Tom Jones: Episode 1.5

The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling: Episode 1.5
BBC
7 December 1997
Historical Comedy, Romance
DVD
B+

After more drama, Tom and Sophia find their happy ending, and the series ends as well as it started.  This episode is more focused and features more of such characters as Squire Allworthy, Aunt Western, Jenny Jones, and indeed Henry Fielding himself.  It's a nice touch to make the blind judge in Tom's case Fielding's real-life brother, beyond the symbolism of course.  Characters are punished or rewarded as they deserve, with Blifil sniveling and blaming others, and Partridge looking relieved that Mr. Allworthy has finally admitted the injustice done to Tom's supposed father.  (Beesley plays his own father in flashbacks.)  Overall, this adaptation averages out to a B and I recall the 1960s movie paling in comparison.  Also, as a fan of Honour (the character) I was pleased that she gets more to do in this last portion of the story than in the novel, where Fielding just pushes her aside with one admittedly funny farewell letter.

Tom Jones: Episode 1.4

The History of Tom Jones: Episode 1.4
BBC
30 November 1997
Historical Comedy, Romance
DVD
B

Lady Bellaston and Lord Fellamar scheme against Sophia and Tom, so that it's almost a relief (to Sophia and the viewer) when her father shows up and carries her off, even though he's still determined to marry her off to Blifil, who also arrives in town, with Allworthy and Dowling.  Meanwhile Tom arranges for Nightingale to marry Nancy.  This is a darker episode than the others, although still of course with comic relief, mostly from Partridge.  Gang Leader Simon Smith would return for the final episode.

Tom Jones: Episode 1.3

Decadent Lady Bellaston

The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling: Episode 1.3
BBC
23 November 1997
Historical Comedy, Romance
DVD
B-

In this episode, we're introduced to Mrs. Miller and her daughter Nancy (Celia Imrie and Kelly Reilly, the former being the future Una Alconbury in the Bridget Jones movies), as well as a highwayman who turns out to be her brother (Roger Lloyd Pack, who would go on to be Barty Crouch in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), cousin in the novel, and her tenant Jack Nightingale (Matt Bardock).  More significantly, we meet Sophia's cousin Lady Bellaston, with a performance by Lindsay Duncan that is definitely the highlight of this episode where characters arrive in London and adjust to city life.  With her friend Lord Fellamar (Peter Capaldi, yes, that Peter Capaldi), she will create much unhappiness for Sophia and Tom, but Duncan does a marvelous job with this villainess.

You'll notice that we've again gone down a notch in the grading.  While there are things I like, including the remarks about London and the increase in nudity (mostly male), I do have to go below a B because of the scene where a drunken Partridge rolls onto Honour and she says no several times, before hitting him.  It's played for laughs, and happens during a riot at the theater, but it leaves a bad taste, especially knowing that the characters will end up together.  Partridge in the novel does some foolish and wrong things, but he never tries to take a woman against her will, and to have a comic relief character attempt it in the miniseries is a misstep dramatically and otherwise.

Tom Jones: Episode 1.2

The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling: Episode 1.2
BBC
16 November 1997
Historical Comedy, Romance
DVD
B

This episode introduces Mr. and Mrs. Fitzpatrick (Richard O'Callaghan and Michelle Fairley), and Fielding helpfully tells us that Mrs. F is Sophia's cousin.  They add to the farcical complications, especially when they show up at an inn the same night that Tom goes to bed with "Mrs. Waters," whom Fielding tells us is Jenny Jones, unlike in the book where this is a surprise revelation fairly late.  (But then they'd have to disguise Camille Coduri heavily for viewers not to make that connection.)  Tom also meets his supposed father, Partridge.  I'll note here that, unlike in the novel (where Partridge ends up with Molly Seagrim), the Partridge/Honour ship is set up in this episode, as if he's charmed by her putting on airs.  Kathy Burke is perfect in the role, maybe older than I imagine when I read the book, but managing to be more endearing than annoying.  I also should note that James D'Arcy gives an understated performance as Blifil that nonetheless shows why Sophia hates the very idea of marrying him. 

