Sorry again not to have been around much – I’ve just had a couple of days away from home and am still behind with reviews I want to write! But, anyway, here is a bit of costume drama news.
This week’s Radio Times in the UK carries the news that Andrew Davies’ new adaptation of Anthony Trollope’s great series of novels The Pallisers has been axed. Davies says the BBC is going downmarket and now only commissioning adaptations of big-name works – he has also been asked to adapt David Copperfield instead of Dombey and Son, which I’m a bit disappointed about as DC has been done so many times already.
I haven’t found the Radio Times article online, but here is a link to another
report quoting the same comments:
I’m mystified by the quote saying that Davies is now adapting Arnold Bennett’s South Riding. Just editing (October 6) to say that today’s Radio Times has a correction pointing out that this novel is in fact by Winifred Holtby – and that it was the magazine’s mistake, not his! This one has been adapted before, but not for a long time, and I will be interested to see it.
On a happier note, the BBC starts showing the new Sandy Welch adaptation of
Jane Austen’s Emma this weekend – I’m really looking forward to it and also hoping it gets brilliant ratings to give TV costume drama a badly-needed shot in the arm.
ITV’s recent mini-series of Wuthering Heights, which I thought was powerful
although flawed in places, did fairly well in terms of ratings (the Radio Times
claims 4.28 million was disappointing, but I would have thought it was pretty
good during the main summer holiday period) and has also sold to networks all over the world. Possibly on the back of that, ITV has now commissioned Downton Abbey, a major nine-part series scripted by Julian Fellowes about a country house in the Edwardian era and around the First World War, which will be about both the family and the servants, as with Upstairs Downstairs – so maybe costume drama is already starting to bounce back.
Since I love it, I really hope they will shoot and broadcast more costume drama. Italian TV programmes offer so very little in that field. I confided in British Tv for good drama, but it seems global crisis is going to influence their scheduling, too. I’m so disappointed: not always high ratings reward good products!
Eagerly waiting to see the new EMMA. MG.
Thanks, Maria – I think it is a problem that these dramas cost so much to make, but I’m hoping there will be more of them in the future all the same. I hope you don’t have to wait too long for the new ‘Emma’!
I just heard this today as well Judy! I have to say that I’m disappointed that they’re retreating on two projects that had piqued my interest and I’m baffled as to why they want to tackle one that’s been done EIGHTEEN times already? (according to IMDb)
I’m also wondering about Middlemarch? Haven’t heard anymore about its production…
Hello Charley, I agree – I’d been looking forward to both of these, but it is hard to imagine what a new ‘David Copperfield’ can come up with which hasn’t been done before. Though I’ll still watch it!
I haven’t managed to find out anything more about the new ‘Middlemarch’ either, and am wondering if it might have been put on a back burner too.
Thank you for creating this website. I am such a big fan of period dramas. I especially enjoy the romantic genre set in way back. I am currently reading Rebecca by Dahpne Du Maurier and I really enjoy the book thus far. I watched the first two parts of the newest Jane Eyre and was left bewildered and disappointed. The crazy hidden wife doesn’t resonate with me well. I’ve read on wiki, by accident, how there are resemblances of Rebecca to Jane Eyre, hopefully, that is not true and drive me away from all Gothic romances. On another note, I am currently hoping for the new adaption with Ralph Fiennes as Maxiam. I shall keep my fingers crossed!
Thank you for visiting, glad to hear from another fan of period dramas. I’m afraid I don’t think that new version of ‘Rebecca’ with Ralph Fiennes shows much sign of getting off the drawing board – it seems to be one of those adaptations which has been promised and then nothing has happened. A pity, because I’d love to see him as Maxim.
Sorry to hear you don’t like ‘Jane Eyre’ as it is my favourite – I also liked the recent adaptation, though I haven’t got round to writing about it yet!
It’s a shame that they are not going to re-do the Pallisers; on the other hand, I feel as if I have a reprieve. I can’t keep up with all the film adaptations and want to write on the older one in the form of an article, and one’s enough.
A self-centered view, doubtless. Thank you for telling us.
Ellen
I’m disappointed about ‘The Pallisers’, but I know what you mean, Ellen – it’s hard to keep up with all the adaptations and there is so much for you to write about in the older version!
