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The Telegraph (21/Apr/2013) - Perspectives: Jonathan Ross: Alfred Hitchcock - Made in Britain, ITV, review

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Perspectives: Jonathan Ross: Alfred Hitchcock - Made in Britain, ITV, review

Lucinda Everett reviews Perspectives: Alfred Hitchcock - Made in Britain, in which Jonathan Ross follows the life and career of the most celebrated director in the history of cinema, Sir Alfred Hitchcock.

There are two things I should mention. The first is that I am something of a Hitchcock novice. The other is that I can only watch Jonathan Ross for any extended period if he's talking films – the 'me, me, me" chat show hosting just isn't for, well, me. What better viewing then, than the latest in ITV's Perspectives series (Sunday), which saw Ross explore Hitchcock's early career, and the 23 films he made in Britain before decamping to Hollywood in 1939? Using archive footage, interviews with members of the film industry, and a Hitchcock treasure trail around London, last night's documentary gave us a jam-packed, if superficial, rundown.

Starting in Leytonstone, where Hitchcock was born and where mosaic tributes now line the walls of the underground station, we whizzed through the childhood that he said – what with grotesque aunts leering into his cradle and the like – sparked his obsession with fear. The programme then looked at the First World War and how that drew him to the escapist world of cinema, his meteoric rise at Gainsborough Pictures, and finally his own films.

Here, the documentary wisely chose to deal with Hitchcock's films thematically rather than chronologically. His exciting use of London locations was explored with a discussion of Sabotage's gripping bus bomb scene; and director Richard Ayoade was erudite and entertaining on Hitchcock's espousing of the avant-garde 'pure film" technique (making the camera angles add to the drama rather than just presenting scenes like theatre). Most fascinating was a demonstration of the Schüfftan process, a special effect used by Hitchcock to insert actors into shots of miniature sets (think Blackmail's rope climbing scene in the British Museum). And that wasn't the half of it: Hitchcockian tropes, jokes and suspense scenes, as well as his time in Hollywood were all touched on in this whistle-stop tour.

And that frenetic speed of the overview may be the kicker: as a Hitchcock beginner, I found it all fascinating but I fear that fans hoping for a detailed critique of the master's early films may be disappointed.

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