair.

Richard Bowden, the Prime Minister's barrister husband, played by Philip Quast, however is not interested in his wife or any other woman for that matter and is having an affair with a male member of his chambers. (It's not a huge part but it has a twist)

As an election looms, Liam's (Green) ruthless editor - and ex-wife - Jane (Keeley Hawes) becomes convinced Liam is losing his edge, while he's more worried that his new lover will discover who he really is.


Dates released on Video DVD.

The NTSC video of the movie will be available from 11th March 2003 and you can order from Amazon.com

Review from The Guardian:

"Hollywood has routinely remade films from other countries for most of its existence, so it's pleasing in a way to see a film that is obviously a rip-off of two of Hollywood's successes. The rip-off is Me And Mrs. Jones and the films they are stealing ideas (and even bits of dialogue) from are Rob Reiner's movie for Castle Rock, The American President, and Ivan Reitman's White House comedy Dave.

The American President was about a US President who falls in love while in office, and the political as well as personal complications that ensue. Me And Mrs. Jones is about a British Prime Minister who falls in love while in office, and the political as well as personal complications that ensue. There are some significant differences, however. The sexes have been switched, for starters.

The US President was male (Michael Douglas); the PM is female (Caroline Goodall). He was a widower; she is married. There are scenes that are almost direct copies, like the President's/PM's walk from residential quarters to office, with various staffers joining him/her along the way each in full cry over some issue or other.

Similarly, with dialogue: in Reiner's film, lobbyist Annette Bening reminds Michael Douglas' President that she is becoming romantically involved with "the leader of the free world"; in the British film, Robson Green's journalist pretending to be a fund-raiser observes to Goodall that he is becoming chummy with "one of the leaders of the Western world".

There's even a token ethnic staffer (Nitin Ganatra), just like there was in Douglas' White House. For good measure there is also one scene (the incognito car drive where the police jump them for a traffic offence) and some other bits of business that are lifted straight from Dave.

Nevertheless, for all the deficiencies and plagiarisms in Caleb Ransom's script, Me And Mrs. Jones is a likeable light romantic drama. To allow for Caroline Goodall's character to have a love affair without viewer criticism, her husband is made gay. Philip Quast plays this character with sympathy and understanding, most crucially retaining our sympathy whilst preparing to leave his wife.

Admittedly, for most of the time, Goodall never actually impresses as having what it takes to become Prime Minister in the first place. However, in the well-handled scene of the television debate where, to the amazement of her staff, she turns the tables on the Leader of the Opposition, she does show a little of the necessary steel.

The supporting characters are all excellent, although the one that makes an impact for me is Aisling O'Sullivan as the PM's elegant female bodyguard, Max. Not exactly pretty, O'Sullivan makes her character both forceful and likeable."

Review from The Age

"Me and Mrs. Jones is about relationships, betrayal, misplaced trust and lust. This is a modern drama, starring the gorgeous Caroline Goodall as British prime minister Laura Bowden - a lonely woman who falls in love with a scallywag journalist, Liam Marple (Robson Green). The problem is, Laura is married, and just six weeks away from an election. And Liam has the dirt - on her private life, on her spindoctors' views of how she'll fare in the polls, and on her husband, Richard (played superbly by Philip Quast). Will he remain loyal, or opt instead for a career coup?"



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