A Touch of Class

By the time the final episode of ITV's lavish four-part miniseries Titanic came to be broadcast last night in many countries around the world to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the tragic sinking of the luxury liner, I dare say that the majority of us were feeling all Titaniced-out. Not only was the coverage of the centenary in all sectors of the media extensive to say the least ("As it's Titanic week, we check out this season's nautical fashions....." - oh dear!) but each episode of the drama, as written by Julian Fellowes, had brought us to that fateful Sunday evening when the ship collided with the iceberg only to revert to the beginning of the voyage the previous Wednesday but from the perspective of different characters at the start of the following episode. Many have claimed, including the show's distinguished producer Nigel Stafford-Clark, that this unconventional approach is the reason that viewers in the UK switched off in their millions from week to week. I think the flaw in the concept is more that nearly every one of those characters seems as obsessed with class conflict as the writer who brings them to life.

One of the most enduringly fascinating and mysterious events in recent human history is the Titanic disaster and yet episode one was almost entirely preoccupied with the fictional Lady Manton's disgust at having to sit at the same dining table as people whose money was earned and not inherited including the American silent movie star Dorothy Gibson. The great moral lesson Lady Manton had learned by the end of series was that if she could bring herself to apologise to the obliging Miss Gibson she wouldn't in fact burst into flames. Lady Manton's rebellious daughter was all about women's suffrage while her snooty lady's maid Watson was up to no good with her jewellery box, plot points which inevitably lead to suspicions that the Downton Abbey creator was merely phoning it in. Given that there was no shortage of colourful personalities on board the Titanic in actual fact, the questions remains why Fellowes chose to populate his script with so many fictional people. Many of us know that Molly Browne was unsinkable and that Charles Lightoller, flirting with Dorothy Gibson above, was the highest-ranking officer to survive but only true Titanoraks would know the fates of the likes of Harry Widener, Jack Thayer, Bessie Allison, Madame Aubart and the Countess of Rothes surely?!

All of the characters I listed above travel first class in the series. Fellowes's script is not all that interested in the working class and the hundreds of steerage passengers, whose chance to create a better life for themselves in the States away from poverty and deprivation was cruelly snatched away on that fateful night, are represented by the Maloney family from Belfast who are down-on-their-luck yet are personally acquainted with the ship's designer, Thomas Andrews. Meanwhile, Irish lawyer John Batley and his wife Muriel sit in second class squabbling endlessly about his employer, Lord Manton, as the stairs that lead to first class are guarded more heavily than the gates of Valhalla by working-class stewards who, as Fellowes is as keen as ever to tell us, were as protective of the class system as the lords and ladies of the aristocracy. By the third episode, the suffragette daughter, Mrs Maloney and a chirpy Cockney stewardess had all indulged in improbably fast-moving romances and by this stage, although never less than entertaining, Titanic was also becoming tiresome, insubstantial and faintly ridiculous.

It is a pity that the series lost half its audience by last night, in the UK anyhow, because the final episode was intensely gripping and immensely moving as the ship foundered and the desperate scramble to survive was played out. Many of the personal dramas were brought to a crisis but the main strength was in showing how human beings handle the sudden realisation of impending death with acts of extraordinary kindness, heartbreaking sacrifices and touching reconciliations. Two standout moments for me were when Mr Maloney cradled his terrified young daughter in his arms and lovingly bathed her in calm and reassurance and when Watson reads a revealing letter written to her by her male counterpart, the unassuming valet Barnes, and breaks down crying. The impeccable cast and production values ensured that the events of that evening were never undermined or exploited in a fantastic hour of television made all the more engaging by having gotten to know these characters over four weeks and all the more resonant given the date of broadcast. This incredibly sad story should never be forgotten and neither should the bravery shown on that night to remember.

Tolstoy on a String

Some intriguing details have recently emerged about the latest cinema outing for one of the most enduring tragic heroines of classic Russian literature, Anna Karenina. Directed by period drama aficionado Joe Wright based on Tom Stoppard's adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's novel, the film will feature Wright's frequent leading lady Keira Knightley, pictured above in the title role of the married socialite who embarks on a dangerous affair with a dashing young aristocrat in 1870s Moscow. Wright has claimed that his approach to Anna Karenina and his decision to embrace the theatricality of the piece has been heavily influenced by his upbringing surrounded by strings, sets and marionettes in the world-famous Little Angel Puppet Theatre, which is being run to this very day by his mother Lyndie in Islington, North London. It remains to be seen how this "influence" will eventually manifest itself when the film hits our screens in September.

