A new eight-part mini-series tells the story of the most iconic and tragic family in American history. It’s a tale of epic achievements and personal failures, of family love and global tension. Alan Corr previews 'The Kennedys'.
What’s left to say about the Kennedys? We’ve had the history books, the tell-all-documentaries, the conspiracy theories and the Hollywood blockbusters, but our fascination with America’s most famous, most tragic family seems like it will never be satisfied.
After the books, the documentaries and the movies, there can only be the mini-series. The new eight-part drama The Kennedys arrives on Irish television with the tagline, ‘History tells us what this family did. The Kennedys tells us who they were’. This may mean a lot of imagined dialogue between Jackie and Jack behind closed bedroom doors and heated discussions about averting global war in corridors of power but this is television, a medium that JFK himself mastered, and the Kennedy clan are ripe for a well-made television drama.
The Kennedys is a lavish, big-budget production which aims to bring one of the most glamorous and decadent eras in history to life. With a handsome and powerful leading man at its centre and a beautiful wife by his side, who can blame the producers for revisiting a story already well told? Let’s not forget the extraordinary world stage these people appeared on and the pretty amazing supporting cast of Sam Giancana, J Edgar Hoover, Marilyn Monroe and Frank Sinatra, who were in their celestial but all too human orbit.
Could it be that the producers were entranced by the two most acclaimed TV series of recent years – The Sopranos and Mad Men? The Sopranos was the epic tale of another sprawling Catholic family with links to the mob and a calculating patriarch, while Mad Men revels in the fine tailoring and twin sets and pearls of the post-Camelot era.
The Kennedys is gorgeous to look at and all the key moments are here, from the Bay of Pigs, the Civil Rights movement, the Berlin Wall, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Marilyn Monroe, and the shot that rang around the world in Dallas in 1963.
Have we had enough of the Kennedys? Enough is never enough, so sit back and enjoy the greatest political story ever told. And told, again and again and again . . .
Greg Kinnear is JFK
“Kennedy brought about extraordinary change during the 1,000 days he was President”, says Greg Kinnear. “He also gave the USA a new sense of purpose and enthusiasm – much needed at that time. When he was a 30-year-old Congressman, he was very wooden and awkward in his speeches. As he matured he grew into the Presidency. He developed confidence and a great ability to communicate to crowds of people and more intimately on television.”
Barry Pepper is Robert Kennedy
“Bobby saw the world in black and white terms”, says Barry Pepper. “You were either on the side of good or the side of evil. I’m not sure that Jack saw the world in those terms, but with Bobby, there was no middle ground. Because he was younger, he was taken much more under his mother’s wing, while his father’s focus was on Joe Jr and Jack. I believe he learned compassion from her and perhaps the more ruthless, dogmatic side of his nature came from Joe.”
Katie Holmes is Jackie Kennedy
“She cared so deeply about her family, her husband and her children”, says Katie Holmes. “But at the same time, she had to balance being the First Lady, a wife and raising a family. That is something we explore in The Kennedys. I was honoured to be playing her. I had already admired her and the more I learned about her, my admiration grew.”
Tom Wilkinson is Joseph Kennedy Sr
“People talk about the curse that echoes down the generation of the Kennedys and in a certain sense it’s true”, says Tom Wilkinson. “And if you are going to see it in the kind of Greek tragedy sense, there isn’t a better patriarchal figure than Joe Kennedy because his world view was extreme. His world view was: ambition, money and family. It’s almost medieval in its simplicity but everything else went by the boards.”
Diana Hardcastle is Rose Kennedy
“She suffered a lot of grief with the death of four of her children and the institutionalisation of a fifth”, says Diana Hardcastle. “Rose lived through one Gothic tragedy after another, yet she had extraordinary composure in public and in television interviews. She was so stalwart! She was a woman of spirit and in a certain sense, the spirit of an era.”
Kristin Booth is Ethel Kennedy
“Ethel is very different from Jackie Kennedy in that she was incredibly outgoing, athletic and gregarious, almost larger than life”, says Kristen Booth. “I think Bobby fell in love with her because he was more of an introvert and she brought him out of his shell. She adored him and being Bobby’s wife was her first priority. She has had an incredible family history. Her whole upbringing was fascinating. They had 25 dogs living in the house at one time and didn’t care if they chewed on the antique pieces her mother had spent a fortune on.”
