''Pierrepoint'' is a 2005 British film directed by Adrian Shergold about the life of British executioner Albert Pierrepoint. The film premiered at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival 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 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, Albert Pierrepoint (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 '' ...

), 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

as Albert Pierrepoint * Juliet Stevenson as Annie Pierrepoint * Eddie Marsan as James "Tish" Corbitt * Ben McKay as Timothy Evans *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 A ...

* Lizzie Hopley as Dorothea Waddingham *

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 bu ...

as Mrs Corbitt * Christopher Fulford as Charlie Sykes * Ian Shaw as Percy * Ann Bell as

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 as

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 prot ...

* Claire Keelan as Jessie Kelly * Clive Francis as

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 Second ...

*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 convict ...

*Keiran Flynn as Neville * Tobias Menzies as

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 ...

Llewellyn * Mary Stockley as

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 te ...

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 ...

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 Wan ...

, the film holds an approval rating 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 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 average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, 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