“My Boy Jack”: PBS Masterpiece Theater production

IN discussions of Kipling, no word comes up more often than paradox: he was the prophet of both empire and its decline, a white supremacist and a connoisseur of exotic cultures, a fabulist and a master of realistic detail, a friend of the common man and a foe of democracy. But never had his conflicted nature caused him so much grief as when he used personal influence to wheedle a commission in the Irish Guards for his severely myopic son John, known as Jack. With tragic inevitability, Jack, who was just 18, was killed in his first military engagement, the Battle of Loos, in September 1915.

The anguish that Kipling inflicted on himself and his family is the subject of “My Boy Jack,” a co-production of the British company Ecosse Films and the ITV network with WGBH, Boston, to be shown as part of the “Masterpiece” series on Sunday on most PBS stations. (Check local listings.) Adapted by David Haig from his play of the same name, the film stars Daniel Radcliffe as Jack; Kim Cattrall as Carrie, Rudyard Kipling’s American wife; and Mr. Haig himself as Kipling.

To add to the paradoxes, the film was shot primarily in Ireland with an Irish crew. ...