I do wonder if this project may be revived in the future, as with some other costume dramas which have been commissioned, then axed, then made years later after all… we will see.:)
I’ve now read the material in the URL (too tired too late last night) and can add I agree. These trends come and go and we’ll see splendid ones again eventually
To explain: I’ve just read Davies’s comments and BBC’s reply. As to their reply, Mandy Rice-Davies’s immortal, “Well [they] would say that, wouldn’t they” is the right one. Plausible: to do the Pallisers right very expensive, and new viewers want modern texts and the wider audience what they already know (like Hobbits you will recall from Tolkien). But Raven and others in the business, like Davies, show how in some five year periods money seems to be no object, and in others, is everything so we get these minimalist dramas recently and endless Jane Eyres. Davies’s explnation that it depends which clique gets in charge seems to be spot on.
For those of us dependent in the area of costume drama on what these people chose to fund it’s a loss. There’s been but one _Dombey and Son_: it’s a grim hard book and could be done with great relevance today. It’s not true there is no audience for the lesser known or more demanding (harder) Victorian books adapted. One can find examples of success. This is after all the sixth Emma, not that I mind, but there are other books :) (like Mary Hays’s Emma Courtney — I know it’s obscure but how appealing it could be if rightly done and significant too if done with integrity and candour).
And on Trollope’s texts and film adaptations a little more too: No one has done the whole of the Barsetshire nor the last 4 recently, and so many of the novellas and short stories (like “Malachi’s Cove” once made into a great short film) are ripe for doing with themes and characters relevant to us today, of high appeal, which could be tailored to fit the more conservative viewer too.
Ellen
Dear Ellen, so glad to hear that you agree with me this will probably just be a trend and eventually we will get more adaptations again – however I do agree that it is a loss in the meantime, and also that there would be an audience for some of the lesser-known titles.
I’d love to see them do all of the Barsetshire novels – it’s such a shame that only the first two got adapted. Must admit I still haven’t seen ‘Malachi’s Cove’, but I loved the short story so it is one I hope to get hold of in the future.
Here’s a link to the Radio Times article scans: http://burstsofenthusiasm.blogspot.com/2009/09/emma-in-radio-times-plus-actual.html
I personally think there’s some serious turf wars that are going on in the BBC right now, signaled by articles like these, interview given which say contradictory or confusing things, and the rapid turnover rate of the producers and other managment positions (see the articles by Davies during the production of Little Dorrit for examples).
Thank you for posting the link. I also agree there seem to be a lot of contradictions and confusions surrounding this whole issue at the moment – I’d noticed that the audience figures for ‘Desperate Romantics’ and ‘Wuthering Heights’ are said to be disappointing one minute, encouraging the next.
I see the first episode of ‘Emma’ got an audience of 4.38 million, but I’m not sure if the BBC will be pleased or disappointed with that – I wish it had been 6 million plus, but maybe that is unrealistic these days.
I think a problem which has led to a lot of the “no more costume dramas” statements has been the relatively “poor” ratings of shows like “Little Dorrit.” However, I would argue that it’s misleading to say that “Little Dorrit” got poor ratings – especially since I’ve not heard what the Masterpiece ratings in the US were, and since it won a staggering number of awards at the Emmys this year.
I am currently re watching the Pallisers, (which I last watched in the 70s when I was at high school). I cannot imagine how a recent version could match the 70s production. Admittedly the acting is at times a little theatrical but overall it bears up well for its age and I find that I am every bit as hooked as I was when I was a teen. On flicking through the books, (I am not really a Trollope fan and don’t have to time to re-read his ponderous tomes.) I wonder just how much would have to be cut to fit into modern budgetary constraints. As it was a lot of minor characters were trimmed but it really is the wealth of characters and the interplay between them that made the series interesting. So to conclude, (and this is little more than an excuse to post about Pallisers which I am enjoying immensely) I am not sorry that there is to be no new version of this old favourite.
Hi Janette, I love the 1970s version and am glad to hear you are enjoying it all over again – I never saw it at the time, but did watch it a few years ago on VHS and enjoyed it a lot. However, I would have really liked to see Andrew Davies’ take on it too, and think it’s a shame it was commissioned and that he spent time working on it before it was scrapped. However I definitely agree with you that in the current atmosphere of budgetary constraints it is hard to see the BBC putting in enough money to make a full version of this at the moment.