War and Peace BBC1

[Richard Tarleton]

I think the military men are generally better cast than most of the main characters

And as AA Gill said in yesterday's Sunday Times, "I love a bit of regalia, and 1805 was peak uniform"

[vinteuil]

And as AA Gill said in yesterday's Sunday Times, "I love a bit of regalia, and 1805 was peak uniform"

... ah yes : what was it that was said on 6 January, at #23 above... ?

... some tasty uniforms and some nice frocks.

.

[Nick Armstrong]

But the hats



Can't see you getting away with that dahn Shepherd's Bush Road, vindepays!



.

Thank you Historian and Richard T for the answers to my question

[eighthobstruction]

....it's a shame but few people use teacosys (sies) these days....

[Serial_Apologist]

....it's a shame but few people use teacosys (sies) these days....

That was before the revolution. It was cosy van tuttis afterwards.

[Richard Tarleton]

... ah yes : what was it that was said on 6 January, at #23 above... ?

So it was

An exception to the rule:
(the final moment of Sir Thomas Picton, played by Jack Hawkins)

[vinteuil]

An exception to the rule:
(the final moment of Sir Thomas Picton, played by Jack Hawkins)

... ah yes, Picton at Waterloo : accurate, too - I understand he arrived at the battle without his luggage, and fought in civilian clothes and a top hat.

I'm sure Bondarchuk's designers had Goya in mind when they chose The Hat -

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Goya_y_Lucientes,_Francisco_de_-_Self-Portrait_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

.

[Richard Tarleton]

I'm sure Bondarchuk's designers had Goya in mind when they chose The Hat -

Sometimes with added candles for painting at night...



Marvellously portrayed in Carlos Saura's film Goya en Burdeos

[vinteuil]

... well, have now watched two episodes.

They allow six episodes for this War and Peace ; there are twenty for Dickensian.

I just don't think you can do W & P at this level of compression. The characters are reduced to black-or-white caricatures - pantomime villains, stoic fathers, virtuous girls, naughty girls, byronic heros. Pierre is here just a pathetic lumpen buffoon, with none of the necessary intellectual complexity to make him interesting.

Jim Broadbent is of course watchable ; Stephen Rea seems to be walking thro' his part.

All a great pity. Nice photography, of course - and ace uniforms and frocks...

[jayne lee wilson]

A far better 2nd episode... with (apparently) less ground to cover, we could know more of Marya, Pierre and Andrei, warm to them and start to care what happened to them (a drama series has to do the latter, or it fails); Lise's death-in-childbirth was very moving - and lit with a subtle, painterly beauty. Yet it still felt very impressionistic - Scenes from..., rather than the whole story... we were with an apparently dying Andrei (well, I think it was Andrei...) on the battlefield, admiring the beauty of the sky.... suddenly, he arrived in a coach, and rushed to his dying wife's - and newborn son's - bedside. So we needed more narrative there, but the piece is at least starting to work as a TV drama, dialogue sharper too. I feel genuinely apprehensive about Pierre's duel, and wonder what consequences will come....!

It's clear now that Ep. 1 should have been at least a double-length, and that 6 episodes were never going to be enough. Were the producers (wrongly) modelling it on the success of Wolf Hall?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

They allow six episodes for this War and Peace ; there are twenty for Dickensian.

Well, Dickensian is in half-hour episodes, so the equivalent of ten. Nonetheless, your principle stands - as you say:

I just don't think you can do W & P at this level of compression.

[Petrushka]

A far better 2nd episode... with (apparently) less ground to cover, we could know more of Marya, Pierre and Andrei, warm to them and start to care what happened to them (a drama series has to do the latter, or it fails); Lise's death-in-childbirth was very moving - and lit with a subtle, painterly beauty. Yet it still felt very impressionistic - Scenes from..., rather than the whole story... we were with an apparently dying Andrei (well, I think it was Andrei...) on the battlefield, admiring the beauty of the sky.... suddenly, he arrived in a coach, and rushed to his dying wife's - and newborn son's - bedside. So we needed more narrative there, but the piece is at least starting to work as a TV drama, dialogue sharper too. I feel genuinely apprehensive about Pierre's duel, and wonder what consequences will come....!

It's clear now that Ep. 1 should have been at least a double-length, and that 6 episodes were never going to be enough. Were the producers (wrongly) modelling it on the success of Wolf Hall?

The 1972 BBC adaptation gave the viewer much more time to get to know the characters well and care about them. I agree that 6 episodes isn't going to be enough.

Apologies to Jim Broadbent fans but I think he is miscast as Prince Nikolai Bolkonsky. He needs to be altogether nastier and more eccentric than he is. Anthony Jacobs in 1972 might seem OTT to some but he seems to lift the character off the page to perfection. JB comes nowhere near this level and looks slightly lost.

Adrian Edmondson is woefully miscast as Count Rostov (Rupert Davies in 1972) and comes across as little more than a cipher. Again, more than 6 episodes might have given more time for him to develop but it already looks a lost cause.

[Petrushka]

Halfway through and with episode 3 this adaptation really got into its stride. It probably helped that I switched the subtitles on as previous episodes have been afflicted by 'actor's mumble'. For all the spectacular visual quality of the great battle scenes I have to say I prefer the more intimate moments and this central episode did not disappoint. I still don't care much for Jim Broadbent or Adrian Edmondson in their particular roles as they remain under-characterised but both Pierre and Andrei are really making there mark. Great stuff from Paul Dano and James Norton.

[pastoralguy]

Well, Greta Scacchi has still got it...

[mercia]

I've noticed that in all TV 'classic novel' adaptations military characters always wear their full dress uniform all the time even when 'off-duty', visiting friends and relations, going for a walk in the park etc., I was just wondering if this is historically accurate. In Dickensian Hawdon is always in uniform and I watched a TV Jane Austen the other day where the naval officers were all wandering about Bath in full uniform - I realise it helps us identify them but did they really have no other clothes? Perhaps a resident historian could enlighten me.