The Telegraphy

ISSUE 1639 .................................Saturday 20 November 1999

 

Gambling on a classic with no end

Can the makers of the BBC's 'Pride and Prejudice'

turn an unfinished Elizabeth Gaskell novel into

another hit? Mark Monahan reports

 

ELIZABETH GASKELL died before she could finish writing Wives and Daughters. But this inconclusiveness does not stop it being perhaps her finest book, nor has it prevented it becoming the latest classic novel to be converted by the BBC into a lavish television drama. The new adaptation has reunited Andrew Davies and Sue Birtwistle, the writer-producer team who reached almost a quarter of the British population with their 1995 dramatisation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (as well as making ITV's Emma the following year).

 

Earlier this year, I met Birtwistle on location in her small but well-appointed trailer in the grounds of the magnificent 14th/16th-century Levens Hall, not far from Kendal. The Hall's interior was serving as the residence of the Hamley family, whose fortunes become intertwined in the story with those of 17-year-old Molly Gibson. Birtwistle was just four days into the 18-week shoot, and things were going well - "I suppose I would say that - but it is true," she said, with the realism that is probably requisite for producers.

 

The book, which tells the tale of Molly's coming of age in the fictional Midlands town of Hollingford, is a masterpiece. But there are plenty of other magnificent - and more famous - novels ripe for adaptation. Why did Birtwistle choose this one?

 

"After doing Pride and Prejudice and Emma," she explained, "I had hundreds of letters saying, 'Why don't you do this, or this, or this?' A lot of people suggested Elizabeth Gaskell to me. I started to think about doing one of her books, and liked Wives and Daughters, which I think is her best. I actually went to the BBC with another project - a modern project, in fact - and the said to me, 'Have you ever thought about doing Elizabeth Gaskell?' "

 

Birtwistle assembled a formidable cast, including established names such as Michael Gambon, Ian Carmichael, Bill Paterson, Francesca Annis and Penelope Wilton, as well as hot-young-things Justine Waddell (as Molly), Keeley Hawes, Tom Hollander, and newcomer Anthony Howell. At the read-through in London, said Birtwistle, writer Andrew Davies leaned over just before they started, and whispered, "If the ceiling fell in on this room, it would destroy the aristocracy of the English acting profession in one fell swoop."

 

The BBC's adaptations of Our Mutual Friend and Vanity Fair proved that expensive period dramas no longer have a divine right to divine ratings - they can put up a brave fight against aggressive ITV scheduling of staples such as Taggart, but they rarely win. Ironically, ITV is countering Wives and Daughters with an adaptation of Oliver Twist, in a battle of the costume blockbusters.>

 

Birtwistle has faith in the relatively unknown book: "Vanity Fair got eight million people. That's not a bad audience - I mean, it's eight million people who might therefore have been introduced to the book." True, but wasn't this still substantially less than Pride and Prejudice? "I really hate comparing one to the other," she replied, politely but firmly. "I'd rather not do that."

 

She did, however, concede that there had been a downturn in the fortunes of period dramas since the glory days of Pride and Prejudice. "Mind you," she added, "it took me 10 years to sell Pride and Prejudice, because there was 'no appetite' for classic drama. And I kept saying, I think there is, let me do it, let's see. And it was successful - because there will always be an appetite for a good story well told."

 

Pride and Prejudice was already a world-famous book by a world-famous author. That must have helped it establish an audience: "I'm sure," said Birtwistle. "I mean, Jane Austen is big box-office." Was she not nervous, then, that the relative anonymity of Gaskell might be a problem? "No," she replied. "I'm very aware that she's not as well-known as Jane Austen. I was told Pride and Prejudice was the best-selling novel in the English language in the world. You can't do much better than that.

 

So what, then, is her solution? Simple: if you can't market your author, market yourself: "I'm just hoping that even if we have to say, 'Some of the peopl who did Pride and Prejudice are doing this', we might get people to give us a go. I hope they'll tune in to episode one and stick with it."

 

And what of the book's non-existent conclusion - would one be supplied? "Absolutely," she said. "Can you imagine what people would say if we left it hanging?" Although it might seem presumptuous to alter someone else's work, in this case, it seems reasonable. As Birtwistle put it, "I think it's fairly obvious from the way things are going by the end of the book, and by the notes Gaskell left, that X [my deletion] and Molly will get together. It's a case of how they get together."

 

Later, in the marquee that was being used as a canteen, we were joined by the series director, Nick Renton. A veteran of dramas such as Hamish Macbeth and Granada's Far From the Madding Crowd, he clearly shared Birtwistle's passion for Gaskell. "She had a really knowing eye," he said, "one that understood how relationships worked. People have been given this book when they are studying therapy." Birtwistle agreed: "By the end of Wives and Daughters you feel that you know these people. They're very real."

 

Renton's task for the afternoon was to shoot a short but pivotal scene in which Squire Hamley (Gambon) rants about the French in front of his sons Roger (Howell) and Osborne (Hollander), unaware that the latter has married a Frenchwoman and is desperate to tell him. The scene is typical of Gaskell's knack of blending light and dark, and the muted, faded elegance of the surroundings reflected Birtwistle and Renton's visual nous. Meretriciousness is not on Birtwistle's agenda for Wives and Daughters.

 

"I hope it looks very beautiful," she said, "but it should look realistic. It isn't over-designed. Squire Hamley, for example, doesn't have cash to spend on the fabric of the house, so it's slightly run-down, and the tapestries are a bit moth-eaten. To me, design has to tell the story."

 

Eight months later, I am once again with Birtwistle and Renton, but the circumstances and surroundings are rather different. For the past 75 minutes, they have been wearing ther fingernails down outside a west-London screening theatre, while assorted journalists scrutinise the first of four episodes of Wives and Daughters.

 

Their nervousness is ill-founded - Wives and Daughters seems to have translated charmingly to the small screen. It boasts several outstanding performances (especially from Gambon and Annis), is often moving and seems far more cinematic than televisual. Yet it also feels restrained.

 

"I wanted quite a simple feel in the end," says Renton, echoing Birtwistle's earlier words, "because I didn't want something that was going to overburden it in terms of period. I wanted to film it with a kind of clarity and observation rather than trying to do a job on it."

 

Birtwistle seems relieved that the screening is over, but still speaks affectionately about the project. "It has been lovingly carried through," she says. "Nick and I have been on it a year now, and we're still enjoying working together, even in dark rooms every day, dubbing and so on. We are tired, I have to say. Tired but happy. We've enjoyed it."

 

By contrast, Andrew Davies, whom I meet after the screening, tends to stay away from both filming and post-production, and this is the first time that he has seen an episode of Wives and Daughters. He is "delighted" with the end result.

 

"The anxiety," he says, "is that you have to do justice to the book. You have to do it slowly. I tried to start writing it in 50-minute episodes. But it didn't work, because, in getting all the plot in, you were losing the things that make the book what it is. So we decided to gamble on it, and develop it gradually.

 

"Occasionally," he continues, "I get these urges to direct it myself, out of self-defense or something. But then I remind myself how it always rains, and so on. And I'm quite impatient - I'd be inclined to say after the first take, 'Well that was quite good, wasn't it?' "

 

Episode one of 'Wives and Daughters' will be shown on BBC1 next Sunday (November 28), and is repeated the following Saturday.