John Wyndham's most famous story gets another adaptation along with a contemporary make-over by the BBC this Christmas.
It's a two-part 3-hour effort. The first half introduces us to the plants in an extremely sketchy and unsatisfactory way. Their genesis is never made particularly clear. A number of slightly confusing and needless flashbacks add nothing of value to the story. In a way, the Triffids have an anonymous hint of 'Aliens' about them.
Then; as in the book, most everyone is blinded. Here it seems to be caused by a sudden stupendous solar-flare which lasts only a few minutes (and therefore could only have affected one side of the planet's population, whilst many people like shift-workers and so on would also have been spared). And this is only one in a number of gaping plot holes that Wyndham was smart enough to avoid, but not the BBC. Which is pretty inexcusable when you have the original story to work from. Also, as the initial flare developed over hours, it would have seriously interfered with satellite communication to such an extent that aeroplanes would likely have been grounded.
A lot of money got well spent on some extremely harrowing and comprehensive apocalypse scenes which are centred (inevitably) on London, but are still a refreshing change from New York and LA, as indeed are the British accents. The plants themselves are also modified into something more closely resembling terrestrial octopuses with super-human strength.
An odd choice of casting is that of stand-up comic Eddie Izzard - still sporting his trade-mark black leather trousers - as the villain of the piece. He sets a new standard in preposterous air-crash survival. Basically, he grabs everybody's inflatable survival tunics and shuts himself in the bog with them. Yes. You could almost imagine this as a joke in one of his surreal monologues. Other players are no more than competent.
Other disappointments are the complete abandonment of both Wyndham's excellent original character-driven dialogue which was frank and witty, and also his well-rounded analysis of human foibles and affairs. He was an extremely insightful man. And something else jettisoned is the lonely interlude of the hero walking through an eerily silent and deserted capital, so eloquently described in 'Groping London'.
The book was first released in the more urbane, and 'civilised' 1950's, so the kind of tolerance and compassion of that period is replaced by a vicious, homicidal self-centredness more in keeping with the third millennium and reminiscent of 'Grand Theft Auto'.
By the second part, the special effects and CGI budget must have been exhausted, and what we have left is a fairly hammy and predictable shoot-'em-up in which Leather Eddie gets his come-uppance.
If you haven't read Wydham's almost-timeless novel then this creature-feature may seem like an adequate piece of sci-fi hokum. But with such a story-maestro for inspiration, you hardly need to be a purist to feel a bit disappointed with the BBC's effort.
It's a two-part 3-hour effort. The first half introduces us to the plants in an extremely sketchy and unsatisfactory way. Their genesis is never made particularly clear. A number of slightly confusing and needless flashbacks add nothing of value to the story. In a way, the Triffids have an anonymous hint of 'Aliens' about them.
Then; as in the book, most everyone is blinded. Here it seems to be caused by a sudden stupendous solar-flare which lasts only a few minutes (and therefore could only have affected one side of the planet's population, whilst many people like shift-workers and so on would also have been spared). And this is only one in a number of gaping plot holes that Wyndham was smart enough to avoid, but not the BBC. Which is pretty inexcusable when you have the original story to work from. Also, as the initial flare developed over hours, it would have seriously interfered with satellite communication to such an extent that aeroplanes would likely have been grounded.
A lot of money got well spent on some extremely harrowing and comprehensive apocalypse scenes which are centred (inevitably) on London, but are still a refreshing change from New York and LA, as indeed are the British accents. The plants themselves are also modified into something more closely resembling terrestrial octopuses with super-human strength.
An odd choice of casting is that of stand-up comic Eddie Izzard - still sporting his trade-mark black leather trousers - as the villain of the piece. He sets a new standard in preposterous air-crash survival. Basically, he grabs everybody's inflatable survival tunics and shuts himself in the bog with them. Yes. You could almost imagine this as a joke in one of his surreal monologues. Other players are no more than competent.
Other disappointments are the complete abandonment of both Wyndham's excellent original character-driven dialogue which was frank and witty, and also his well-rounded analysis of human foibles and affairs. He was an extremely insightful man. And something else jettisoned is the lonely interlude of the hero walking through an eerily silent and deserted capital, so eloquently described in 'Groping London'.
The book was first released in the more urbane, and 'civilised' 1950's, so the kind of tolerance and compassion of that period is replaced by a vicious, homicidal self-centredness more in keeping with the third millennium and reminiscent of 'Grand Theft Auto'.
By the second part, the special effects and CGI budget must have been exhausted, and what we have left is a fairly hammy and predictable shoot-'em-up in which Leather Eddie gets his come-uppance.
If you haven't read Wydham's almost-timeless novel then this creature-feature may seem like an adequate piece of sci-fi hokum. But with such a story-maestro for inspiration, you hardly need to be a purist to feel a bit disappointed with the BBC's effort.