Keith Selby

The Literature/Screen Debate: an Overview

This chapter provides an overview of the critical debate concerning the transfer of novels into television and film drama. The major issues are outlined and discussed, with particular reference to the adaptation or dramatization1 of prose fiction into the medium of film and television. The majority of the issues discussed refer equally to film and television, since the concern is generally with the ‘visualization’ of the prose text; however, certain differences between the two visual media will become evident.

Definitions, Early History: the Classic Drama Serial

The broadcast classic serial, the serialised adaptation of a ‘classical’ literary text, does not exist as an immutable, unchanging, permanent media form. The form has changed over the years as broadcasting technology has changed, as economic and commercial imperatives have developed and as taste and style have altered.

The 1970s: Signs of Change

Television in the 1970s was well placed to develop its reputation for dramatising classic novels: television now transmitted in colour. BBC-1 continued to enhance its reputation with the long-established Sunday serials of popular classics (particularly with those considered suitable for younger viewers) and BBC-2 realized its promise in presenting an impressive series of evening serial dramatisations of classic novels, several of which have proved in the long run worthy of a significant place in the history of British television drama. Commercial television also produced fine examples of costume drama, which looked good on colour television. But it was the BBC which still held the field when it came to ‘doing the classics’.

Boz Rides Again, and this is where we came in…

In October Channel 4 transmitted Hugh Whitemore’s four part (each episode was two hours) dramatisation of Anthony Powell’s Dance to the Music of Time. This was a tour de force and is one of the most seriously underrated classic novel dramatisations of recent years, achieving with deceptive ease (as far as the viewer could see) a feat which, rationally considered, would seem impossible. Consider the literary work in question. It was published in twelve volumes, totalling some 3000 pages. The twelve volume cycle takes its title and sustaining metaphor from the title of Nicolas Poussin’s painting A Dance to the Music of Time in the Wallace Collection. The work covers a long chronological period from the early part of the twentieth century — it begins just after the First World War, continues through until the end of the 1930s and then reverts to the beginning of the First World War, goes into the Second World War and continues up to the early 1970s — involving the intertwined adventures of a large selection of major characters and numerous smaller groups, who weave in and out of the main actions. But the entire narrative framework is clearly and plainly assembled as a structure.

The ‘Pride and Prejudice Effect’: a Promising Future for the Past

For a combination of reasons, variously suggested to be insecurity about the present, the undermining of national identity as a consequence of the European union, economic decline, the craze for devolution, the British seem to be taken up with their own past. Television’s fascination for costume drama at the close of the 1980s intensified during the 1990s. With tourism such an expanding industry we seem in danger of turning the country into a vast theme park. We have the New Conservatism initiated by Thatcherism to thank for this state of affairs. Not only did this encourage a politically nostalgic nationalism, but it legislated out the regulation of the media industries and thereby encouraged free market factors in media production. The BBC felt under threat, and among its various endeavours to compete in the ratings game with the commercial channels, it reverted to one of the areas in which it had always excelled — the classic novel dramatisation. The BBC’s success was fairly immediate, and its ratings were impressive. An average of 10 million viewers on a Sunday evening loyally consumed Pride and Prejudice, producing what became known as the ‘Pride and Prejudice effect’. It was plain for all to see, the BBC was demonstrably earning its right to the licence fee by giving audiences what they wanted.

The 1990s: Renaissance of the Classic Serial

Before the arrival of the commercial channel, the BBC had enjoyed the monopoly which Lord Reith had considered essential to good broadcasting. Then it faced competition with ITV. For a while, ratings seemed of little account, but in due course it became an accepted principle that the BBC really should not simply expect its licence fee without demonstrably having striven to provide a service which the public supported. The competition for ratings was then to be pursued in earnest.

The Albatross which was Really a Phoenix

As the century drew to a close the classic serial seemed to be thriving. Few would have predicted this a mere ten years ago when, as it seemed at the time, the BBC had quietly brought the tradition to an end with the last Sunday classic novel dramatisation. But — to mix a metaphor — the albatross rose from the ashes, and soared aloft.

The ‘Pride and Prejudice Factor’

Andrew Davies’s six-part adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, produced by Sue Birtwistle and directed by Simon Langton, was transmitted on BBC-1 during the autumn of 1995.1 The germ of this production was planted in 1986 at a preview of Northanger Abbey. Andrew Davies and Sue Birtwistle were sitting together. She turned to him and said: I know what I’d like to do: Pride and Prejudice and make it look like a fresh, lively story about real people. And make it clear that, though it’s about many things, it’s principally about sex and it’s about money: those are the driving motives of the plot. Would you like to adapt it?

Case Study: The Dramatization of Vanity Fair

What follows in the remainder of this book is a case study of one particular dramatization: the BBC TV Classic Serial presentation of Thackeray’s Vanity Fair, broadcast in the Autumn of 1987. The aim of this chapter is to examine the practice of adaptation through an analysis of some of the problems confronting the production team. Consequently, we rely heavily in this chapter and the next on interview material from members of the production team. Chapter 8 examines promotion, audience response, marketing, and critical reviews of the programme.

The Classic Novel: Great Expectations

The purpose of this chapter is to present an analysis of Great Expectations as a novel. No attempt is made to examine the novel in its broader social or historical context; instead, the concentration throughout is on the unique linguistic qualities of the novel.