Judy Dench hardly need be in this - the present day stuff could easily be cut without much loss. The ending with her lawyer son is cringeworthy. What should be key aspects of the story, i.e. Joan's motivation, the political background, the dangers she ran in spying - are given superficial treatment in order to make room for a very conventional love story about Joan and her boyfriends. The scientific aspects are treated in a childish manner. ("You might try a centrifuge," says Joan. "Say that bit again!" says Max). The newsreels and radio reports are horribly phony. "Mr Truman says a second atom bomb has been dropped on Nagasaki. 74,000 people were killed." Umm, how could anyone know at that moment how many had been killed? I could go on, but I won't, because there's an elephant in the room that needs to be mentioned and it's Tom Hughes' laughable performance as Leo. "Act like everyone's clichéd notion of a hot-headed young Russian revolutionary, Tom!" Trevor Nunn seems to have said to him, though it's hard to believe. "That's good, Tom, but ramp up the pantomime foreign accent and give us all a good laugh!"
