"He tried to insert himself into history by assassinating the US president, James Garfield, in 1881 but Garfield was only four months into his tenure, so all Guiteau did by shooting him was turn them both into difficult pub quiz answers. Death by Lightning pays careful tribute to Garfield, a quietly extraordinary statesman, but its focus is Guteau and, if this show is a hit, he might finally get his wish."
"If so, it'll be because Charles Guiteau has become a byword for the sort of pitiable crank that Matthew Macfadyen plays better than anyone else on television. Wild of eye, sporting a beard that is somehow pointy and scraggly, and forever adjusting his old clothes, Guiteau is a fantasist, a liar and a serial non-payer of bills who has no skills or vocation beyond relentless self-promotion."
"You can almost smell his desperation as he pings from one humiliation to the next: a bank manager instantly refuses him the loan he needs for his ill-conceived plan to found a newspaper; Guiteau's snooty brother-in-law (Ben Miles) correctly tells his kind wife Franny (Paula Malcomson) that her brother is a parasite who will never repay her faith. Female company eludes him."
Charles Guiteau is portrayed as a desperate, self-promoting fantasist who seeks historical significance by assassinating President James Garfield in 1881. Guiteau lacks skills, avoids paying bills, pursues eccentric schemes, and is repeatedly humiliated — a bank manager refuses him a loan for a newspaper plan, and his brother-in-law calls him a parasite. Female company eludes him even after five years in a free love commune. The series pays careful tribute to Garfield while focusing on Guiteau's increasing obsession with becoming Garfield's trusted acolyte. Matthew Macfadyen embodies the grasping, pitiable crank with wild-eyed intensity.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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