I love screenwriter Andrew Davies, the Welsh adaptation guru who turned Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility into steamy hot man-fests for UK TV. My bestie Caroline, on the other hand, who teaches Victorian Literature at the University of Michigan, isn’t a real fan. Mention Davies’ recent Northanger Abbey (pictured, right), and she spits tacks. Apparently, Davies added some pretty silly dream sequences in which heroine Catherine Morland fantasizes about being, um, taken by a dude. It’s not for the purist, by any means. Hence Caroline balks when I want to watch an adaptation — except Bleak House, she loves Davies’ version — and I don’t blame her.
Why? Because just thinking about Guy Ritchie’s upcoming Sherlock Holmes movie makes my stomach ulcers bleed. It’s not that I don’t believe he’s up for it. Or that Robert Downey Jr. (pictured, left, on the set) isn’t the perfect Holmes — we know he can do British (Chaplin) and conflicted, now he just needs to be intellectual, obsessive, and mysterious. And Sunshine’s Mark Strong, cast as baddie Lord Blackwood, is the bee’s knees. But I can’t help fearing that there’s a chance we’ll be privy to some totally anachronistic gunplay and terrible pop music that would make Sir Arthur Conan Doyle want to die all over again.
So, in a season when Miss Marple returns to ITV, Richard Curtis adapts Alexander McCall Smith’s The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, and Alan Moore’s Watchmen hits the big screen, it’s time we anglophiles talk about British adaptations. Is there one that drives you crazy? (Fever Pitch kills me.) Ones you’re particularly fond of? (About a Boy and Bridget Jones’s Diary are mine.) Or a book you’d love to see on screen? (I’d pick Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About or any of M.C. Beaton’s Agatha Raisin mysteries.)
Mull those questions over, and then click through after the jump for your anglophile calendar for the week:
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Monday (October 12): Check out bits from Eddie Izzard, et al in this year’s Secret Policeman’s Ball by subscribing to the iTunes podcast. Listen to new the new music on the British airwaves on Steve Harris’ Xfm show.
Tuesday: Keane’s new album, Symmetry, hit stores. Icons of Horror (a collection of Hammer films) and the Hitchcock Premiere Collection (including remastered versions of The Lodger and Young and Innocent) drop.
Thursday: In case you missed it, the first episode of Gavin and Stacey season 2 becomes available on BBC America on Demand. Colin Farrell visits NBC’s Leno at 11:35 p.m.
Friday: The Catherine Tate Show returns to BBC America at 9:20 p.m.
Saturday: Adele plays NBC’s Saturday Night Live at 11:30 p.m.
Saturday: BBC America airs marathons of Little Britain at 3 p.m. and Worst Week of My Life at 5 p.m. The British comedy series Pulling begins airing on Sundance at 9 p.m. (Here’s a clip).
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The Davies adaptation of “Northanger Abbey” is not terrible at all. It’s true that it has only a really crummy adaptation from the mid-80s to compete against. But, the dream sequences that your friend is talking about work in bringing to life the pulpy, gothic novels that Austen was sending up but no one these days actually reads. Now Davies adaptation of A Room with a View could disappear off the face of the earth and I would never, ever care.
This is the first I’ve heard of anyone outside of the UK mentioning “The No. 1 Ladies Detective Series” movie. Do you have any idea exactly when HBO is going to show it? Thanks so much.
Another questionable bit in that Davies *Northanger Abbey* is when the film visually implies that Isabella Thorpe and Frederick Tilney have slept together. This is really taking liberties with Austen’s novel.
BBC America has a few episodes of Primeval left, then it is time for teh return of non-scripted series Gladiators. PLEASE, I am so tired of BBC America slowly becomming an all reality channel. Now we only have Gavin & Stacy, Skins and I guess The Catherine Tate Show as new non-scripted shows. (is “Tate” reruns or new amaterial???)
I’m definitely having a problem with Life On Mars. I just really can’t stand Harvey Keitel and I don’t think he is going in the role. Phillip Glenister will never be out done.
I’ve often wondered why there’s never been an Agatha Raisin series, particularly since M. C. Beaton’s other character, Haimish Macbeth, was turned into a series.
worst adaptation of something british? i suppose this counts, since the book’s author is a brit: the film of “League of Extraordinary Gentleman”, aka what drove Sean Connery to stop being in movies (true story!).
i’d love to see a film of something written by alastair reynolds, but he uses so many layers i can’t imagine who could adapt it into a feasible, quality film. “Century Rain” might fly on the big screen…
I completely agree. Life on Mars (U.S.) pales in comparison to the original. The scene that sealed the deal was when Annie is talking about why the killer does what he does. Oh well, maybe if the U.S. version is a success, then the original will be released.
Mansfield Park drives me crazy; Fanny’s character is a complete 180 turn from the book, and Fanny NEVER gives in to charm-merchant Crawford. Her strength against popular opposition in the book is one of the best things about it. “Modernized” Fanny in the movie just doesn’t work because it makes no sense.
