BBC Drama 'The Woman In White'

We have a new classic costume drama on BBC1 on Sunday evenings at the moment. It is 'The Woman In White,' by Wilkie Collins. It has been done several times before. What is unusual is the fact that it's on at this time of year, when we usually get these expensive productions in the run-up to Christmas, or at any rate, during the winter months, when it's dark outside and there's little else to do of an evening. Nothing better than a good old BBC costume drama, safe and somewhat predictable. I can remember there being some sort of costume piece on either of the BBC channels during the 1960's or 1970's, probably beginning with 'The Forsyte Saga,' probably the first big drama on BBC2 when it opened in 1967 or thereabouts. In those days we didn't have BBC2, so we had to wait for it to be rebroadcast on BBC1 to be able to see it. something like 26 episodes and in black and white, amazingly. Also, they did more costume dramas, which is probably where I got my interest in literature and drama in particular. I even waded through all of the John Galsworthy novels that made up the 'Forsyte Drama' and got a crush on Nyree Dawn-Porter who played one of the central female characters. Whatever happened to her? Where did her career go after that series? Also, Eric Porter who played her husband, Jolyon Forsyte. A nasty piece of work . . .  Eric Porter came to Colchester when I worked as an A.S.M. (my first actual, properly-paid stage management job, by the way, after I'd been a Student A.S.M. at the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham.) to 'cut the first turf' or something to do with the Mercury Theatre, which was about to be built. I wasn't at the ceremony, but it was quite a big occasion, as the rep company was then housed in a converted art gallery in Colchester High Street. (Read my earlier blog on this period of my life.) Quite a few 'repertory' companies began life in converted buildings, and then had proper theatres built. The other one I could mention was the Wolsey Theatre, in Ipswich, which began life in a converted hall in the centre of the town. (Again, I worked there as a D.S.M. in the early 1970's. Mentioned in an earlier blog post on here.)

Why do they insist on doing these adaptations to death? There's nothing wrong with this new production of 'The Woman In White.' But surely there are other Victorian novels they can adapt for television. There can't be many Dickens novels left for television to get it's ugly mitts on. You can't keep on redoing Oliver Twist or David Copperfield. Just become rather over-familiar. I suppose they do them because they wouldn't have to pay royalties as you would with a modern novel.

Some while ago I did attempt to read 'The Woman In White,' but it was so slow and ponderous I gave up. Probably it was because the original was published in serial form, in the same way Dickens published his novels. Too many cliff-hangers every so often. But this new adaptation doesn't allow for too many of those, as probably a  modern audience hasn't the patience to wait to find out what happens next. People seem to have no attention span to put up with long scenes. They had lots of 'flash backs' and 'flash forwards' and we had several subplots intertwined with the central storyline. Just isn't a particularly adventurous adaptation, but I will continue to watch further episodes. This novel is described as a 'psychological thriller.' I can't see it being anything like how you'd describe a thriller. Supposedly the original of such a genre, but I don't see it somehow.