Savage House review – Claire Foy and Richard E Grant sell it hard in bewigged 18th-century caper

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The leads are the most watchable thing in this raucous period yarn about a grimy pair of status-obsessed nobles Black-belt performances from Claire Foy and Richard E Grant put some vim and vigour into this haranguingly one-note and unidirectional period romp of the raucously bewigged and be-poxed 18th century. It’s written and directed by American film-maker Peter Glanz, who gives us candlelit interiors like a knockoff Barry Lyndon, and periodic deafening orchestral stabs with a touch of Amadeus as furious people in costume storm down corridors. But Grant and Foy are always there, selling it hard and there are one or two nice lines. They play Sir Chauncey and Lady Savage, who are living in a vast crumbling country estate: he’s a parvenu, an adventurer, a lover of the new Hanover dispensation who loathes Jacobites, but fundamentally a social alpinist who married for money and took his wife’s noble name. She was entranced by his roguish ways and she forgave him everything but is, however...
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From White Mischief to Bill & Ted, Joss Ackland was an actor of rare poise, range and pathos

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Many will remember Ackland best on the big screen as plummy defenders of the realm, but this supremely polished star could also handle action, comedy – and a lot of cold war Soviets

Joss Ackland’s elegant bearing, natural aplomb and English theatrical training meant that he never lacked for work on stage or screen, largely playing authority and establishment figures — although these movie roles were a bit ironised and sent up in the parts he got offered in the 90s and 00s (to his reported chagrin).

But growing up, I was aware of him only via that rich, mellifluous voice of his, like melted butterscotch, in an inordinate number of TV ads: his tones were received pronunciation with a dash of naughtiness and insinuation, that of a TV newsreader or bishop who loved to savour a fine wine, or a decent cigar.

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