They'd done Kenneth Williams, Tony Hancock, Enid Blyton and many others, lives unwrapped with forensic writerly skill, and some magnificent acting, and, yes, a hefty salting of dramatic licence – and yet, throughout, somehow each one netted and skewered the soul of the character in question.
While he praised Kingston's performance, he wrote that "it's Matt Smith who steals the show, in one of his finest performances as the Doctor...he's utterly magnificent, whether acting the joker, or living out 32 minutes (ish) of death scene.
And Helena Bonham Carter is magnificent in her performance of neuroticism and "bad acting," a kind of delivery that calls to mind her hallmark embodiment of Hermione Granger in the last Harry Potter movie.
Both were predictably magnificent; Hurt may just have pipped his opponent to the acting honours, but the nobility and charisma of Ejiofor's Mbeki were effective rejoinders to the departing South African president's present-day detractors.
Next to Mr. Noth's magnificent Roman profile, Mr. Sisto seems to be missing cartilage -- and acting technique.
He quotes with approval a magnificent letter sent to him by that great beast of the jungle, Michael Gambon, whose idea of acting is "screaming at night from the stage about the plight of mankind and the world".
Indeed, "Small Mouth Sounds" feels like a shadow version of Baker's magnificent 2009 work, "Circle Mirror Transformation," in which amateur performers try to connect to one another in an acting class in Vermont.
Over the past 18 months, the former Smiths frontman has been acting every one of his 58 white-guy-years, hailing the Brexit vote as "magnificent" and professing to liking Nigel Farage "a great deal".
And Kendrick, slightly lost in Into the Woods, emerges to magnificent effect, her controlled singing (with just a faint register of Streisand when she wants it) and muted acting style supplying complex emotional nuance.
His recent acting roles have been broadly villainous: the Sheriff of Nottingham in BBC1's series Robin Hood, and dastardly Doctor Tony Whitman in the magnificent hospital drama, Bodies.
