''Pierrepoint'' is a 2005 British film directed by

Adrian Shergold Adrian Shergold (born 24 March 1948 in Croydon, Surrey) is a British film and television director. Selected filmography *''Danielle Cable: Eyewitness'' (2003) *''Dirty Filthy Love'' (2004) *''Ahead of the Class'' (2005) *''Pierrepoint (film), Pier ...

about the life of British

executioner An executioner, also known as a hangman or headsman, is an official who executes a sentence of capital punishment on a legally condemned person. Scope and job The executioner was usually presented with a warrant authorising or order ...

Albert Pierrepoint Albert Pierrepoint (; 30 March 1905 – 10 July 1992) was an English hangman who executed between 435 and 600 people in a 25-year career that ended in 1956. His father Henry and uncle Thomas were official hangmen before him. Pierrepoint ...

. The film premiered at the

2005 Toronto International Film Festival The 30th Toronto International Film Festival ran from September 8–17 and screened 335 films from 52 countries - 109 of these films were world premieres, and 78 were North American premieres. Awards At the Festival's closing event, the following ...

and was released in the UK on 7 April 2006. In the United States, it had a limited theatrical release at three screens on 7 June 2007, grossing $21,766. It was released on DVD on 30 October 2007. Commissioned as a television film in 2004, ''Pierrepoint'' was broadcast on

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

on 25 August 2008, when it attracted an estimated audience of 3.6 million. The film was renamed ''Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman'' for its North American release, although Pierrepoint was not the last British hangman.

Premise

The film is loosely based on the life of Britain's most prolific hangman,

(played by

Timothy Spall Timothy Leonard Spall (born 27 February 1957) is an English actor and presenter. He became a household name in the UK after appearing as Barry Spencer Taylor in the 1983 ITV comedy-drama series ''Auf Wiedersehen, Pet''. Spall performed in '' S ...

), from the time he is trained for the job and accepted onto the list of the country's official hangmen in 1932 until his resignation in 1956.

Cast

Juliet Stevenson Juliet Anne Virginia Stevenson, (born 30 October 1956) is an English actor of stage and screen. She is known for her role in the film ''Truly, Madly, Deeply'' (1991), for which she was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leadin ...

as Annie Pierrepoint *

Eddie Marsan Edward Maurice Charles Marsan (born 9 June 1968) is an English actor. He won the London Film Critics Circle Award and the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor for the film '' Happy-Go-Lucky'' (2008). He has feature ...

as James "Tish" Corbitt * Ben McKay as

Timothy Evans Timothy John Evans (20 November 1924 – 9 March 1950) was a Welshman who was wrongly accused of murdering his wife (Beryl) and infant daughter (Geraldine) at their residence in Notting Hill, London. In January 1950, Evans was tried, and was c ...

*Michael Norton as

Josef Kramer Josef Kramer (10 November 1906 – 13 December 1945) was Hauptsturmführer and the Commandant of Auschwitz-Birkenau (from 8 May 1944 to 25 November 1944) and of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp (from December 1944 to its liberation on 15 Apr ...

Lizzie Hopley Elizabeth Hopley is a British actress and writer. She has appeared in several audio plays based on the BBC science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. Her first appearance was as the Eighth Doctor’s companion Gemma Griffin in ''Terror F ...

Dorothea Waddingham Dorothea Nancy Waddingham (1899 – 16 April 1936) was an English nursing home matron who was convicted of murder in the United Kingdom. Life Dorothea Waddingham was born Dorothy Nancie Merelina Allan Chandler, with her parents marrying a year ...

Cavan Clerkin Cavan Clerkin (born 1973) is a British actor and filmmaker from Hackney, London. Career Clerkin has appeared in various TV shows including ''Smack the Pony'', ''The Inbetweeners'' and ''The IT Crowd'', and feature films ''Gangster No. 1'', '' ...

as George Cooper *

Mary Jo Randle Mary Jo Randle (born 26 April 1954) is an English actress from Rochdale, Lancashire) working in theatre and television. After a childhood in Littleborough, Randle left home to study for a degree in drama at the University of Birmingham but ...

as Mrs Corbitt *

Christopher Fulford Christopher Fulford (born 1955) is a British actor who is best known for his supporting roles in many British TV shows, one of the earliest being punk Alex in the short lived sitcom '' Sorry, I'm A Stranger Here Myself'' (1981–82). Career Ful ...

as Charlie Sykes * Ian Shaw as Percy *

Ann Bell Ann Forrest Bell (born 29 April 1938) is a British actress, best known for playing war internee Marion Jefferson in the BBC Second World War drama series '' Tenko'' (1981–84). She was born in Wallasey, Cheshire, the daughter of John Forrest B ...

