Her low-key life, before and after parliament, had Glenda Jackson considered the unlikliest of stars, an actress because she had to be an actress, not just because she wanted to be an actress. She had already played a politician (Queen Elizabeth I) and an actress (Sarah Bernhardt) as well as other real life women with amazing lives, and taking on the real life struggle of fellow Oscar winner Patricia Neal following her stroke was a challenge she instantly proved to be up to.
It was shortly after her Oscar winning triumph in "Hud" when Neal had a stroke, and it took lots of courage, therapy and hope for her to recover and return to her career as well as be 100% well for her marriage to children's author Roald Dahl (a sincere Dirk Bogarde) and be a completely devoted mother and friend to her close circle (including veteran actress Mildred Dunnock, who plays herself here), coming back with the triumph of "The Subject Was Roses".
This shows a very strong, completely likeable woman fighting hard to recover, and Neal makes an appearance through recent news footage that shows her around the time of this TV movie's filming. Jackson makes you forget that she's one Oscar winner playing a another one, her British accent disappearing and beautifully sounding like the sandy voiced actress who continued to work for many years after this. It's less about an acting icon and more about a woman's fight for survival, so there's a much more human drama there than a movie star biography.
It was shortly after her Oscar winning triumph in "Hud" when Neal had a stroke, and it took lots of courage, therapy and hope for her to recover and return to her career as well as be 100% well for her marriage to children's author Roald Dahl (a sincere Dirk Bogarde) and be a completely devoted mother and friend to her close circle (including veteran actress Mildred Dunnock, who plays herself here), coming back with the triumph of "The Subject Was Roses".
This shows a very strong, completely likeable woman fighting hard to recover, and Neal makes an appearance through recent news footage that shows her around the time of this TV movie's filming. Jackson makes you forget that she's one Oscar winner playing a another one, her British accent disappearing and beautifully sounding like the sandy voiced actress who continued to work for many years after this. It's less about an acting icon and more about a woman's fight for survival, so there's a much more human drama there than a movie star biography.