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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed shows.
Filth
EMAILPRINTMOVIE: PBS, Sunday 11/16 at 9:00p (90 minutes)
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 11 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 2 votes
Read user comments
Rate this show >
Show Info
Genre(s): Drama
Created By:
Rebecca Eaton
Leanne Klein
First Air Date: November 16, 2008
Summary
Starring Julie Walters, Hugh Bonneville, and Alun Armstrong
The life of Mary Whitehouse, the British activist who fought the BBC over television decency standards, is explored in the latest installment in the Masterpiece Contemporary series.
Episode Guide & More Info: More about this show at TV.com
Also On The Web: Official Show Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Entertainment WeeklyAdam Markovitz
The plot--based on a true story--drags, but Walters is a hoot as a prig who thinks she can stave off the swingin' '60s with a wagging finger.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles TimesMary McNamara
A lively, thought-provoking and often humorous quasi-biopic of a real-life crusader in which there are no angels, or devils either, just a nation in the midst of change for which not everyone is prepared.
Read Full Review >Orlando SentinelHal Boedeker
Brilliant acting propels this slight satire about Mary Whitehouse.
Read Full Review >The New York TimesAnita Gates
The script, by Amanda Coe, has a dexterous sense of fun.
Read Full Review >VarietyBrian Lowry
As played by Julie Walters, Filth is a surprisingly affectionate and sympathetic portrait of a character who easily could have been presented as a priggish scold.
Read Full Review >San Francisco ChronicleTim Goodman
Screenwriter Amanda Coe is to be credited not only for developing such rich characterizations, but also for the delicacy of the show's satiric point of view.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Daily NewsEllen Gray
Yet for all the gentle ridicule heaped on Walters' character in Filth, her Mary is closer to a three-dimensional figure than Whitehouse's nemesis, BBC head Sir Hugh Greene (Hugh Bonneville).
Read Full Review >Wall Street JournalDorothy Rabinowitz
Clearly, the creators of Filth (Amanda Coe, writer, Andy De Emmony, director) had their problems settling down to a comfortable tone for this figure who was, after all, famous entirely for her career on behalf of censorship. Julie Walters, who portrays her with grand and ebullient sympathy, shows evidence of no similar problems.
Read Full Review >LA WeeklyRobert Abele
Filth too often comes off like a strained attempt at reversing the dynamic of a Marx Brothers movie, with Whitehouse the silly, charming agitator and Greene the insufferable aesthete foil with steam blowing out of his ears.
Read Full Review >Boston GlobeMatthew Gilbert
Walters makes the movie seem like more than it is. She gives us a fully dimensional woman--an art teacher--who is idealistic, self-righteous, humorless, God-fearing, affectionate toward her students, driven, and not any one of those qualities to a great extreme.
Read Full Review >USA TodayRobert Bianco
Rather than balance, what you get from Filth is a gratingly smug superiority that mocks both sides while failing to make any point of its own.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this show is 9.5 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Kevin C. gave it a9:
Great performances and a fair portrayal of the real concerns that traditionalists have in the on-going culture wars. Still a timely issue 50 years on.
