News from Nowhere

An attractive little film sponsored by the Arts Council. William Morris, wife, friend, dog and boatman travel up the Thames in 1880, their journey interrupted by champagne breakfasts, expostulations on matters aesthetic and socialist, flashbacks to Rossetti and the Pre-Raphaelites, and glimpses of Morris stomping about Iceland. By filtering facts and quotations through a fictional framework, Alister Hallum and his co-writer Philip Henderson have brought their fascinating subject painlessly and vividly to life, retaining all his ambiguities. And Timothy West has all the beard and fire required for a convincing impersonation.