Lewes Film Club - Pierrepoint

Mike Leigh's 2004 film, Vera Drake, set itself the task of humanising a woman with a morally ambiguous job. Casting the immensely likeable Imelda Staunton as a self-sacrificing backstreet abortionist ensured that she won sympathy on both sides of the political coin. Harder to render with the same tearing of the emotional heartstrings, and less palatable for a liberal left critical audience, is the life of Albert Pierrepoint. The last official chief hangman in this country and the most notorious, his 'career' spanned over twenty years and he handled more than 400 'clients'.

Adrian Shergold's 2006 film Pierrepoint casts another national treasure, Timothy Spall, as the executioner who was born into the dubious family trade, alongside Juliet Stevenson as Pierrepoint's oblivious wife (the part-time nature of the business meant that he was able and encouraged to keep his trade secret). When Albert's 'identity' comes to light via a media exposé, he finds himself condemned by a hostile public as a murderer with 'blood on his hands'. But Shergold's film presents us with a man who treats his work as a reverent duty - personally washing his 'clients' bodies and priding himself on the speed and precision with which he carries the executions out (seven seconds at his best). Although Pierrepoint later publicly denounced capital punishment, the film does not include the volte-face, and Spall's sensitive portrayal has left many critics unexpectedly grappling for moral certainty. ER