--- title: "Any Human Heart" year: 2010 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/any-human-heart" fi1m_id: "any-human-heart" imdb_id: "tt1631891" tmdb_id: 34603 wikidata_id: "Q3620496" fi1m_score: 73 critics_reviews: 2 published: "2026-10-07T15:29:58.724168+00:00" updated: "2026-10-07T15:29:59.458938+00:00" region: "MX" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Any Human Heart (2010) Created by William Boyd · 1h 45m · Drama ## Identity Any Human Heart - **Canonical:** https://film.one/tv/any-human-heart - **Type:** Series - **Fi1m ID:** any-human-heart - **IMDb ID:** tt1631891 - **TMDB ID:** 34603 - **Wikidata ID:** Q3620496 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1631891/, https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/34603, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3620496 **Fi1m score: 73** · Critics: 2 of 6 reviews so far *In a sentence:* A man bumps into the twentieth century at every party and takes notes > William Boyd’s four-part adaptation of his own novel gives one man’s life to three good actors and most of a century to get through. It is warm, witty and often moving, and it hurries where it should linger. Broadbent is the reason to stay. ## Synopsis In old age, Logan Mountstuart (Jim Broadbent) sits down with a lifetime of journals, and the series reads them with him. At Oxford in the 1920s the young Logan (Sam Claflin) wants to be a writer and, more urgently, wants to lose his virginity before his friend Peter Scabius does, which produces a bet and a bicycle ride to a farm. His other friend, Ben Leeping, is off to Paris to deal in paintings. Logan follows, publishes a book, meets Ernest Hemingway (Julian Ovenden), marries without quite meaning to, and drifts into the 1930s, where Freya Deverell (Hayley Atwell) is waiting. Matthew Macfadyen takes the part for the middle years, and Gillian Anderson arrives as the Duchess of Windsor, with a husband who used to be king. ## Review William Boyd has adapted his own novel into four episodes, directed by Michael Samuels, and the idea is simple and large: one Englishman’s life, from Oxford in the 1920s to old age, told from the journals he kept all the way through. Logan Mountstuart is played by Sam Claflin as a young man, Matthew Macfadyen in middle age and Jim Broadbent at the end. It is a generous, likeable piece of television, and it works more often than not; it also has a great deal of life to get through, and it often hurries. Claflin plays the young Logan as pleased with himself in the way clever boys are before anything has happened to them. He makes a bet about his virginity, cycles out to a farm to win it, goes to Paris, publishes, and treats his own talent as settled fact. Tim Murrell keeps cutting back to Broadbent at a table with the notebooks, so that every youthful blunder is watched by the man who has to live with it. Samuels sometimes puts two Logans in the same frame, one looking at the other. It should be twee and it is not; it is the series’ best idea. Macfadyen has the hardest job, because the middle of a life is where things go wrong slowly, and he is good at slow. He plays Logan as a man who has noticed he is not the writer he expected to be and has decided not to mention it. Hayley Atwell’s Freya is the person he should have met first, and their scenes together have an ease the rest of the series lacks. We were caught off guard in the war years by how much we minded what happened to these two; nothing is forced, Atwell simply looks at him as if he were worth the trouble, and we believed her. The famous people are more of a problem. Boyd’s conceit is that Logan is present at the century without ever being important to it, so he drinks with Ernest Hemingway (Julian Ovenden) and falls in with the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Gillian Anderson plays the Duchess with a dry, brittle amusement and a stare that could price a room, and she is fun. But every time a name arrives the series goes slightly stiff, as if Logan had been handed a tour and the camera had to show us the sights. The structure is episodic and the tone wanders; so does a life. The episodes, though, do feel like beads on a string rather than a single pull. Wojciech Szepel shoots the early decades in warm, late-afternoon light, lawns and river and Paris stone, and lets the colour drain out as the years pass, so that by the time Broadbent takes over the frame is mostly grey and brown. Stevie Herbert’s rooms do a lot of the dating, from an undergraduate’s cluttered digs to flats that get smaller and emptier. Charlotte Holdich’s costumes carry the ages better than the make-up does; Macfadyen’s suits sit on him like a man who stopped buying new ones. Dan Jones’s score is the weak department. The strings rise under nearly every goodbye to tell us what we already felt; the series is better when it trusts a face than when it trusts the orchestra. Then there is Broadbent. The last episode belongs to him, and we will say only that he is alone a great deal and the series stops hurrying. He plays old age as a practical business, shopping and dogs and small indignities, with the past arriving uninvited. It moved us more than we expected, and it did it with almost nothing: a man at a table, a notebook, the light going. Among British novel adaptations this sits in the respectable middle: better acted than most, never quite settled in shape. Boyd’s novel could let the dull years be dull; four episodes cannot, and the series pays for that in montage. See it for the three Logans and for the way they become one man, and forgive it the parties. First shown on 20 November 2010, it has worn well. *Fi1m score 73, published 7 October 2026.