TV review

Published Friday 30 March 2007 at 17:00 by Harry Venning

Sex, sword fights, stabbings, nudity and bondage. Now that’s what I call a Jane Austen adaptation.

Andrew Davies’ script may have taken a few liberties with Northanger Abbey, including some racy fantasies and the occasional sexy dream sequence, but it was all within the spirit of the story. A bit like Davies, heroine Catherine Moreland has an overactive imagination, only hers is fuelled by the gothic romance novels to which she is addicted. Subsequently, young Catherine sees mystery and intrigue everywhere except, of course, where it actually exists.

Austen’s intention was to parody the gothic romance genre, but the element of melodrama made Northanger Abbey eminently suited to a robust TV adaptation. Creepy castles, eerie lighting, thunderstorms, crumbling manuscripts and shadowy figures abounded, along with all the usual balls.

And parties. Felicity Jones played heroine Catherine, with JJ Field providing the love interest as Henry, second son of the tyrannical General Tilney. While not exactly feisty, Jones invested dippy Catherine with sufficient spirit and resourcefulness to make her an agreeable heroine. Field’s performance, however, seemed to consist almost entirely of wry smirks, which began to seriously grate after a couple of hours.

Neither leads were anywhere near as interesting or fun as Catherine’s shallow, selfish and sexy ‘best friend’ Isabella (Carey Mulligan). A prototype party girl, complete with heaving cleavage and loose morals, Isabella set her sights on Henry’s dashing, handsome but unscrupulous elder brother, inevitably coming a cropper. “Are we engaged?” came poor Isabella’s cry from the bedroom, as her soldier beau buttoned up his uniform and prepared to return to his regiment. When her literary canon is finally exhausted there is a great TV series to be made, speculating on the fate of those fallen but fascinating anti-heroines who populate Austen’s supporting casts.

So, another triumph for Andrew Davies. Truly, nobody does it better. Although I strongly feel that any future Austen adaptations should be forbidden from resorting to that tired and tedious convention, where characters exchange dialogue between twirling, weaving, advancing and retiring on the dancefloor. Not only has it been done to death, but it is plainly daft. None of the other dancers are allowed to talk because the noise would become impenetrable, and the dialogue would be reduced to “What?”, “Come again?” and “Sorry, I missed that”. Like a proper dance, in fact.

Rush Hour is the latest model to come off the BBC3 sketch show production line, and it is pretty much indistinguishable from all the others. That is to say, the material is consistently good, but rarely inspired.

In its favour, Rush Hour’s talented cast features the brilliant Miranda Hart as a lollipop lady who hates children. I am prepared to forgive her anything, even Comic Relief Does Fame Academy. Rush Hour also had one of the best trailers ever, with a camera creeping down a road, silently revealing the show’s stock characters in nightmarish vignettes. Sadly, someone at BBC3 must have considered this approach too oblique for the station’s 13-18 demographic, and later imposed a narration over the top.

DETAILS

Northanger Abbey - ITV1, Sunday March 25, 9pm

Rush Hour - BBC3, Monday March 26, 10.30pm