Mo (2010)

I recorded the Channel 4 drama, Mo, earlier in the year, and got round to watching it last night. It's a biopic of Mo Mowlam, starring the ever-wonderful Julie Walters in the title role. The film explores Mowlam's cancer diagnosis and her subsequent failure to disclose it to anyone outside her husband, including Tony Blair, her boss when she was Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. 

Walters was reassuringly brilliant as Mo, and once she was portraying her with Mowlam's unmistakable rounder figure and wispy hair (both results of Mo's battle with her cancer) she was almost undistinguishable from the real person. Mo Mowlam was a very well respected figure in British politics, and she was instrumental in bringing about some sense of order in her time running Northern Ireland, and it is sad to note how her illness and treatment by her party forced her into a decline, leading to her untimely death in 2005. 

The drama showed Mo as a loveable figure, but was unafraid to show how the illness took its toll, and also how Mowlam was affected privately. The film is filled with hilarious moments taken from Mo's real life, such as removing her wig at inappropriate moments, or swearing like a trooper - moments her brian tumour generated as they lowered her inhibitions. It was heart-rending towards the end when Mo questioned how much her popularity and persona was her and how much was her cancer. As a depiction of a politician at the top of her game this drama did a lot to excuse Mo's decision to hide her illness, and it also served to remind how few popular figures there are today in British politics. Are there any?