Based on the first volume in a trilogy of the same name by Antonio Scurati and garlanded with praise by Italian critics, the television drama Mussolini: Son of the Century covers just six years in Mussolini’s life, from his days as a brawling but highly effective journalist in Milan to his assumption of total power.
With the king, the old liberal democratic elite, the left and many of his own party pressing for his dismissal, Mussolini declared that everything – the fascist violence, the immorality, the turmoil into which Italy had sunk – was his fault, “because I, I alone, created it”.
The body of the socialist deputy and his bitter foe, Giacomo Matteotti, had been discovered in a shallow grave near Rome and mounting evidence pointed to Mussolini’s responsibility for his murder.
On 3 January 1925, Benito Mussolini delivered the most important speech of his life to the Italian parliament.
Joe Wright, better known for his gentle approach and light touch in Pride and Prejudice and Atonement, has produced a series that is loud, provocative and violent.
