Originally published by L.S. Media. January 13th 2012.
L.S. Media Rating ****
Cast: Matthew Rhys, Alun Armstrong, Ron Cook, Julia Mckenzie, Janet Dale, Rory Kinnear, Freddie Fox, Tamzin Merchant, Sacha Dhawan
How exactly do you finish of someone else’s work after they have died so that’s its deemed worthy enough for an audience’s appreciation? Beethoven, Schubert, and Charles Dickens have one thing in common and that is they died before they could finish a major piece of work.
In the case of Charles Dickens the work that remains speculative and oddly most adaptable is The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Following on from the latest and critically lauded adaptation of Great Expectations which was a hit for the B.B.C. over Christmas, the terrestrial television channel turned to the unfinished story to thrill Dickens huge fan base into 2012.
It is though a much underused book; rarely filmed in comparison to the author’s other works. Try comparing how many times Great Expectations or Oliver Twist have been filmed and then see how many times the final work of possibly the finest Victorian writer gets celluloid treatment, the results may surprise you. Just two silent era films before the end of World War One and then two after, one in 1935 starring the great Claude Rains and then again in 1993 with Robert Powell.
The task to bring the story to television fell to writer Gwyneth Hughes and Director Diarmuid Lawrence and it has to be said they did a marvellous job in imagining the ending in a highly original way whilst retaining as much as possible the suspense that had been built up by one of the masters of English Literature. No matter how good the writing and production of any television programme is, it can fall to immediate visual of the characters that can hold the audience attention or lose them within half an hour. This particular adaptation thankfully had the former! Headed by the excellent Matthew Rhys as the drug addled and envious choirmaster John Jasper, the programme had an array of stars that usually brighten up any screen they appear in.
Amongst this wonderful cast stood Ian McNeice, Rory Kinnear, Julia Mckenzie and a tremendous Sacha Dhawan in a role that he seemed to excel in as he portrayed an almost perfect mirror image of John Jasper’s jaundiced rage and depth of feeling for Rosa Bud.
In years to come and should other channels or film makers try to remake this in the time honoured fashion that television does then they may have a hard time in beating this particular version. Although the great author isn’t around to complain or celebrate this interpretation of his final and uncompleted work, it can only be hoped that he would have appreciated someone of the class of Gwyneth Hughes having the sensitivity and talent to attempt it and flourish in the result.
Ian D. Hall