...as the absolute buffoon many people presumed him to be. Perhaps there was no getting away from it, but Broadbent's performance did indeed depict Longford as a dithering, pig-headed old man who didn't care to consider the feelings of the victims' families, nor the possibility that Myra was making a prize pratt out of him. Some viewers might actually believe there was 'depth' to this story, but frankly I think those viewers would be reading something into the programme that just isn't there.<br /><br />It's amazing how one-dimensional the characterizations seem to be. Nearly all of Longford's detractors are depicted as simple minded boors who only want one thing - for Hindley and Brady to rot in jail. And oh yes, the programme makers seem to think that the parents of Hindley and Brady's victims are also boors, since the only time we ever hear a peep out of them is when they talk about wanting to kill Hindley and Brady for revenge. So much the better to justify Longford's bleatings about how 'the mob' must not be allowed to decide whether Myra should be denied parole for ever and ever.<br /><br />Unfortunately for the programme makers, Longford also comes across as being just as one-dimensional as those boors, just that he has a different opinion to theirs. You could say that the programme shows him wrestling with his conscience, as to whether he should or shouldn't help Myra...and you would be wrong, since Longford walks away from and shuts down every opportunity he's given to actually think about what he's doing. Someone mentions the tapes the Moors murderers made where they recorded the deaths of their victims, Longford goes out into the garden to see if it's still sunny out. He's given one of those tapes to listen to, that tape goes into a drawer where it sits for several years. Longford's going to help Myra, no matter what.<br /><br />What's just as bad as the drama's opinion of Longford's detractors are intimations that we the viewer are supposed to endorse and sympathise with this wilfully ignorant behaviour. The programme begins with Longford appearing on a radio talk show, which in itself is a warning sign for what's coming next. He's been invited to talk about a book he's recently written, but none of the callers want to talk about that, of course. And each and every one of them are rude, belligerent, insensitive. At one point, when Longford is being heckled for his support of Myra, he shoots a breaking-the-fourth-wall glance to camera, as if to say, 'can you believe these people!' A question he asks not of anyone in attendance, but of you, the viewer.<br /><br />The only character who's given more than one 'dimension' is Longford's wife, and it's also telling how the writer does so. It's very simple. She starts of as being as adamantly against Myra getting parole as any other boor, and then...she changes her mind, and starts backing her husband. You can just see Longford jumping for joy inside when his wife 'sees the light', so to speak. Possibly because it means that for the first time (in his life, quite possibly) he can tell himself, 'I'm not a buffoon! I'm not a buffoon!'