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Helena Bonham Carter stars in this three-part \u201cMasterpiece\u201d biographical drama about Noele Gordon, a pioneer of British television. \u201cStars in\u201d might be understating it: She\u2019s in nearly every scene, trembling, laughing, sobbing, scolding, scheming, singing \u201cRose\u2019s Turn.\u201d Her chin tilt is the very axis on which the show spins.<\/p>\n
Gordon, known as Nolly, was the first woman on color television, and she was a presenter, an early TV executive and eventually the lead of the long-running, low-budget soap opera \u201cCrossroads.\u201d \u201cNolly,\u201d which premieres Sunday at 9 p.m. Eastern on PBS, focuses its story on her firing from \u201cCrossroads\u201d after nearly 20 years as its star and creative anchor. She\u2019s blindsided, as are the show\u2019s millions of fans. She\u2019s also heartbroken: The end of her character and the end of her self are practically one and the same. She pleads with a producer not to kill her character off. \u201cIt\u2019s not a real death,\u201d he snaps. \u201cBut still,\u201d she says. It is.<\/p>\n
\u201cNolly\u201d makes good use of that overlap between on-camera and off-camera life, how people \u2014 women especially \u2014 are yanked around or cast out within their own lives. Nolly delivers multiple righteous monologues standing up for her maligned show, for soaps in general, for women\u2019s interests, for those who are overlooked and rejected, especially her.<\/p>\n
Created and written by Russell T Davies and directed by Peter Hoar, \u201cNolly\u201d is mercifully light on its feet. Corrective, finally-getting-their-due sagas can sometimes feel like cultural penance, a televised hair shirt to abrade us for our blind spots. \u201cNolly,\u201d though, is fun and savvy, and its tone lands right between \u201cSlings & Arrows\u201d and \u201cHacks\u201d \u2014 smart, cutting, with characters (and characters playing characters) who are simultaneously ridiculous and brilliant.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n