THE ARGUMENT

Another Austen on the Small Screen

By Melissa Welliver and Annabelle Hawes

GOOD IDEA

Colin Firth is no stranger to us as Mr Darcy, and he shouldn’t be! Andrew Davies’ adaptation of Pride and Prejudice is one of this country’s most beloved. The great benefit with a TV adaptation is that it can be serialised, allowing Romola Garai the ability to invest an essentially irksome character with warmth, energy and bundles of peachy-chopped charm in Emma.

Dickens intended Great Expectations to be sequential – it’s about time that a channel picked up this pre-Corrie soap. Sometimes, a television adaption of a classic can be terrible (no doubt you can name a few), generating hot debate and allowing viewers to see different interpretations by other readers of their favourite novel. I only read Wuthering Heights for the first time after someone told me that the adaptation w

as awful – I wanted to judge for myself. I’m sure as readers  you will agree that anything to get more people reading the classics is surely a good thing.

Melissa Welliver

 

Get a new idea!

I haven’t bothered to tune into the BBC’s latest adaptation of the Austen classic, Emma. Why? Because I’ve read the book. And because I’m pretty sure I don’t want to waste my Saturday evenings in front of what is, essentially, rehashed TV. Since Colin Firth’s Pride and Prejudice, period dramas have become a treasured staple of the BBC. We’ve consumed a good deal: Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion, Cranford, Jane Eyre, Little Dorrit… fantastic, mostly faithful, and vibrant retellings - when taken in isolation. Clearly, the BBC are stalling for ideas - ‘playing it safe’ by sticking to more populist novels. Only 3.3 million viewers tuned in to Emma last week. What does this say? That the dashing men and winsome women dolled out weekly in lavish costume and scenery simply aren’t good enough anymore! Be bold BBC! I dare you to give us something new; an unconventional story to pass the quieter evenings in student digs.


Annabelle Hawes