Daniel Radcliffe, in his first TV drama role since the Harry Potter films, plays John ‘Jack’ Kipling in My Boy Jack, an epic and moving story of an historic family. The film’s writer, David Haig, plays celebrated author Rudyard Kipling with Kim Cattrall (Sex and the City) as his wife Caroline.
My Boy Jack is based on his own stage play version of the story. It’s 1915 and World War 1 has been declared. Aged only 17, Kipling’s son, like most of his generation, is swept up in the enthusiasm to fight the Germans, a mood stoked vigorously by his father. Jack is cripplingly short sighted and the army has rejected him twice, rendering him too myopic even for an army suffering thousands of casualties a week and desperate for recruits.
Yet Rudyard is undeterred, determined that his son should go to the front, like countless other sons, and fight for the values that he, Kipling, espouses so publicly.
Using his fame and influence, Kipling persuades Lord Roberts, on his death bed, to get Jack a commission in the Irish guards. This intervention is barely tolerated by Carrie and daughter Elise (Carey Mulligan), as they disagree that Jack is fit to fight and fear for his safety on the front line.
Jack is instantly popular with his troop – he is a great leader and trains tirelessly to overcome the disability that is his eyesight. Six months later Jack sails to France as a lieutenant.
Jack went missing in action during the Battle of Loos and his mother and father carried out an increasingly desperate search for him, spanning many years and many miles.
