Helena Bonham Carter stars within the three-part biographical drama “Masterpiece” about British television pioneer Noele Gordon. “Stars in” may underestimate this: She’s in almost every scene, shaking, laughing, sobbing, scolding, scheming, singing “Rose’s Turn.” Her chin tilt is the axis around which the show revolves.
Gordon, often called Nolly, was the primary woman on color television, a presenter, an early television executive and ultimately the lead of the long-running, low-budget soap opera “Crossroads.” “Nolly,” which premieres on PBS Sunday at 9 p.m. ET, focuses on her firing from “Crossroads” after nearly 20 years as a star and artistic anchor. She’s stunned, as are thousands and thousands of the show’s fans. She can also be broken: the top of her character and the top of herself are practically one and the identical. She begs the producer not to kill her character. “This isn’t real death,” he growls. “But still,” he says. This is.
“Nolly” makes good use of the overlap between lives on and off camera, showing how people – especially women – are torn apart and rejected in their very own lives. Nolly delivers many righteous monologues by which she defends her maligned program, soaps on the whole, the interests of ladies, those that are missed and rejected, especially hers.
Created and written by Russell T. Davies and directed by Peter Hoar, “Nolly” is thankfully light-hearted. Repair sagas, finally getting their due, can sometimes look like a cultural penance, a TV hairstyle designed to scold us for our blind spots. But “Nolly” is funny and smart, and its tone is somewhere between “Slings & Arrows” and “Hacks” – smart, engaging, with characters (and characters playing characters) which are each funny and good.
