TVSquad

I've always had a bizarre fascination with the politics of war, So I was a bit embarrassed when reading about HBO's Into the Storm, premiering this Sunday at 8 pm Eastern, to find that it was a sequel to a 2002 HBO film. I tracked down The Gathering Storm and started watching it yesterday and was blown away by how perfectly Albert Finney captured Winston Churchill. I love Vanessa Redgrave as his oh so patient wife. It's just a fantastic film looking at the state of England and Churchill leading into World War II.

Now I'm ready for this long-delayed continuation, as we see Churchill from the heights of power during WWII to his waning years. But I'm not sure how difficult a transition it's going to be with these key roles recast. It's no knock against Brendan Gleeson (Winston Churchill) or Janet McTeer (Clemmie Churchill). I've just so fallen in love with Finney and Redgrave in those roles, I worry that I'll be comparing their performances rather than enjoying the film.

A myriad of celebrities are set to star in the BBC's modern remake of the classic sci-fi novel Day of the Triffids. Names include Jason Priestley, Vanessa Redgrave, Brian Cox and Eddie Izzard.

There seems to be quite a few remakes going on in the world of British television at the moment (Triffids was adapted for BBC television once already in 1981 and had a big-screen version in 1962). We have The Prisoner, Survivors, and now Day of the Triffids. Both Survivors and Triffids deal with the theme of a post-apocalyptic world.

I'm not sure if Triffids was the first story to use the post-apocalyptic genre, but it's certainly one of the most popular. The book itself is a combination of the movies The Happening (where plants attack humanity) and Blindness (where most of humanity is rendered blind).

The anti-Soviet themes of the book won't be applicable in these times, but I'm sure the flesh-eating Triffids will have other, more modern analogies.