
Hasta la vista, baby: Branagh brings back Boris in This England' Prosthetics and a very good, very bad hairpiece': Kenneth Branagh's Boris Johnson transformation is something to behold in This England'.
by Cornelia Le Roux
23-01-2023 23:48
in Entertainment
Boris Johnson, left, and actor Kenneth Branagh playing the role of the former UK prime minister in This England'. Images: ADRIAN DENNIS / AFP and Showmax/ Supplied
Boris Johnson may have stepped down as British prime minister with the cheeky words Hasta la vista, baby! after he was ousted as Tory leader, but he has returned in a different on-screen guise. Now streaming on Showmax, This England stars the 2022 Oscar winner Sir Kenneth Branagh (Belfast, Dunkirk) as Johnson with the help of heavy facial prosthetics, a barelling hunch and a very good, very bad hairpiece!
--
According to Mail Online, a total of 42 complex prosthetic faces was especially made for Branagh. Makeup artist Vanessa White is quoted as stating:
There are so many pieces The only thing you see of Ken is his eyes and his chin, the rest is fake We had to tape him in, literally tape up the back of his neck, his head.
Kenneth Branagh, winner of the Writing (Original Screenplay) award for Belfast', poses backstage during the 94th Annual Academy Awards at Dolby Theatre on 27 March 2022 in Hollywood, California. Image: Mike Coppola/Getty Images/AFP ALSO READ: Oscars 2022: Complete list of winners from Hollywood's biggest night
--
This England': Boris a life-changing part' for Branagh Co-written and directed by BAFTA winner Michael Winterbottom (The Trip, In This World), This England blends dramatisation with real documentary footage of the tumultuous first wave of COVID-19 in Britain that engulfed Johnson during his first months as prime minister.
As per Radio Times, Branagh confessed that playing Johnson in the Sky series was a life-changing part for him.
Star-studded cast and rave reviews
In their five-star review, The Evening Standard calls This England, splendid television, history distilled on screen, saying, Watch it and weep .
Times (UK) has already praised Kenneth Branagh's barrelling, air-punching, at times uncanny Boris Johnson impression, while bloated with pouchy prosthetics and fat pads as well as the series' heart-breaking authenticity .
As Gabriel Silver, Sky's director of drama, described it: This England is a broad and deep factual drama about those tasked to shepherd a nation through the crisis - exposing humanity at its most scared, neglectful, ingenious, desperate, and hopeful
--
The rest of the cast includes Ophelia Lovibond (Minx) co-stars as Johnson's wife, Carrie Symonds, with award winner Andrew Buchan (Broadchurch, Industry, Andrew Parker Bowles in The Crown) as Matt Hancock. Emmy nominee Charles Dance (The Crown's Lord Mountbatten and Tywin Lannister in Game of Thrones) steps in as newspaper editor Max Hastings in episode 1.
Ophelia Lovibond and Kenneth Branagh in a scene from This England'. Image: Supplied This England': Much bigger than Boris Johnson much bigger than the actor Winterbottom approached Branagh about the project in late 2020. Despite the show's scope, Johnson is central to the story, and the challenge to portray this hugely divisive public figure without taking sides, became one of Branagh's biggest challenges.
As the actor himself put it:
It doesn't matter whether we do or not, because people who love or hate Boris Johnson will probably find that this corresponds to exactly what they feel about him.
For some, it will glorify him; for others it will have libelled him. They'll see what they see. But certainly, in the doing of it, the goal was decidedly not to bring any additional spin or commentary on something that was much, much bigger than Boris Johnson certainly a zillion times bigger than any actor.
ALSO READ: British PM Boris Johnson tests positive for COVID-19
Kenneth Branagh as former UK prime minister Boris Johnson in This England'. Image: Supplied ALSO READ: SA group gives 120 000 meals to NHS and the vulnerable - but now they need our help
The pandemic world Branagh had the following to say about the vulnerable state of the world that inspired the gripping pandemic drama series,
In that early part of the pandemic, which was such a vulnerable moment for the world, we didn't know quite what was coming, how fast it was coming, how deadly it was, what the real existential threat was to our lives or to our economic futures.
Everyone felt that most people were doing the very best they could Although subsequently you might argue about whether that best was good enough, against the rush of events, much of it was reactive.
It was more about the cataclysmic effect of the rapidity, the ferocious rapidity at which things moved. We really weren't ready for the volatility, for the changing information and seeing that impact across the country, Branagh added
ALSO READ: 1.1m people infected with Covid-19 in England, daily cases top 60,000 for first time
From Branagh to Boris: Masterful combination of acting and makeup Just like Brendan Fraser, who transformed into the morbidly obese English teacher Charlie in The Whale with the heavy use of prosthetics, Branagh's physical transformation into Johnson took a combination of acting and extensive makeup.
Although they're of similar height, the actor explained that Johnson is a stockier individual than me, a sort of swift and, some would say, lumbering rugger forward. We all saw him take out that young schoolboy playing street rugby in Japan That's a sort of extreme example of a man who leans forward, who barrels rather. That's the impression you have he leads with the shoulders, head down.
Boris Jo
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
01/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/04/2026
Victoria Mon t Brings the Multi-Hyphenate Mindset to Career Jam 2026 The Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, and producer shared how versatility and self-inves...
01/04/2026
January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION
Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...
31/03/2026
MeyerPro delivered the LED production for the Microsoft Ignite 2025 keynote at Chase Center in San Francisco, using more than 2,700 ROE Visual panels across mul...