Keira Knightley's previous performances for Wright as Pride and Prejudice's Elizabeth Bennett and Atonement's Cecilia Tallis have been the most acclaimed of her career thus far and Anna Karenina will mark her return to leading roles following stints treading the boards in London's West End and a spate of supporting roles in low-key movies. She will be joined by Jude Law playing against type as her cuckolded husband Alexei Karenin and young Aaron Johnson of Kick Ass and Nowhere Boy fame as her lover Count Vronsky. Bringing to life a whole host of countesses, princesses, army officers, civil servants and impoverished dreamers is an impressive supporting cast including Kelly Macdonald, Matthew Macfadyen, Olivia Williams, Emily Watson, Ruth Wilson, Alexandra Roach, Holliday Grainger, Eros Vlahos, Michelle Dockery, Domhnall Gleeson and Thomas Howes. Meanwhile, Howes's Downton Abbey alter ego, the late footman William, is soon to be joined in the great sprawling country estate in the sky. It was announced last week that season three of Downton will feature the death of a prominent character. With the war of independence all kicking off in Ireland, my money's on Branson.

Channel Shopping

Do you remember, dear reader, that I mentioned on this very blog quite a few months ago the commissioning of a companion piece to that hugely popular menace of diabetics everywhere, Lark Rise to Candleford? The Ladies' Paradise will be written by the same chap, one Bill Gallagher, and it will be set at the same time, the late nineteenth century. It transposes the action, however, to an industrial city where the residents are all agog about the imminent opening of a department store - whatever that is! Well, news has now reached this blogger that ITV, in the coincidence to end all coincidences, is also launching a period drama set in a department store. While The Ladies' Paradise is still at the pre-production stage, ITV's Mr Selfridge is scheduled to start filming this month and will, consequently, be the first of the two dramas to hit our television screens. Now what does that remind me of?!

One must grumble. Mr Selfridge, based on the book Shopping, Seduction and Mr Selfridge and telling the story of how flamboyant American entrepreneur Harry Sefridge came to open a lavish store on London's Oxford Street, does sound very promising. The drama is set in 1909, at a time when women were revelling in a new sense of freedom and modernity. Harry wanted to indulge, empower and celebrate these women and earn a few bob in the process - penchants for showgirls, gambling and living life very much in the fast lane do not come cheap, after all! The ten-part series is the brainchild of Andrew Davies, a man who needs no introduction to bona fide period drama enthusiasts, and will feature Emmy Award-winning Entourage star Jeremy Piven in the title role alongside Coronation Street star Katherine Kelly, currently delighting audiences on stage at London's National Theatre in She Stoops to Conquer (pictured above), as alluring socialite Lady Mae whose society connections prove invaluable to Harry as he embarks on building his empire. Mr Selfridge's philosophy was that shopping should be as seductive and pleasurable an experience as sex - a notion that will no doubt feature on the promotional material when the series begins in early 2013.

Brush Up Your Shakespeare

While the world and his wife celebrate the life and works of Charles Dickens for the year that's in it, another great wordsmith has been occupying the minds of many period dramatists of late and may be set to have a very prosperous 2012 indeed. As the centrepiece of London's Cultural Olympiad this summer, BBC Two has assembled a who's who of Shakespearian interpreters to bring to the small screen the great man's tetralogy of plays detailing the lives of three successive English kings. Hugely celebrated theatre directors Rupert Goold, Richard Eyre and Thea Sharrock will direct Ben Whishaw (regally pictured above), Jeremy Irons and Tom Hiddleston in the title roles of Richard II, Henry IV - Parts 1 and 2 and Prince Hal/Henry V respectively. The admirably ambitious project will feature an exhaustively Harry Potter-esque happy breed of familiar faces including David Suchet, John Hurt, Reece Shearsmith, Iain Glen, Alun Armstrong, Lindsay Duncan, David Morrisey, David Bradley, Niamh Cusack, Maxine Peake, Richard Griffiths, Paterson Joseph, Tom Hughes, Harry Haddon Paten, Tom Goodman-Hill, Michelle Dockery, Clemence Poesy and Patrick Stewart with Rory Kinnear, Julie Walters and Simon Russell Beale appearing as the iconic characters of Bolingbroke, Mistress Quickly and Falstaff.