This episode is just an hour, but that's not why I give it "only" a B, rather than a B+ like the previous episode.  There's a little too much yelling and ranting, especially but not limited to Brian Blessed.  Part Two picks up where the previous one left off, with many of the characters on the road to London, but easily sidetracked, literally and figuratively.

Tim Stern, who was on one episode of Paul Merton, the Series, plays Mr. Harris.  Julian Firth, who had the very different role of Bicky on Jeeves and Wooster, plays Northerton.  And Doreene Blackstock makes her first appearance as Mrs. Fitzpatrick's maid Abigail.

Tom Jones: Episode 1.1

The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling: Episode 1.1
BBC
9 November 1997
Historical Comedy, Romance
DVD
B+

This first part of a five-part miniseries runs an hour and a half and covers everything from the finding of the foundling to his departure from his foster father's estate in disgrace.

Regular cast:

• Max Beesley as Tom Jones
• Brian Blessed as Squire Western
• Kathy Burke as Honour
• Camille Coduri as Jenny Jones
• Ron Cook as Benjamin Partridge
• James D'Arcy as Blifil
• Frances de la Tour as Aunt Western
• Christopher Fulford as Mr. Square
• Brian Hibbard as George Seagrim
• Sarah Kestelman as Mrs. Wilkins
• Sylvester McCoy as Mr. Dowling
• Samantha Morton as Sophia Western
• Tessa Peake-Jones as Bridget Allworthy
• Brian Pettifer (who was on one episode of Paul Merton, the Series) as Parson Supple
• Richard Ridings as Reverend Thwackum
• John Sessions (several years after his Whose Line Is It Anyway? appearances) as Henry Fielding
• and Benjamin Whitrow (Mr. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice a couple years earlier) as Squire Allworthy

Also, Laura Harling, who plays Young Sophia, was the younger version of Samantha Morton in Jane Eyre as well.

Simon Burke adapted the Fielding novel and, while not a word for word adaptation of course, it manages to capture the flavour of the classic story.  Having Sessions narrate as Fielding, onscreen in period costume, is a clever touch, helping to not only keep some of the (quite extensive) narration but also give us someone who reacts to the onscreen antics with indulgent amusement.  Sessions, who was stage-hogging and literary on Whose Line, is perfectly cast, although the characters interrupt him far more than Paul Merton, Tony Slattery, and others ever did.

The casting is overall solid, with characters looking straight out of Hogarth and sounding (I imagine) as they would've on the 18th-century stage.  Beesley and Morton don't look like Fielding's descriptions (one thing I particularly remember about Sophia is her lustrous black hair) but they inhabit the characters satisfactorily.  The best performances are those of Whitrow, using his Mr. Bennet sanity and dryness as the least cartoonish character, and of de la Tour, who manages to both plausible as the sister of scenery-devouring Blessed and a very human aunt.

The direction by Metin Hüseyin manages to go back and forth among slapstick, romance, pathos, and what you will.  The scene of Blifil's father falling off a cliff is not in the book, but we've already grown to despise him so much in his few minutes onscreen that it's OK that the fall is drawn out, with a visual punchline that the book he dropped was Statistics on Mortality.  

Music, costumes, everything is well done.  Possibly the best literary adaptation for television that I own.  (And on a level with novel, reviewed here: http://rereadingeverybookiown.blogspot.com/2011/12/tom-jones.html.)  We'll see how the other episodes hold up....

