Keswick Film Festival

Synopsis

There is one week to go before the first "I love Lucy" show is due to air; will it be good enough for the audience? Lucille Ball is accused of being a Communist (this is 1950s America); will she be arrested? Desi Arnaz, her husband on and off screen, is accused of having an affair; will their marriage survive?

This is the background to this behind-the-scenes look at the making of (what turns out to be) a hugely successful sitcom. Written by Aaron Sorkin, famous for his amazing dialogue, and staring Nicole Kidman as Lucille Ball and Javier Bardem playing Desi Arnaz, this is amazingly a drama, not a comedy.

"Sorkin employs his trademark stylized and 'Sorkin-ized' approach to the real-life foundation of material in 'Being the Ricardos,' a whip-smart, cheeky, sepia-toned re-imagination of the story of Lucille Ball and her husband Desi Arnaz, whose ground breaking 1950s sitcom 'I Love Lucy' averaged an astounding 60 million viewers a week and to this day is hailed as one of the best and most influential TV comedies of all time" – Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun Times.

"Nicole Kidman is brilliant, if anything but funny, in Aaron Sorkin's writerly, behind-the-scenes take on I Love Lucy, with Javier Bardem as Desi Arnaz" – Simran Hans, The Observer