If you were talking about any other Austen, I’d agree, but Northanger is so tied in to the pulpy extremes of gothic fiction that it doesn’t feel out of place. If there’s one Austen novel that can take sexing up without seeming ridiculous or shocking, it’s Northanger.
how can you hate the new northanger?! It was fabulous. MUCH better than that old BBC piece of crud where they had Gen Tilney covered in blood. Seriously, if there’s fantasy to be had in it, I’d rather have the newer one! The adaptation I hated was the new Mansfield Park with Billie Piper. Awful. OH, and the ‘lesbian’ Mansfield Park with Frances O’Connor was not very good. Didn’t get why Fanny was so empowered when she totally isn’t in the novel. I think Andrew Davies does a good job with his adaptations.
What would I like to see? I can’t wait for “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay” and I hope it’s as awesome as the book. I’d really love to see “Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell” but who knows if that will happen.
ITV’s Sense and Sensibility was okay until the great marathon race at the end, but Billie Piper’s Mansfield Park simply cannot be forgiven. I actually liked Northanger Abbey. Most people don’t get it, cause they don’t read the then popular gothic novels. Spaceballs wouldn’t have been nearly as funny if you hadn’t seen Star Wars.
I actually really loved Northanger Abbey, especially JJ Feild as Henry Tilney. I’m also a big fan of the adaptations of Elizabeth Gaskell: North and South, Wives and Daughters, and recently Cranford.
I agree with “Mansfield Park” with Francis OConnor. The Fanny in the movie is the polar opposite. She’s more like Mary, just with more common sense. Horrible, horrible movie. Another I didn’t care for is “A Room with a View”, done by Davies. The very end–how utterly depressing. The wonderful thing about novels is that we can imagine the rest of the lives of our favorite characters as we see fit.(that’s why I refuse to read any ’sequel’ to P&P) Now when I read A Room with a View, I have to supress the thought that George dies in WWI. I have complete faith in Downey, Jr. in Sherlock Holmes. I think he is perfect for the role. I am worried about highly overdone gun fights (with bullets a’la Matrix) and trippy drug visions.
Emma Thompson and Ang Lee’s adaptation of SENSE & SENSIBILITY is a perfect ‘10′ on every level — if you haven’t seen it, don’t walk, RUN and rent it. Now I love me some Downey too, but he is totally miscast as Sherlock Holmes — Christopher Lee would be best but if Ritchie insists on a hot younger-generation actor what about Matthre Macfadyen, Henry Cavill, Robson Green???
Ang Lee’s “Sense and Sensibility”
“Pride and Prejudice” (1995, BBC) Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth will always be Lizzy and Darcy to me, no matter how many reamkes starring overhyped, untalented actresses.
“Northanger Abbey” (2007/08) version. Sure, Andrew Davies just *had* to put in an unecessary fantasy (speaking about the bath scene), and it was smushed into 90 minutes (while the bad-fic-come-to-life “Lost in Austen” got multiple episodes–that’s ITV for you) and yes, I would have liked to see more of Henry’s wit, but it was still good nonetheless, and Felicity Jones was perfect as Catherine.
“Daniel Deronda” (2002, BBC): Simply gorgeous costumes, and great acting by the talented (and underrated) Romola Garai, Hugh Dancy and Jodhi May.
I’m also a fan of the JJ Tilney adaptation of Northanger Abbey and I agree that the worst ones so far have been Mansfield Park. I did not like the Billie Piper or Francis O’Connor version. I also enjoyed the ITV version of Sense and Sensibility. Obvioulsy, Ang Lee’s was amazing, but ITV was on some level more realistic I thought. I was so impressed the family was actually living in a cottage.
Sorry, I should have said JJ Fields adaptation.
The new version of “Northanger Abbey” did take some liberties, but it was still enjoyable, which is more than I can say about the new version of “Mansfield Park.” My current bugbear, though, is changing motives and murderers on “Poirot” and “Miss Marple” to include homosexuality (yes, “Cards on the Table,” “Five Little Pigs” and especially “The Body in the Library” – I’m talking to you). Dame Agatha is probably rolling over in her grave these days.
For some reason the Frances O’Connor MP has grown on me over the years. I haaated it before and it’s still crap as an adaptation, but the movie as a stand-alone has grown on me. Seeing that it could be done even worse with that Billie Piper horror probably helped.
Aubtry, I’ve gotta agree with your Sherlock trepidation. I am a HUGE Holmes fan. I mean, HUGE. I am curious, though, I’ll admit.
psst, meg, it’s okay to have Tilney on the brain, especially if imagining that version
And a question for austenfan – how would you want ‘them’ adapting J. Strange…? A mini-series? Or one movie? Seems like it would be tough.
Boy, you are not kidding about “Fever Pitch.” How was that even an adaptation of the book? Were there any similarities at all? I don’t even understand how they were allowed to market that as an adaptation for the book. Speaking of Hornby, though, “About a Boy” and “High Fidelity” were both terrific.
