Florence Nightingale (TV Movie 2008)

Florence Nightingale: Directed by Norman Stone. With Laura Fraser, Michael Pennington, Andrew Harrison, Barbara Marten. Starring Laura Fraser, this film brings to life the story of Florence Nightingale’s spiritual and emotional breakdown after the Crimean War: a moment of crisis, doubt, and failure that ultimately inspired her revolutionary career in medicine.

“The script was terrible. It was full of modern colloquialisms (e.g. the nation wants to u0026#39;move onu0026#39;) and people calling each other by their first names inappropriately for the period. Laura Fraser acted the part with a modern Sloane Ranger accent and entirely lacked the gravitas that Florence Nightingale clearly had. Her experience of nursing before going out to Scutari was omitted. Michael Pennington was terrible as her father, weak and totally un-Victorian.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe time line of the piece was confusing and the music hall interludes were entertaining but out of place.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe later parts, with Florence agonising over her mistakes, were overdone. It is true she made mistakes, but unless I am much mistaken, she did not agonise over them very much, but rather tended to remain very confident of her abilities and fixed in her opinions.”