Jane Eyre (1997)

Jane Eyre (1997)
ITV
19 October 1997
Historical Drama, Romance
DVD
D+

At the time I reviewed the 1983 adaptation, I either didn't own this version, or I was unaware that it was packaged with my DVD of Emma.  This version makes that look all the better, because this one is a mess, and not just as an adaptation:

1. Horribly miscast in every role, particularly that of St. John, who (in his less than ten minutes of screen time) comes across as warm and accepting, rather than stiff and distant;
2. Horribly directed by Robert Young (not that Robert Young), who did the 1990 series of Jeeves and Wooster and seemed to then have some sense of period acting, albeit twentieth-century rather than nineteenth;
3. Horribly acted by in particular Ciaran Hinds (who was fine in Jane Austen's Persuasion around then, if not who I picture when reading that book); Hinds spends much of his time ranting and shouting, so that Bertha looks saner than her hubby, and we get none of the other sides of Rochester's personality, making Jane's love look far more masochistic than in the novel;
4. Horribly edited, unlike '97's Emma, which knew where to cut and still keep continuity; to take just one example, we get only a glimpse of the Reed family and servants, so when Bessie shows up and Jane recognizes her, we don't, and then Jane's visit to her Aunt Reed as an adult happens completely offscreen, which has an effect on the St. John plot, as well as Jane being an heiress when she returns to Rochester;
5. Horribly written, not just with Brontë's words being tossed out but with what replaces them, especially Rochester's lines, like "This may sound silly but..." and "You'll never know a love as pure and fine as this," which made me roll with laughter;
6. Samantha Morton isn't bad as Jane but, although her screen persona (seen also as Harriet Smith in Emma and soon to be seen in Tom Jones as Sophia Western) isn't exactly Xena, she can't do self-effacing and this, with Hinds's unhinged performance, throws the "romance" further off balance;
7. The worst onscreen kissing I've ever seen (not counting kisses that are meant to be bad), with sometimes only one or two lips involved rather than four;
8. The scenery and sets and Gemma Jones's performance as a more-in-the-know than in the novel Mrs. Fairfax are fine, if less Gothic than the novel.  (The tree of the proposal scene, pictured above, never gets blasted by symbolic lightning.)

Of the three screenwriters Kay Mellor plays Mrs. Cooper, while Peter Wright gets the larger role of the nameless Clergyman, and Richard Hawley resisted appearing onscreen.  Richenda Carey, who was Lady Wickhammersley in Jeeves and Wooster, here is Lady Ingram.  Amusingly, Laura Harling, who's Young Jane, would be Young Sophia in Tom Jones, so I guess they thought she looked like Samantha Morton.

Emma

Emma
ITV
16 February 1997
Historical Comedy, Romance
DVD
B

Pride & Prejudice screenwriter Davies also penned this Austen adaptation, which is streamlined (just two hours) but satisfying.  It's well cast, particularly the two leads of Kate Beckinsale as Emma and Mark Strong as Mr. Knightley.  Beckinsale captures Emma in a way that Gwyneth Paltrow (in the big-screen release of a few months earlier) couldn't, from her snobbery to her whimsicality.  Strong is a plain-spoken gentleman, not as handsome as Jeremy Northam of course, but with his own more direct charm.  (When he tells Emma that she's made Harriet too tall in the portrait, this is the Knightley of the book.)  Certainly the Frank/Jane romance is treated better here than in the theatrical release.  My review of that version is available for comparison: http://reviewingeverymovieiown.blogspot.com/2015/04/emma.html, but note that I think both versions are inferior to Clueless:  http://reviewingeverymovieiown.blogspot.com/2015/03/clueless.html.  I would've liked to have seen some characters, such as Emma's sister Isabella, developed more, but there are no plot threads left hanging at least.  Things end not with a wedding but with a harvest festival, in recognition of the lower classes we see throughout the movie, a subtle visual comment that is not called attention to in the script.

Peter Howell was a Magistrate in Jeeves and Wooster and is Mr. Perry here.  Neville Phillips, who was a Member on J & W and Fossett the Footman in P & P, is Thomas here.  Lucy Robinson, who was Mrs. Hurst in P & P, plays another unlikable but more memorable character here, Mrs. Elton.  Nineteen-year-old Samantha Morton, who plays Miss Smith with sweetness and not too much dimness, would take on two very different roles later in the year: Jane Eyre and Sophia Western.