I started off loving Downton Abbey. After three series I gave up on it as it was getting more and more ludicrous. I returned for the last series as I wanted to see how it finished and felt that they ended it just when they should before it got even dafter. One of the joys of watching the series was following the comments on the Guardian blog where the regulars picked up on the absurdities and ineptitude of the Crawley family to the enjoyment of the participants. I should stress that this was all done with humour and fondness for DA and I used to enjoy the blog more than the programme.
What was picked up and commented on week after week was the way it was written and how Julian Fellowes delivered story lines and plot development at the rate of knots. A couple of weeks go by and we find that apart from the odd dead Turk being carted around at dead of night, the Titanic had sunk, World War 1 had started, Matthew Crawley was crippled in the trenches, then felt a tingle and lo and behold was back on his feet just in time to sit at the death bed of his fiance. In between we had characters giving great chunks of exposition so that we knew what had gone on behind the scenes.
So we turn to Dr Thorne and Julian Fellowes take on this. Three episodes. Yep THREE. And bear in mind that this is being screened on commercial television so you can knock 12 minutes off that hour to allow for ads and we have one of Anthony Trollope's most popular and loved stories encapsulated in this time frame. Impossible.
The main story line is the love between Mary Thorne, niece of the good doctor, and Frank Gresham son of the local big wig family who have fallen on hard times and who need money urgently. Up to Frank to marry well, in other words marry money, so off you pop Mary and though we have known you since you were a child, you are no longer welcome. I reread the book when I knew this adaptation was coming up and loved it all over again and the reminder merely showed up the paucity of depth and characterisation in this three parter. In the novel we are given to wonder if Frank will be true to Mary as Trollope, with most of his female characters, gives them strength of mind and will and the men can be a tad wobbly. Will Frank maintain his backbone in the face of all opposition and the scheming of his ghastly mother and aunt?
The rattling pace of this current dramatization, in true Fellowes fashion, gives the viewer the impression that all the events take place over a summer. In fact, the story and the ups and downs of the lives of the two families, takes place over THREE years. Mary suffers greatly from her banishment by the Greshams as the rest of the village follow their lead and she is isolated. There is nary a hint of this. Then the soppy sentimental death bed scene of Scatcherd who learns that she is his niece and is able to say 'that you were an angel sent to me' when in the novel he never meets her and dies in ignorance of her existence. This occurred half way through episode two and that was when I switched off.
The Pallisers series made back in the seventies was 26 episodes long. Recently re-run on BBC1 in the afternoons, yes it does have rather wobbly sets and dodgy back projection, but the acting is simply wonderful. The Barchester Towers with the glorious Alan Rickman as Obadiah Slope was given multiple episodes.
I really wonder why they bothered making Dr Thorne. I really do. And over the years I have been watching various series on television I have noticed that they have got shorter and shorter. Why? The recent War and Peace was a case in point. Six pathetic hours. The old version with Anthony Hopkins and Alan Dobie was thirteen hours long and was produced on a much smaller budget but it had characterisation and depth. The recent one looked much better of course, but it was all glam and gloss and shallow and, ultimately, unsatisfying and ended with the obligatory soft focus scene of happy families sitting in the sunshine eating and drinking and laughing. As somebody said on Twitter 'this is Downski Abbey isn't it".
I could go on and on: Lewis, an excellent series getting shorter and shorter the longer it was filmed. Last two series we had three episodes divided into one hour showings to try and fool us that we were getting the same amount of drama for our money, when the earlier ones had been shown in two hour chunks which was much better from a dramatic viewpoint. Not so good for the advertisers though one assumes. Same happened to Foyle's War.
This superficial treatment seems to be more and more prevalent and I can only think it is because TV companies don't believe that viewers will invest in something substantial. But they are wrong. Just look at The Killing, two series of ten episodes each, The Bridge ditto, Borgen ditto and all with sub-titles too. Spiral the French detective series also ten episodes and most US drama series are 22-24 episodes long, thus giving the viewer time to become involved with the characters and story lines. And just finished, Trapped, set in Iceland, another ten hours which gripped all of those who watched.
There are many viewers who are happy to sit down and watch all the aforementioned Scandi/French series and credit to BBC4 for realising this and buying up more of these for us to watch and enjoy.
I understand that Andrew Davies, who is always very keen on putting as much sex in his adaptions as possible (War and Peace earned the nickname Phwoar and Piece) is now set to take a look at Les Miserables. I would like to say, gosh I can hardly wait, but I think I probably can......