I’m with Martha on the new Christie adaptations. The problem isn’t so much that they changed the plots to add “shocking” sexual aspects, but that in order to do so they completely dumbed down the mystery and ruined the whole point of the twists in the story(“Cards on the Table” was definitely the worst example I saw, but I gave up pretty soon on the rest). I had the same problem with the “new” Sherlock Holmes they did on PBS a couple of years ago– they loaded the thing with salacious elements (auto-erotic asphyxiation! homosexuality! evil twins!) but the mystery was beyond stupid and Holmes wasn’t even recognizable as the same character. (And did I mention the evil twins? I mean, seriously. If you’re going to make a big deal about how you’re “updating a tired genre”, maybe you want to leave out elements that that genre rejected fifty years ago as too cliche.)
I totally disagree with you guys about the Christie stuff (except for Cards on the Table, that ending was stupid). I like what they’ve done with them. I feel like the female-female relationships in Body in the Library, Murder at the Vicarage, and Bertram’s Inn are beautiful and strong. I also feel that Christie always hinted at something romantic going on between female “companions” anyway.
I have never understood the hatred for Patricia Rozema’s version of Mansfield Park. Mansfield Park is undoubtedly Austen’s most progressive novel-and ironically her most disliked. I feel like Rozema really “got” Mansfield Park, unlike other Austenites I’ve come across who think Fanny is supposed to be shy, mousy, and virtuous to the point of being dull. I’m fundamentally shy and reserved, and have strong ideas of what right and wrong are. But I also have a sarcastic sense of humor. When I read Mansfield Park about 15 years ago, I immediately identified with Fanny. She was quiet, but she was a stronger person than everyone else in her universe. When I saw the movie, I saw Frances O’Connor’s Fanny as somewhat more outgoing and acerbic than the Fanny in the book, but she was still the same character, with the same moral values. A lot like me, actually. And I think I would have been the same kind of girl back in the 1800’s, had I lived then.
As a University of Michigan English major myself, I have to respectfully disagree with your friend’s opinion. I thought that Northanger Abbey was a very original adaptation, and the inclusion of the bodice-ripping-esque scenes were pretty darn accurate in terms of what the underlying fears/tensions in Gothic novels actually were. Andrew Davies is a complete genius in my opinion- anyone who wrote Daniel Deronda, Pride and Prejudice, the recent BBC adaptation of Sense and Sensibility, Wives and Daughters, and two brilliant Anthony Trollope adaptations, He Knew He Was Right and The Way We Live Now has pretty much cornered the market on fantastic period adaptations.
I thought the Davies “Northanger Abbey” was very entertaining, and I really enjoyed JJ Fields and Felicity Jones in the lead roles. And yes, the dream sequences weren’t really that inappropriate when you consider what was actually in those Gothic novels.
Other adaptations I love? Ang Lee’s “Sense and Sensibility = Perfection. Sorry, but I thought the recent miniseries was a very pale imitation of Lee’s version.
Love both the 1995 and 2005 versions of “Pride and Prejudice”, love the 2006 version of “Jane Eyre” (Ruth Wilson was the best Jane ever), love “North and South”, love the new “Persuasion”, love the recent versions of “Bleak House” and “Our Mutual Friend”. Also love “Bridget Jones’s Diary” and “About a Boy”.
Hate? Haaaaate the 1994 miniseries of “Middlemarch”, hate the Billie Piper “Mansfield Park”, hate the Kate Beckinsale “Emma”. And as for RDJ in the new “Sherlock Holmes”…. Ehh, I have a feeling it’s going to be really anachronistic and stupid.
What I don’t think you guys get is that if Austen wanted to have Catherine imagining such things–if she thought Catherine and her sister would be sexually permiscuous or want to be–she would have put that in the novel. But she didn’t. I think we seem to assume that women back then had the same thoughts and desires that we do today under the mistaken belief that “we’re all human,” when society does construct us to feel, act, and think in certain ways. I agree that Catherine’s behavior, her thoughts, her fantasies are strictly ri-dunc-ulous in this movie–and really no more sane an addition to a Jane Austen story than Sherlock Holmes taking out an AK47 or erotic asphyxiation (sp?) in an Conan Doyle adaptation.
I love “About a Boy.” I’d also like to see Nick Hornby’s “A Long Way Down” adapted into a film. I read that Johnny Depp had bought the rights to it, but I’m starting to think nothing is ever going to come of it.
I’m a big Holmes fan AND a big Downey Jr. fan, and when I first heard about this new Holmes movie I was super-excited, but… the photos of Downey as holmes make me cringe. He’s so… frumpy. With the floofy hair, and the bowler hat, and the rumpled clothes… Holmes may have been eccentric, even bohemian, but I don’t think he was ever frumpy.
Still. Maybe it won’t be as bad as I think.