Having a trio means there can be no enjoyable "buddy movie" energy from the relationship between Fogg and Passepartout. Perhaps every 19th-century novel adaptation needs a plucky redhead parachuted into a lead role. The BBC’s 2019 remake of The War of the Worlds did something similar. Then again, if a story with two main characters is considered to be so lacking for a 21st century audience that it merits the invention of a third, why remake it at all? Why not devise something entirely new? Many viewers will be unfamiliar with the book or, come to that, the 1956 David Niven film. Women did exist in the 19th century and including one in the drama is an inoffensive way to update the story. She’s an aspiring journalist desperate to see her byline in the Daily Telegraph (of this ambition, I can only approve), and tags along with Fogg and Passepartout to report on their journey.įix is played by a German actress, Leonie Benesch, with a British accent that is pretty good. The second, much larger invention is the character of Abigail Fix. Passepartout was always the more charismatic character in Verne’s tale, and Koma holds the attention as an actor, but asking viewers to care about his family when we’ve only known him for five minutes is a stretch. This takes up quite a lot of episode one. His father died defending the Paris Commune, and his brother is now a freedom fighter. The first is to invent a backstory for Passepartout, who is played by the French-Malian actor Ibrahim Koma. Writers Ashley Pharaoh (Life on Mars) and Caleb Ranson (Young James Herriot) have staged two plot interventions. But he is also an actor with comedic talents, and so far they’re wasted here. Tennant is good at finding the vulnerabilities beneath Fogg’s repressed Englishman. It’s a wonderful conceit, meaning that no adaptation of it can be a total dud.ĭavid Tennant was a rather mournful Fogg when the show kicked off, although he’d undergone a pretty rapid transformation by the time he got to Italy, taking charge of a train and leading a daring rescue plan to save the life of a young boy. Each of the eight episodes will take them to different places across the globe. Fogg accepts a wager to complete the round-the-world journey, accompanied by his valet, in a race against time. The best thing about it is the plot structure, for which Verne must take all the credit. But the result is a drama that feels unsure of its identity. Purists might say that it is fitting, given that the original novel was a Frenchman’s view of the English. The corporation would argue that this is prudent financial management. It is a French/German/Italian co-production acquired by the BBC, rather than the BBC’s own work. So far, this one retains the hue of the Reform Club’s Brown Windsor soup. An adaptation of Jules Verne’s famous story should be a rollicking adventure, brimming with excitement and comic touches – especially when it’s billed as the family highlight of BBC One’s Christmas schedule. “I was hoping for a little more colour.” The words of Abigail Fix in Around the World in 80 Days (BBC One) after she asked Phileas Fogg why he believed he could circumnavigate the globe, and Fogg gave some dull reply about improvements to the speed of public transport.Ībigail, you speak for us all.
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