In ‘Endgame,’ the secret is out

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Sometimes, words speak louder than actions. So it was at the secret mid-1980s rendezvous that put the end of apartheid in motion. Had those talks at an estate in England failed, the result could have been a war between races then separated legally in South Africa. The meeting is dramatized with intensity in “Endgame,” the season premiere of “Masterpiece Contemporary” that marks David Tennant’s (“Doctor Who”) debut as the PBS anthology’s new host at 9 p. m. today.

Written by Paula Milne (“The Politician’s Wife”) and directed by Pete Travis (“Vantage Point”), the piece stars Oscar winner William Hurt and Chiwetel Ejiofor (“American Gangster”) as the principals on opposite sides of the negotiating table.

Professor Will Esterhuyse (Hurt) represented white South Africa opposite Thabo Mbeki (Ejiofor), Nelson Mandela’s eventual successor as that nation’s president, who bargained on behalf of African National Congress exiles. They were brought together by British communications expert Michael Young (Jonny Lee Miller) whose mediation attempt was prompted by his concern that apartheid eventually would lead South Africa into complete chaos.

“The actual specifics of this story were unknown to me,” says Ejiofor, who was born in London to Nigerian parents. “The nature of what was happening in South Africa, of course, I was pretty aware of. Obviously, the political movements to release [then-imprisoned] Nelson Mandela, to bring democracy to South Africa and to bring into power the ANC ... everybody knew about that.”

“I think the major attraction of the piece is that you are reliving a time you remember,” adds “Endgame” co-star Miller. “You remember these events, but you have no idea how they came about.”

Young was chief of public affairs for the British mining firm Consolidated Goldfields when he brokered the historic meeting. “The one condition I had for bringing this exercise together was that it should be a silent process,” he recalls. “You can imagine how easy it would be to (wreck) something if it was in the glare of the public spotlight.”

The group operated from 1985 to 1990, and news about it came out “via a leak in about 1994,” Young says. “(Then came) Robert Harvey’s excellent book ‘The Fall of Apartheid’; even then, that book was rather an academic piece than an up-front thriller. It was only when a movie was talked about that there was a public awareness that this process had, in fact, taken place. We worked at it to try and keep this silent for as long as we did.”

Nelson Mandela’s 1990 release from prison also figures into “Endgame,” in famous footage that shows the antiapartheid activist being freed after 27 years. “I remember seeing it on television with my family,” Ejiofor says. “I think what I really remember about that time is that everything seemed to happen so quickly, from this situation that seemed intractable. People were talking about it as if it was going to be a reality forever, (as if) apartheid was going to be a part of people’s lives always.”

Young was determined not to let that happen. “I personally found apartheid morally repugnant,” he says. He said he was in a unique position at the mining company to figure out “what have you got to do to change the status quo, in an ordered fashion, to one which reflects universal suffrage” and to use the company’s resources to effect that change.

On the cover: William Hurt, left, and Chiwetel Ejiofor.

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