* ## What the critics say With only 2 reviews in so far, the critics are split down the middle. The Guardian’s Sam Wollaston finds the series witty and touching, and admires the way the changing actors playing the lead reinforce its theme of a self that keeps shifting, though he finds the orchestral score intrusive. Variety’s Brian Lowry is far cooler: interesting but unsatisfying, with an episodic structure and an uneven tone that never quite settle. Both single out the performances for praise, Lowry naming Jim Broadbent in particular. Beyond the acting, the two find little common ground, and it will take more reviews to say which way the consensus leans. ## Straight answers **Is Any Human Heart worth watching?** *Any Human Heart* is worth watching for anyone who likes a long, well-acted English life story, and we scored it 73. William Boyd's four-part adaptation of his own novel is warm, witty and often moving, but it hurries through the decades and goes stiff whenever a famous name walks in. Jim Broadbent's final episode is the reason to stay. **How long is Any Human Heart, and what is it rated?** *Any Human Heart* has episodes of about 1h 45m. It is a drama series. **Where can I watch Any Human Heart in Mexico?** *Any Human Heart* is not on any streaming or rental service in Mexico at the moment. It is available in 20 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily. **How does Any Human Heart compare to Brideshead Revisited?** *Any Human Heart* is the quicker and more episodic of the two, and [*Brideshead Revisited*](https://film.one/tv/brideshead-revisited) is the more patient and the better made. Boyd's series races through a century and pays for it in montage, where the earlier adaptation lingers, sometimes too long, and rewards the commitment. Choose Boyd for the three Logans and a lighter evening; choose Waugh for the full, slow immersion. **What should I watch after Any Human Heart?** After *Any Human Heart*, try [*Brideshead Revisited*](https://film.one/tv/brideshead-revisited) (1981, Fi1m 83): The English century done at full length, with the patience this one lacks. Then [*Parade's End*](https://film.one/tv/parades-end) (2012, Fi1m 80): Another decent Englishman overtaken by history, with Stoppard’s scalpel on the dialogue; and [*Boyhood*](https://film.one/film/boyhood) (2014, Fi1m 88): One life, one actor, twelve real years; time passing without the wigs. ### Reviews we read (2) - **The Guardian**, Sam Wollaston (85/100, inferred): Wollaston finds the series a witty, touching treat, though its orchestral score is intrusive. He praises the performances and the way the changing actors reinforce the story’s theme of changing selves. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2010/nov/22/tv-review-any-human-heart) - **Variety**, Brian Lowry (35/100, inferred): Lowry finds the miniseries interesting but ultimately unsatisfying. He praises Jim Broadbent’s performance, while criticizing the episodic structure and uneven tone. [Read](https://variety.com/2011/tv/reviews/any-human-heart-1117944566/) ## Details - **Created by:** William Boyd - **Creator:** William Boyd - **Director:** Michael Samuels - **Writer:** William Boyd - **Cinematography:** Wojciech Szepel - **Editor:** Tim Murrell - **Music:** Dan Jones - **Production design:** Stevie Herbert - **Costume design:** Charlotte Holdich - **Producer:** Lee Morris, Lynn Horsford - **Cast:** Jim Broadbent as Logan Mountstuart (Older); Matthew Macfadyen as Logan Mountstuart (Middle); Sam Claflin as Logan Mountstuart (Young); Gillian Anderson as Duchess Of Windsor; Stuart McQuarrie as Wallace Douglas; Conor Nealon as Logan Mountstuart; Hayley Atwell as Freya Deverell; Ed Stoppard as Ben Leeping (Older) - **Runtime:** 1h 45m - **Release (Mexico):** 21 November 2010 - **Genres:** Drama ## Where to watch in Mexico Not streaming, renting or buying in Mexico at the last check. Also available in: AU, BG, CZ, DE, DK, ES, FI, GB, HR, HU, NL, NO, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SI, SK, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Brideshead Revisited* (1981), Fi1m 83: The English century done at full length, with the patience this one lacks. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/brideshead-revisited.md) - *The Singing Detective* (1986): Dennis Potter’s sick man rewrites his own life; braver and stranger than Boyd. - *Parade's End* (2012), Fi1m 80: Another decent Englishman overtaken by history, with Stoppard’s scalpel on the dialogue. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/parades-end.md) - *Boyhood* (2014), Fi1m 88: One life, one actor, twelve real years; time passing without the wigs. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/boyhood.md) - *Forrest Gump* (1994), Fi1m 66: The same trick of bumping into history, played for sentiment and done without shame. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/forrest-gump.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/any-human-heart