Staging Mossman's tragic story

By Vincent Dowd
BBC World Service

Chaplin says he has tried not to do a direct impersonation of Mossman

A new play at the National Theatre in London looks at the life and career of James Mossman, one of the BBC's most famous TV journalists of the 1960s. The play asks why he committed suicide in 1971.

For several years before his death, James Mossman was one of the best-known faces on British TV.

From the late 1950s he was Panorama's main foreign correspondent, always happiest in a war-zone.

Though Mossman's name is less familiar these days, the playwright Nicholas Wright has reconstructed episodes from his life for the new play The Reporter.

Playing someone who did exist quite recently creates an aura... it seems to affect me in a way I didn't necessarily expect Ben Chaplin on playing James Mossman

Ben Chaplin, known for his roles in the TV comedy Game On and the war movie The Thin Red Line, plays the part of Mossman.

Chaplin says he'd never even heard of Mossman when he was approached to do the play. He watched and listened to tapes of him in action, but says he was keen not to produce an impersonation.

"That can impose a distance between you and a character. Anyway he's not so well-known these days - and he was 6ft 4in and I'm 5ft 11in.

"But I realised he did have this languid way with his hands on camera - I've tried to catch that."

Accidental overdose

In fact those who knew Mossman have praised Chaplin for evoking his slightly reserved character.

The distinguished BBC correspondent had a secret - he was gay.

In the mid-60s Mossman fell in love with Louis Hanssen, a younger man from a less conservative background, and his two worlds collided.

Mossman's relationship with Louis (Chris New, right) changed his life

Mossman discarded his glittering social life and became involved with the radical new fringe scene.

The relationship was cut short in 1968, when Hanssen died of an accidental overdose at their London home.

Around the same time Mossman's objectivity as a BBC journalist started to be criticised, and he eventually moved to arts programmes.

When the journalist took his own life at the age of 44, he left a note saying: "I can't bear it any more, although I don't know what it is."

So is it hard playing a real person who was widely considered to be unknowable?

"Isn't everyone unknowable?" says Chaplin.

"You're never really inside someone's head. Research can take you up blind alleys as an actor.

"But it's true that playing someone who did exist quite recently creates an aura... it seems to affect me in a way I didn't necessarily expect."

Confidence and vulnerability

Playing out the relationship between Mossman and Louis was one of the biggest challenges of the role, explains Chaplin.

"As an actor you have to think about times you were in love. Or if you can't feel that you use something else akin to the emotion - hate can often look like love."

Chaplin is aware from his research that many of Mossman's older friends disapproved of his the relationship with Hanssen, and still feel that he sent the reporter's life into decline.

While the play offers no glib explanation for Mossman's death, Chaplin captures Mossman's odd combination of confidence and vulnerability.

And Nick Wright's script suggests the objectivity which made Mossman a renowned journalist was a liability in his private life.

As a professional he could communicate superbly, but as a human being he had difficulty connecting - at least not until he met Hanssen.

Chaplin says at the heart of the play is the event which for a time changed everything.

"He fell in love with Louis - it doesn't matter what his friends thought. He was in love."

The Reporter is on at the National Theatre in London until June.