I see the BBC has announced several new films and dramas at Cannes (not sure if these are all feature films?) – some we already knew about but others are new. Here are a couple of links for more information, to the BBC press office and Screen Daily.
Several of these are period/costume dramas- one new announcement is an adaptation of Claire Tomalin’s book The Invisible Woman about Charles Dickens’ secret relationship with actress Ellen Ternan. I thought Tomalin’s book was excellent and the screenwriter, Abi Morgan, did a great job in adapting Monica Ali’s Brick Lane, so this could be a fine production, but all the same, I’m a bit fed up that adaptations of Dicken’s actual works, such as the Dombey and Son Andrew Davies had been working on, get scrapped, but there is still money to fund a biopic focusing on a scandal. Maybe if it does really well it will persuade the BBC to get on with some new versions of some of his novels or short stories – there are loads of those which have never been adapted at all, and I haven’t heard anything for ages about the David Copperfield Davies is now supposed to be working on instead of Dombey.
Rebecca Hall, Dominic West and Imelda Staunton star in The Awakening, which is described as a classic ghost story in the tradition of MR James and set in 1921, but isn’t actually a classic adaptation – it’s a new original script by Stephen Volk and director Nick Murphy. My hopes are high for this one as the BBC has such a great tradition of ghost stories – I wonder if it will turn up on TV or in the cinema at Christmas?
Stephen Fry is writing and directing Hallelujah!, about the build-up to the first performance of Handel’s Messiah – this is at an early stage by the sounds of it but should be well worth seeing.
In post-production is Ralph Fiennes’ eagerly-awaited film of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus - Fiennes will star as well as directing, and Vanessa Redgrave also stars, along with Gerard Butler, Brian Cox and James Nesbitt. The new BBC Films version of Jane Eyre is also currently being filmed, starring Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender and directed by Cary Fukunaga - I really have to wonder if a new version can possibly add anything to all the great adaptations which have already been made of this novel, but I know I will go and see it just the same.
“I’m a bit fed up that adaptations of Dicken’s actual works, such as the Dombey and Son Andrew Davies had been working on, get scrapped, but there is still money to fund a biopic focusing on a scandal.”
I couldn’t agree more. What is this, the BBC or the “National Enquirer”?
Thanks for commenting, Gina. After seeing Abi Morgan’s adaptation of ‘Brick Lane’, I do think it might turn out to be a good drama, but it’s a shame we are getting the life as a substitute for the works.
Thanks Judy! I cannot wait for these! More period dramas please!! And quite a selection too, but I wonder why they scrapped Andrew Davies Dombey and Son? I would have liked to see this as its one of the few Dickens books I haven’t read.
Strangely enough I’ve just been watching Stephen Fry talking about Wagner and his music. perhaps he is going through a musical phase at the moment.
Corialanus I know nothing about having never read it – but it looks interesting. But why MORE Jane Eyre? What can they possibly add or bring to this story? It’ll be ‘Jane Eyre’ the musical soon – you mark my words:)
Hi Lynda -thanks for commenting! The BBC has been scrapping most of its traditional period dramas and ‘Dombey and Son’ was one of those to be axed – ‘Little Dorrit’ got disappointing ratings in the UK (as you probably know!) partly because they kept moving it around the schedules and showing it at a different time from the one which had been advertised, so I think that decided them against doing any more Dickens for the time, sadly. I’ve never seen an adaptation of ‘Dombey’ and would have loved to see Davies’ version – maybe it will be resurrected if they go back to doing more classic adaptations in the future, fingers crossed.
I missed that Stephen Fry programme about Wagner but hope to watch it on catch-up TV, though at the moment I’m still in the middle of watching the massively long ‘John Adams’ mini-series!
Unfortunately the bbc seems to be of the opinion that all people want to see is happy sunny dramas and they are not willing to take risks hence the endless remakes. They did the same with P&P making a film of it because the TV series was so popular. That is what happens when accountants make the decisions.
I am looking foward to the new David Copperfield however as I was not overly impressed with the previous version and cannot get hold of the 80s version that I remember.
thanks for the info on upcoming series. There are several to look out for.
Janette
Thanks, Janette – I’m looking forward to the new ‘Copperfield’ too, if and when it sees the light of day. I’m also disappointed that there is no word on a second series of ‘Garrow’s Law’, as I thought that was a fine drama.
I wish Elizabeth Gaskell’s Mary Barton would get made. Jane Eyre is just not a good fit for a movie.
Thanks, Andrew – I would also love to see a mini-series of ‘Mary Barton’. Can’t agree with you on ‘Jane Eyre’, though, as it is probably my favourite novel of all time and I never get tired of watching different adaptations! I do think it is a pity that they are adapting it yet again instead of doing a different work, though. Thanks for commenting!
I would love to see a BBC production of Mary Barton! Have just been listening to the audiobook and could not stop wondering why this book hasn’t been filmed since 1964?
I may be out of the loop but did the BBC really announce the making of Mary Barton into a movie??? I have been waiting for years to hear this news if it is true. I have been searching for some way to get the 1964 version in video as well and have not had any luck. I love all of the Jane Eyre adaptations and have almost all of them, and have almost worn out the DVD’s. Doesn’t the BBC realize that there are readers that love to have a movie follow-up?
Anne and Suzanne, I definitely agree that I would love to see Mary Barton filmed, and am also sad that there doesn’t seem to be any way of getting hold of the 1964 version, although this may not even exist any more, as sadly some BBC dramas of that vintage have been wiped. Suzanne, I haven’t heard anything about a new BBC adaptation, we were just talking here about films we would like to see. The BBC did do it as a radio drama a couple of years back, though.
Actually they are making a BBC adaptation of Mary Barton! Like all of you I have been waiting for forever for them to make one because it is such a beautiful story and I want to see Jem Wilson and Mary’s love come to life on screen. http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2012/dec/01/bbc-gritty-look-working-class there is the link to the article about it
I’m currently enjoying reading “Mary Barton”, and I found your article because I was Googling as to whether there were any TV or movie adaptations of Elizabeth Gaskell’s classic story of poverty in Victorian Britain. The fact that while the BBC (and others) will produce endless remakes of Dickens (who is a notorious writer of “feel-good” endings”), Brontes etc, they are shy to produce a serial of how exploited and oppressed the British working class have been, which goes proves that the BBC is still a Middle Class institution that is mainly concerned with massaging the egos of the Middle and Upper Classes. However, I have read somewhere that last December the BBC announced they were in pre-production on a TV adaptation of “Mary Barton”. If this long-awaited drama materialises, I certainly will purchase the DVD.