Meanwhile, the oft-filmed tale of the star-crossed lovers who, let's just say never get around to shopping for the first home together in the greater Verona area, will be back on the big screen before the year is out. Adapted by another one of Maggie Smith's favourite writers, Julian Fellowes, Romeo and Juliet is currently being filmed on location in Italy by Italy's own Carlo Carlei. It will bring the timeless tragedy back to 16th century basics, more Zefferelli than Luhrmann and feature an exciting mixture of acclaimed acting veterans and acclaimed bright young things in the cast. Fresh from the Gargery forge, Great Expectations's Douglas Booth will star as Romeo alongside the Oscar-nominated American actress from True Grit, Hailee Steinfeld as Juliet with Gossip Girl's Ed Westwick as Tybalt, Let Me In's Kodi Smit-McPhee as Benvolio and Christian Cooke as Romeo's BFF Mercuitio. Lesley Manville will fuss as The Nurse, Paul Giamatti will garden as Friar Laurence, Damian Lewis and Natasha McElhone will be cold and distance as Juliet's parents and Stellan Skarsgard will try in vain to uphold the peace as The Prince. I welcome the project wholeheartedly although it will be difficult for folks from my generation to listen to the Queen Mab speech without expecting a flamboyant rendition of Young Hearts Run Free to follow in rapid succession.

Happy 200th Birthday Charlie!

"That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But, it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day." - Great Expectations, 1861.

In A League On Her Own

Samantha Barks is a young woman of great expectations. The above photograph is of a rather extraordinary night in the 21 year-old musical performer's life. Since she came third in the BBC's search for a young woman to play Nancy in a revival of Lionel Bart's Oliver! in 2008, Miss Barks has been seen consistently on stage in London most notably as downtrodden street urchin Eponine in concerts at the O2 arena to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Les Miserables. Last Tuesday, she was playing the role of Nancy in a U.K. tour of Oliver! in Manchester when legendary theatre impressario and the man behind the Les Mis phenomenon, Cameron Mackintosh, joined the company on stage to surprise the recently-resurrected tart with a heart with the news that she has been cast as Eponine in the much-anticipated big-screen adaptation of Les Miserables. Quite a coup!

Given the extreme star wattage to be found elsewhere in the cast, it was presumed that the coveted role (Eponine does sing On My Own, after all) would be awarded to a Hollywood starlet, the latest name in the frame being that of country superstar and wannabe actress Taylor Swift. This is a rather charming underdog story and Mackintosh, who is producing the movie, and the director Tom Hooper must be commended for opting for Samantha Barks who, despite being a relative unknown, has already proven herself in the role. She will now enter a revolution-torn love triangle with the man of the moment, Birdsong's Eddie Redmayne as Marius and Mamma Mia's Amanda Seyfried as Cosette, who will arrive in London in the coming weeks straight from filming the title role in a biopic of the notorious 1970s porn star Linda Lovelace. Eponine's neglectful parents, the odious Monsieur and Madame Thernadier, will be played by Sweeney Todd's Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter.

Meanwhile, the exciting international cast of Anne Hathaway as Fantine, Hugh Jackman as Valjean, Russell Crowe as Javert and Broadway and Gossip Girl star Aaron Tveit as Enjolras will be joined by the original stage Valjean and Eponine, Colm Wilkinson and Frances Ruffelle, in cameo roles as the kindly Bishop of Digne and "a fabulous whore" - respectively!

The MacLaine Game

Cynicism and period dramas are strange bedfellows and, consequently, I avoid the former as much as is humanly possible in my bloggings about the latter. My admiration for the likes of Downton Abbey and Upstairs Downstairs would surely crumble, dear reader, under the weight of a jaded, facetious approach to Sunday night viewing. The anachronistically impressive teeth alone would be the cause of much consternation. It happens occasionally, however, that one cannot help but feel somewhat dismayed by certain goings-on. It has been suggested in the British press that ITV deliberately announced the casting of Shirely MacLaine in Downton Abbey's third series on Monday evening to upstage the BBC's press launch for the second series of Upstairs Downstairs, a still from which is shown above, which took place that afternoon.

Sure enough, all entertainment outlets were the next day buzzing with the undeniably exciting news of the Oscar-winning UFO enthusiast's forthcoming appearance as Martha Levinson, Lady Cora's brash American mother while tales of Jean Marsh's determination to recover from a stroke and heart attack to return to housekeeping duties in 165 Eaton Place and of a lesbian storyline featuring newcomers Emilia Fox and Alex Kingston, both discussed at the press launch, were decidedly thin on the ground. It is a pretty poor showing from the Downton camp if such allegations are founded and it is difficult to understand why ITV chose to make such a headline-grabbing announcement on that day at that time of day if not to undermine Heidi Thomas's 1930s-set revival of the classic series, which has been foundering under the behemoth triumph of its Edwardian equivalent.

It seems to me that the dirty tactics are hardly necessary and that ITV and Team DA have served to undermine the constant protestations from series creator and writer Julian Fellowes that there is plenty of room for both shows to flourish and co-exist in perfect harmony. The right honourable Matthew Crawley would be appalled at the skulduggery. He really would!