31/03/2026
The Media Coding Industry Forum (MC-IF) is expanding membership outreach in 2026...
31/03/2026
ViewLift and MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) have announced the launch of ViewLift Conversational AI Search on the MyOutdoorTV platform. The feature enables natural language...
31/03/2026
The Atlanta Braves and Gray Media have announced a multi-year agreement to simul...
31/03/2026
Gravity Media has delivered broadcast services for TAB Golden Slipper Day at Rosehill Gardens on March 21 and will now cover The Star Championships at Royal Ran...
31/03/2026
Synamedia has announced that Mileto Tecnologia, a Brazilian pay-TV operator, has selected the Synamedia Go platform for its OTT expansion. Mileto is also deploy...
31/03/2026
KMH Integration will attend NAB Show in Las Vegas with a focus on what the company calls AV Casting - an approach built on the idea that professional AV and bro...
31/03/2026
Prime Video will carry live coverage of the first and second rounds of the 2026 Masters Tournament, beginning at 1:00 p.m. ET on Thursday, April 9 and Friday, A...
31/03/2026
The NHL and its U.S. and Canadian broadcast partners have announced a collaborat...
31/03/2026
Daktronics has partnered with Wake Forest to manufacture and install a new end z...
31/03/2026
The National Football League has announced that Las Vegas will host Super Bowl LXIII in 2029 at Allegiant Stadium. The announcement was made at the NFL Annual M...
31/03/2026
The NFL has announced a partnership with TMRW Sports to develop and operate a professional flag football league for women and men. The league will launch with i...
31/03/2026
Sennheiser's Spectera wideband bidirectional wireless system was used by bot...
31/03/2026
Sports Studio Inc., the company behind Free Live Sports, has announced the formation of an Advisory Board with five media and technology executives.
Each of o...
31/03/2026
PSSI and Appear have announced a new phase in their collaboration, with PSSI deploying Appear's X Platform to upgrade its mobile fleet and PSSI Internationa...
31/03/2026
As sports media organization continue to seek out new ways to streamline their p...
31/03/2026
With two new expansion teams and viewership/attendance on the rise, the league's production/broadcast arm and its partner NEP Connected Solutions are busier...
31/03/2026
Spotify has evolved from a streaming platform to an interactive, multiformat eco...
31/03/2026
Lastest New Universal Synthesizer System module announced
Make Noise Music have recently announced the launch of the latest addition to their New Universal ...
31/03/2026
True Stereo DynIR Engine, Virtual Load Shaper & more
Two notes Audio Engineering's Captor X reactive load box and cabinet simulator has built up a solid...
31/03/2026
By Kiera Williams
Every year, a new group of emerging media and entertainment professionals steps into the HPA community - curious, talented, and ready to grow...
31/03/2026
MELBOURNE, Fla., March 31, 2026 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) will release its first quarter 2026 financial results before the market opens on Thursday, A...
31/03/2026
Photo courtesy of NASA. An illustration shows NASA's Perseverance rover operating on the surface of Mars....
31/03/2026
L3Harris Technologies and Comtech Telecommunications Corp. have collaborated to introduce the next evolution in resilient multi-orbit capability for today's...
31/03/2026
Rebel Sport leads ad investment as brands compete for a large, active and qualit...
31/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
31/03/2026
CueScript, a leading international developer of professional teleprompting solutions, is enhancing its platform with three innovations that elevate flexibility,...
31/03/2026
#GALSNGEAR will host a series of meetups, panel discussions, and networking events during the 2026 NAB Show, taking place April 18 22 in Las Vegas.
The organi...
31/03/2026
At the 2026 NAB Show (April 19-22, Las Vegas Convention Center, Booth #N1328), Imagine Communications is introducing AI assisted scheduling capabilities within ...
31/03/2026
High-density upgrade for mobile fleet and PSSI International Teleport gives PSSI more flexibility for premium live event coverage
PSSI and Appear today announc...
31/03/2026
Solid State Logic Enhances Virtualized System T Platform to Deliver Scalable Clo...
31/03/2026
OWC to Showcase Storage, Workflow Acceleration, and Reliability Solutions for Cr...
31/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
31/03/2026
OpenDrives, a leader in software-defined video and rich media storage management solutions, will demonstrate several new innovations at the 2026 NAB Show in Apr...
31/03/2026
At the 2026 NAB Show, SDVI will demonstrate how its Rally media supply chain management platform continues to give media operations teams the tools they need to...
31/03/2026
Boland Communications today announced that at the 2026 NAB Show, it will introduce its new QD4K315HDR10, a 31.5-inch QD-OLED monitor delivering exceptional colo...
31/03/2026
Dr. Paul Tapper, CEO of NUGEN Audio, will lead an essential industry discussion at the 2026 NAB Show, examining whether dialog intelligibility is poised to beco...
31/03/2026
BCNEXXT will use NAB 2026 to focus on how broadcasters can turn today's operational and market pressures into opportunity. Meeting with customers in the IAB...
31/03/2026
Mediagenix, a global leader in smart content solutions to profitably connect the right content to the right audience, will showcase its latest innovations at th...
31/03/2026
DHD announces that AI-based audio noise reduction is now available as a powerful new option for its XD3 IP Core. Developed in cooperation with ai-coustics, audi...
31/03/2026
PTZOptics will showcase its vision for intelligent video and advanced camera automation at NAB Show 2026 (#N1902). Through immersive demonstrations and technolo...