The special relationship

Michael Sheen has impersonated Tony Blair in three films written by Peter Morgan: The Deal and The Queen led to The Special Relationship, a 2010 HBO/BBC TV movie. In between, Sheen portrayed David Frost in Morgan's Frost/Nixon, on stage and film, and egocentric football manager Brian Clough in Morgan's The Damned United.

Morgan has mined a rich vein in modern British history, also writing a biopic about Lord Longford, an outstanding showcase for Jim Broadbent and Samantha Morton (as Myra Hindley). His screenplay for The Last King of Scotland brought an Oscar to Forest Whitaker and a breakthrough role for James McAvoy.

Digging further back in British history, Morgan transformed a Philippa Gregory novel into The Other Boleyn Girl, starring Eric Bana, Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johannson. A few years earlier, his two-part TV drama about Henry VIII featured Ray Winstone, Joss Ackland and a crack ensemble of top British actors. His 4-hour TV drama Colditz (2005) featured many young actors who've shone in later films (Damien Lewis, Tom Hardy, Jason Priestley)

The Leeds Uni graduate Londoner has also been well served by his directors, including Stephen Frears (twice, for Deal and Queen), Ron Howard (Frost/Nixon), Tom Hooper (also twice, for Damned and Longford), Kevin Macdonald (Last King). His latest screenplay, Hereafter (2010) is executive-produced by Spielberg, directed by Eastwood and stars Matt Damon. Morgan is on a roll, and has landed in Hollywood with his first screenplay not based on major historical news-makers.

If The Special Relationship fails to grip as TV drama or political docudrama, one of its weak links may be director Richard Loncraine: his track record is lightweight (most recently, My One and Only, Firewall and Wimbledon). Morgan's less-than-90-minute coverage of the shared time in power of Blair and Bill Clinton is inevitably episodic, and Kosovo and Ulster appear to be parts of a soap opera alongside the Lewinsky scandal. They might have made a richer pageant -- and parable -- of modern political friendship if the screenplay hadn't lost much time in scenes of the characters' transportation, newscast-watching and standing around.

Ironically, the most revelatory scene is a news clip at the end, with the real Bush and Blair holding a press conference at Camp David. As the screenplay's Clinton had forecast earlier, the body language spoke volumes, and I'm sure Morgan intended his audience to suspect mischievously that the US-UK "special relationship" had unexpressed homoerotic tinges recently.

The opening and closing song choices ("Friends" for Clinton, "Trouble" for Bush) illustrated Morgan's viewpoint, but he couldn't depict their Clinton-Blair relationship as simply. The interplay was complex, with Blair being supportive over Lewinsky and sneaky in rousing US support for Kosovo, and Clinton emerged the finer character in terms of political and personal integrity.

Dennis Quaid gives Clinton a sombre, pensive and nuanced character; but he didn't catch the man's impish vibrancy in the way that John Travolta nailed him brilliantly in Primary Colors. In that drama of a Clintonesque politician's campaigning triumph, Emma Thompson presented a convincing image of a younger Hillary. In Morgan's version, Hope Davis delivers a steelier and even more admirable impersonation. As Cherie Blair, Helen McCrory re-captures the convincing image of the self-confident wife and working mother displayed in The Queen.

This fourth time assuming his Blair persona should be Sheen's last. The naivety, characterless smiling, charm and modesty created a physical presence that had a distinct Blairite haziness, but never conveyed the man's political skills, theatrical flair and piercing eyes. However, I suspect Morgan will want to extend his franchise into a Blair-Bush study, and then a Blair-Brown showdown, with a possible Hutton Inquiry installment, etc. By then, Sheen may lose his youthful twinkle and turn into a true Blair lookalike better able to express a more complex, truly Blairite, personality.