Violet Van der Elst Violet Van der Elst (4 January 1882 – 30 April 1966) was a British entrepreneur and campaigner best remembered for her activities against the death penalty. Biography She was born Violet Anne Dodge, the daughter of a coal porter and a washerwo ...

Robin Soans Robin Soans (born 20 June 1946) is a British actor, and a playwright specialising in verbatim and documentary plays. These plays include ''Across the Divide'' (2007); ''A State Affair'' (2000) which looked at life on a Bradford estate, produced ...

as Governor/Brigadier Paton-Walsh *

Nicholas Blane Nicholas Blane is an English actor. Career He is best known for his roles in stage productions such as '' Year of the Rat'', '' See How They Run'' and ''Democracy''. He has appeared in numerous British television and film projects, including ...

as governor of Strangeways *

Maggie Ollerenshaw Margaret Ollerenshaw (born 8 October 1949) is an English actress. She is known for portraying the role of Mavis in the BBC sitcom ''Open All Hours'' (1981–1982) and its sequel ''Still Open All Hours'' (2013–2019). Her other television credits ...

as Mary Pierrepoint, Albert's mother *

Bernard Kay Bernard Frederic Bemrose Kay (23 February 1928 – 25 December 2014) was an English actor with an extensive theatre, television, and film repertoire. Career Kay began his working life as a reporter for the ''Bolton Evening News'', and a str ...

Uncle Tom Uncle Tom is the title character of Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1852 novel, ''Uncle Tom's Cabin''. The character was seen by many readers as a ground-breaking humanistic portrayal of a slave, one who uses nonresistance and gives his life to protect ...

Claire Keelan Claire Keelan (born 8 May 1975) is an English actress. She played Claire Ashcroft in ''Nathan Barley'' and Electroclash in ''No Heroics''. Background Keelan is a former member of the Royal Court Young People's Theatre.Clive Francis Clive Francis (born 26 June 1946) is a British stage, television and film actor. Early life Francis was born in Eastbourne, Sussex. He is the son of actors Raymond Francis and his second wife Margaret Towner. His father played Detective Chief ...

Monty Monty is a masculine given name, often a short form of Montgomery, Montague and other similar names. It is also a surname. Notable people with the name or nickname include: First name Nickname * Bernard Montgomery (1887–1976), British Secon ...

*Sheyla Shehovich as

Irma Grese Irma Ilse Ida Grese (7 October 1923 – 13 December 1945) was a Nazi concentration camp guard at Ravensbrück and Auschwitz, and served as warden of the women's section of Bergen-Belsen. She was a volunteer member of the SS. Grese was convi ...

*Keiran Flynn as Neville *

Tobias Menzies Tobias Simpson Menzies (born 7 March 1974) is an English stage, television and film actor. He is known for playing Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh in the third and fourth seasons of Netflix's series ''The Crown'', for which he won the Primetime ...

Lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often sub ...

Llewellyn *

Mary Stockley Mary Stockley is a British stage, television and film actress. A former member of the National Youth Music Theatre, Stockley studied drama at university. She made her first television appearance in 2001 in the TV film '' Being Dom Joly'', in 2002, ...

Ruth Ellis Ruth Ellis ( née Neilson; 9 October 1926 – 13 July 1955) was a British nightclub hostess and convicted murderer who became the last woman to be hanged in the United Kingdom following the fatal shooting of her lover, David Blakely. In her t ...

James Corden James Kimberley Corden (born 22 August 1978) is an English television host, actor, comedian, and singer. In the United Kingdom, he is best known for co-writing and starring in the critically acclaimed BBC sitcom ''Gavin & Stacey''. In the Un ...

as Kirky

Production

Facsimile of British hangman's equipment

The hanging scenes and the street protest scenes at the end of the film were at the Historic Dockyard, Chatham.

Reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an

approval rating An opinion poll, often simply referred to as a survey or a poll (although strictly a poll is an actual election) is a human research survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions ...

of 77% based on 53 reviews, with an average rating of 7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Director Adrian Shergold doesn't shy away from the darker elements of the movie's subject, and Timothy Spall is mesmerizing as the title character." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

score of 68 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews".

References

External links

* *{{Rotten Tomatoes, pierrepoint_the_last_hangman
Film Festival program note
2005 films British biographical drama films 2005 biographical drama films Films about capital punishment Albert Pierrepoint Cultural depictions of Ruth Ellis Films directed by Adrian Shergold 2005 drama films 2000s English-language films 2000s British films