| Longford | |
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Poster for United States release |
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| Genre | Drama |
| Directed by | Tom Hooper |
| Produced by | Helen Flint |
| Written by | Peter Morgan |
| Starring | Jim Broadbent Samantha Morton Lindsay Duncan Andy Serkis |
| Music by | Rob Lane |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Original channel | Channel 4 |
| Release date | 26 October 2006 |
| Running time | 88 minutes |
Longford is a 2006 drama television film directed by Tom Hooper and written by Peter Morgan.
The film centres on Labour Party peer Lord Longford and his campaign for the parole of Moors Murderer Myra Hindley.
It was produced by Granada Productions for Channel 4, in association with HBO, and stars Jim Broadbent and actress Samantha Morton. The film was first broadcast on Channel 4 on 26 October 2006 and was the Official Selection for Best Dramatic Picture at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. Broadbent won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor for his part.
Longford and Hindley had both died by the time the film was made; Longford in August 2001 and Hindley in November 2002. Hindley's lover and accomplice Ian Brady, played by Andy Serkis, is still living.
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The film begins during the late 1960s (during the first premiership of Harold Wilson) at the House of Lords, with Lord Longford, a regular prison visitor, presiding over a reception for a number of ex-convicts whom he had visited and corresponded with when they were incarcerated. He receives a letter from one of the most notorious criminals in Britain, the so-called Moors Murderer Myra Hindley, who is several years into her life sentence for taking part in the murder of three children with her boyfriend, Ian Brady.
When he visits her, she asks for books but also for him to arrange for her to meet Brady. Longford is shocked and tells her that it would be in her own best interests to have no contact with Brady, as it might harm any future chances of parole. Hindley seems equally shocked at the idea that she would ever be allowed parole. Longford then begins his campaign for Hindley to be paroled.
The question remains of whether Hindley is indeed reformed — for example, in her decision to convert to Longford's own Roman Catholic faith — or whether she is merely manipulating him and feigning her rehabilitation in an attempt to bring herself closer to release. Longford visits Brady twice; on both occasions, Brady tells him that she is manipulative and that he should turn his back on her.
Longford, driven by his deep religious belief that all people are ultimately good, decides to continue on his course, despite heavy public, political, and family criticism and even though it turns out that Hindley has not been honest with him. In 1986 she reveals that she and Brady were responsible for two further murders.
Even as Hindley's revelations sparked yet more public hostility towards Longford for trying to win her release, he remains loyal to Hindley and continues to back her campaign for release. He is last seen visiting her in prison in the late 1990s, by which time Longford is frail and more than 90 years old, while Hindley is still in her 50s but in a declining state of health.
As the film ends and just before the credits start to roll, we are informed that Longford died in August 2001, while Hindley never got the parole that she spent a generation fighting for and remained imprisoned until her death in November 2002.
Longford received the Official Selection for Best Dramatic Picture at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. The film won for Best Actress, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress at the 2007 Australian Independent Awards. It also won Best Picture and was nominated for Best Director at Home Theatre Award.
2007 59th Primetime Emmy Awards
2007 2007 Sundance Film Festival
2007 Australian Independent Awards
2007 Home Theatre Award
2007 BAFTA Award
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