The former Doctor plays an elder version of the war poet Siegfried Sassoon.
Away from the worlds of Doctor Who, Peter Capaldi is busy branching out in various directions. One of his next high-profile roles comes in the film Benediction. Telling the story of the poet, writer and soldier Siegfried Sassoon, the film comes from acclaimed writer and director Terrance Davies (A Quiet Passion, The House of Mirth).
The film charts a journey through a troubled life, with Jack Lowden (War & Peace) playing Sassoon as a young man and Peter Capaldi as an older version. It follows him when sent to a psychiatric facility for his anti-war stance during WWI, and through affairs with several men despite being closeted.
The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw has given Benediction four stars out of five, despite calling it “uncompromisingly sombre” and ‘… a film that is piercingly and almost unbearably about failure.”
Variety’s Guy Lodge is a touch more upbeat, calling the film sublime at some points. However, he also says that Peter Capaldi plays the poet with “… an embittered, permanently set snarl.”
Joining Lowden and Capaldi, the cast also includes Simon Russell Beale, Jeremy Irvine, Kate Phillips, Gemma Jones and Anton Lesser. Ben Daniels also stars and we can’t help but wonder if he and Peter Capaldi shared a chuckle over casting madness if their paths crossed; Daniels was a candidate for the Twelfth Doctor and the bookies’ favourite for a time back in 2013.
“Doctor… I let you go”
Since leaving the TARDIS in 2017, Peter Capaldi has been busy. He’s popped up in several film and television projects – playing Mr Micawber in The Personal History of David Copperfield and Thinker in James Gunn’s Suicide Squad. He’s also voiced rabbits for both Christopher Robin and Watership Down.
Musically, he’s starred in a distant cousin’s video and released his own album, St. Christopher.
Also due this year is a role alongside Jessica Raine in The Devil’s Hour, a thriller series for Amazon Studios and produced by Hartswood Films.
Benediction is released in UK cinemas on the 13th of May 2022.