FORGIVENESS DIVINE IN 'LONGFORD'.

Byline: David Kronke

Television Critic

It's a story that didn't get a whole lot of traction in America, but it's legendarily notorious in England: the Moors murders, a grisly series of child killings in the early to mid-'60s.

Myra Hindley, whose mug shot portrayed an insouciant platinum blonde, became the most hated woman in England. And Lord Longford -- theretofore a respected if terribly frumpy politician -- took up her cause, fighting to win her parole.

"Longford," a film premiering on HBO tonight, merits attention on the strength of its talent alone: It stars Oscar winner Jim Broadbent as Longford; Lindsay Duncan as his wife, Elizabeth; and Samantha Morton as the canny Myra. It's directed by Emmy winner Tom Hooper ("Elizabeth I") from a screenplay by current Oscar nominee Peter Morgan, whose scripts for "The Queen" and "The King of Scotland" have helped win virtually every acting award conceivable for Helen Mirren and Forest Whitaker.

But it's also worth seeing for the absorbing, nuanced storytelling and Broadbent's astounding portrayal of Longford, whose keen mind and soft heart led to his humiliation and undoing.

Though the nation was appalled by Hindley's actions -- she fell in with a sociopath named Ian Brady (Andy Serkis, without the aid of the CGI that transformed him into Gollum in the "Lord of the Rings" films), who coerced her into participating in the sexually tinged murders -- Longford saw in her a woman he could rehabilitate. He converted her to Catholicism -- or at least he thought he did -- and maintained a lengthy correspondence with her that infuriated Elizabeth, until she, too, was won over to Myra's side.

Broadbent deftly captures the viper's nest of contradictions that defined Longford: Legendarily unkempt yet politically astute, progressive yet old-fashioned, arrogant yet utterly naive. It was those last two qualities that ultimately did in his political career.

Longford was an idealistic -- perhaps too idealistic -- man crushed by a perfect storm of events in confluence, and Broadbent subtly underscores the tragedy in the man's life. Responding years later to someone who confronts him about the incident, he responds, with perfect turn-the-other-cheek piousness, "Evil can be a spiritual experience, too." Yet the cloud that descends over his face suggests another story.

David Kronke, [phone]

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LONGFORD - Three and one half stars

What: Jim Broadbent stars as a British politician who risks his career to champion the cause of a woman involved in a heinous crime.

Where: HBO.

When: 8 tonight; also 4:45 a.m. Sunday, noon and 10 p.m. Monday, 2:15 and 11:15 p.m. Feb. 25, and 1 a.m. Feb. 28.

In a nutshell: Powerfully acted.

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Photo:

Lord Longford (Jim Broadbent), a British politician, tries to rehabilitate a convicted serial child murdered (Samantha Morton), to the detriment of his career, in HBO's "Longford."