"Every human being is a collection of selves . . . we never stay just one person," says Logan Mountstuart, a novelist, war correspondent, father, spy, prisoner of war, art dealer, and hedonist. He was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1906 to a British father and a Uruguayan mother, and raised in England. He never forgets what his dying dad tells him: "Enjoy good luck when it comes your way. It's all luck in the end."
Young Logan (Sam Claflin) begins a journal in 1923 when he is a student at a boarding school. He then moves on to Oxford where he studies literature and hopes to become a famous novelist. Logan is determined to lose his virginity so he begins a relationship with Land (Charity Wakefield), a labor-party activist and bohemian who is not interested in sex. So he turns to Tess (Holliday Grainger), a young woman who is sleeping with his close friend Peter (Freddie Fox). They begin a passionate affair which they both vow to keep secret.
Logan's first book is a biography of Shelley. His second work is a racy novel, and it does pretty well. While in Paris, the aspiring novelist meets Ernest Hemingway (Julian Ovenden). Trying to tap into good luck, the Adult Logan (Matthew Macfadyen) marries Lady Laeticin (Emerald Fennell) and moves into a country manor. But she disappoints him sexually, and he goes off to earn some money as a correspondent covering the Spanish Civil War. There he meets a BBC reporter, Freya (Hayley Atwell), an attractive and intense young woman. They begin an affair and move into an apartment in London. When his wife learns about their relationship, she divorces him and cuts him off from her considerable wealth.
Logan marries Freya and experiences the greatest happiness of his life. But he has to leave her and their young daughter during World War II when Ian Fleming (Tobias Menzies) of the Naval Intelligence Division sends him on a mission to the Bahamas to monitor the activities of the exiled Duke (Tom Hollander) and Dutchess (Gillian Anderson) of Windsor. When he refuses to join them in covering up an unsavory local crime, they label him a Judas and vow revenge. Logan is sent on another assignment to Switzerland where he is captured and spends two years in prison. With his body battered, he returns to England for news that breaks his heart. His already heavy consumption of liquor increases and he attempts suicide in postwar Paris.
Hoping to jump-start his life, Logan moves to New York City and runs an art gallery for ten years. But his hedonism again gets him in trouble, and he is forced to return to England when he learns that his mother is dying. He writes in his journal: "Your past never leaves you . . . it comes back and grabs you by the throat." He becomes the lover of Gloria (Kim Cattrall), the sex-loving wife of his friend Peter. who has become a world famous novelist. She tells him to look ahead and not be so attached to the past.
This is easier said than done in the 1970s when Logan (Jim Broadbent) finds that his money has run out along with any freelance assignments. He gets a job working for an underground extremist group, but discovers that he can't go along with their plans. When he is hit by a car, he spends some time in a hospital. Back in his small flat, he again connects with Gloria, who needs him to care for her. He gracefully makes the most of a last piece of good luck when an old friend gives him a house in France. There he comes face-to-face with his life as he sorts through his memorabilia.
Any Human Heart was a four-hour presentation in the <em>Masterpiece Classic</em> series that aired on PBS in the U.S. It was directed by Michael Samuels based on a 2002 novel by William Boyd which covers the life and times of Logan Mountstuart, a versatile survivor who as a middle-ager dines in the finest restaurants and as an old and poverty-stricken man is reduced to eating dog food. With its voice-over narration and flashbacks. this heart-affecting drama serves as an example of life review where an individual looks back over his experiences, work, relationships, successes and failures. This makes for a very satisfying drama in that it captures and conveys the arc of a life with all its ambiguities and mysteries.
