THE POLITICS OF PRINCIPLES CONTROVERSIAL LIFE OF POLITICIAN WHO TRIED TO REDEEM CHILD MURDERER EXPLORED.

Byline: David Kronke

Television Critic

'There was a blond woman involved, and that's enough for the tabloids to think this is a story that will run and run; any opportunity to put her mug shot on the front page was eagerly taken," says Jim Broadbent. And no, he's not talking about who you might think.

Broadbent is discussing Myra Hindley, who, with her boyfriend Ian Brady, was at the center of one of England's most shocking crimes of the 20th century: the Moors murders, a series of sadistic child slayings from 1963 through 1965 that, in its wake, unmoored the career of one of Britain's most promising politicians.

HBO's "Longford" stars Broadbent, an Oscar winner for his role in "Iris," as Lord Frank Longford, a brilliant if eccentric parliamentarian who, believing most criminals capable of rehabilitation, torpedoed his career in trying to help the universally loathed Hindley get paroled.

Though the case is more than 40 years old, it endures like a freshly picked scab in England.

Director Tom Hooper, an Emmy winner for HBO's "Elizabeth I," recalls, "One of my friends said, 'You can't do it. You can't direct this. Any film that gives any oxygen to Longford's position on Myra Hindley is unconscionable.' I asked, 'But as a Catholic, don't you believe in forgiveness?' And he said, 'Yes, but not for her.' And I thought, my god, if someone younger than me" -- and Hooper himself was born after the Moors murders -- "feels so passionately that I shouldn't direct this film, it was worth investigating."

"Longford's" screenplay is by Peter Morgan, whose scripts for "The Queen" and "The Last King of Scotland" have garnered Helen Mirren and Forest Whitaker some 40 acting awards combined, as well as earning him an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe. Morgan says he wouldn't have bothered writing "Longford" had he not convinced Broadbent to take the role in advance: "Like Helen Mirren, he's a national treasure" in England, he says.

Deconstructing the character

Of Longford, Morgan notes, "He was a highly intelligent man and a great intellectual, and the combination doesn't always produce great common sense. He was also a vain man, not a saint, by any means, who enjoyed the limelight. His flaws interested me as much as his virtues. With him, I was anxious to do the opposite of what I did with Idi Amin (in 'King of Scotland'), where I drew people's attentions to his virtues in a funny way for some of it; in this, I was trying to draw attention to his faults."

Of Hindley, he adds, "I could argue for her innocence or her guilt. I could happily go into court tomorrow and represent Myra Hindley or prosecute her.

"I wanted the experience for the viewer to be that every time we felt certain of one thing, something would have to cut us," Morgan continues. "Because I myself was not certain about how I felt about anybody here. Normally, I like certainty, but here I wanted to embrace some of the ambiguities and I find that very satisfying."

Broadbent adds, "I love (playing) real people and all their complexities, and Longford's got that in spades -- the journey he made from a Tory Protestant aristocrat to being a socialist Catholic politician who visited prisoners three times a week through 50 years.

"Those are hard, bleak places to go. We went to a few prisons while filming, and my respect for him grew. They're difficult to get into, they're difficult to get out of -- and they're horrible places to be once you get in.

"Those contradictions are lifeblood to me, as well as the physical and vocal idiosyncrasies that he presents."

Ah, yes, the idiosyncrasies. Not only did Longford's speech serve to utterly disguise his intelligence, but his appearance was -- well, there's no polite word for this -- grubby.

"He looked like a vagrant," reports Lindsay Duncan, who plays Longford's wife Elizabeth. "Actually, in the film they toned down the amount of stains on his clothes because it would've been a joke for today's audiences. Looking like that doesn't help your credibility."

A contradictory couple

Duncan notes that though Longford and Elizabeth were married for nearly 70 years, they were the consummate odd couple.

"She was immaculate; she was fragrant and lovely," Duncan says, adding that her character was at least as accomplished as her husband: "Just to read her diaries makes you feel like someone who hasn't got out of bed for the last 50 years. And she loved him, even with the stains on his tie. It was amazing."

Which makes Broadbent's transformation into Longford all the more astonishing. The production shot at prisons that Longford himself had visited, and Hooper recalls seeing those who had encountered the man being taken aback by Broadbent's portrayal, as if they were being visited by a ghost.

Broadbent remembers asking before agreeing to the role, "Will there be hours of makeup?" and recalling, with a sigh, the response:

"Oh, there'll be hours of makeup."

"I complain a little bit," he says with a chuckle, "but it's such a bonus to help you get closer to the character."

David Kronke, [phone]

[e-mail]

LONGFORD

What: Jim Broadbent stars as a British politician whose good intentions involving himself in a controversial, salacious court case torpedoes his career.

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.

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

Jim Broadbent stars as a Parliamentarian who destroys his political career to help a murderer in HBO's "Longford."