Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9.5/10
Cast: Jack Bannon, Ryan Fletcher, Dorothy Atkinson, Ben Aldridge, Emma Paetz, Ramon Tikaram, Paloma Faith, Harriet Slater, Polly Walker, Jason Flemyng, Ian Puleston-Davies, Simon Manyonda, Hainsley Lloyd Bennett, Simon Day, Anna Chancellor, Saikat Ahamed, Jessica Ellerby, Edward Hogg, James Purefoy, Danny Webb, Salóme Gunnarsdóttir, Tristram Wymark, Sarah Alexander, Richard Dillane, Paul Kaye, Jonjo O’Neill, Emma Corrin, Jing Lusi, Freddy Carter, Peter Guinness, Jaye Griffiths, Dermot Crowley, Sally Phillips, Felicity Kendal, Sam Hoare.
The three series of Pennyworth, re-stylised as Pennyworth: The Origin Of Batman’s Butler for its final season, is a triumph of alternate history from the narrative and viewpoint of the one of the great inspirations of character from the golden age of comic books, making his first appearance as the war in Europe was still raging, and going on to be a staple across the generations, and playing an ever increasing pivotal role as the realm of the Dark Knight takes on an expanded and diverse role in the D.C. Universe.
Alfred Pennyworth is perhaps captured in his youth in his alternate England as one of the true action hero and which lead to his rightful place as the young Bruce Wayne’s mentor and guardian.
Jack Bannon follows in the footsteps of great British actors to have portrayed the butler with the mysterious past, but this is no middle-aged man with duty and honour rubber stamped through-out his heart, this is a wide boy, a chancer, a former soldier now looking out for number one and determined not to follow in his father’s footsteps.
The world is a very different place to the one we know, and yet eerily it only feels a small step from our own as the echoes of fascism and upheaval linger in the background. This is the world that the young Alfie and his comrades have returned to, one where the eventual lead turns to the equally stupendous series Gotham, but also to the tale of Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta. In this reality the crossover is inevitable, that the effects of Alfie’s work, of his working against the forces under the initial control of the Raven Society’s Lord Harwood and later the sinister and power-hungry John Salt, played with delicious insidious cunning by Edward Hogg, will place the country on the road to a country damned by law.
Jack Bannon plays the role of Alfred Pennyworth with absolute charm and wit, he frames the essence of actors such as Michael Caine, the dapper Alan Napier, and the brutality and spirit shown by the superb Sean Pertwee, and as the storyline keeps up the pace of this growing insurrection, the possibility of civil war heightens, and with huge and dedicated performances by such actors as the excellent Dorothy Atkinson, Paloma Faith, Ramon Tikaram, Jason Flemyng, James Purefoy, Emma Paetz, Danny Webb, and Jonjo O’Neill leave their impressive marks on screen as characters such Alfred’s mum Mary, the future Prime Minister and former Inspector Victor Aziz, the verging on insane Bet Sykes, and Martha Kane. Pennyworth is almost a perfect series; only to be let down by the curse of modern streaming, the quick and ultimate air of uncalled for cancelation.
If ever there was a series that was calling out for a proper ending, not one left in the limbo of termination, then Pennyworth was one that deserved a true ending, one that could have led into the V For Vendetta film with an insight into the drama of that particular chain of events.
A fantastic series, one for the graphic novel and alternate history buffs alike.
Ian D. Hall