In 1979, Granada Television embarked on an epic adventure of their own. They decided to produce lavish dramas with no expense spared to sway the IBA to extend their franchise for a further 10 years. Brideshead Revisited was one drama to be produced at the time. Granada commissioned John Mortimer to adapt Evelyn Waugh's novel of the 1920's for the small screen. The resulting screenplay was a six hour series and filming commenced in 1979.
During filming, a technicians strike at ITV suspended all activity. At this stage, Granada felt that too much had been missed out of the book and asked Mortimer to rewrite his screenplay with filming starting from scratch after the strike had ended. The result is a laboured, overly long adaptation of a great piece of fiction. Mortimer adapted the book literally creating an episode per chapter. This amounted to over 13 hours of television in eleven episodes. It is said that it is quicker to read the book than watch the resulting series.
The series starts well. The early episodes showing the development of the friendship between Charles and Sebastian as they meet at Oxford and develop a close bond are well acted and portrayed. The issue of the level of love between the two characters is skilfully handled as like in the book, we never quite know how far their love extends. It is later that the drama becomes a lot more laboured. In later episodes Sebastian is exiled leaving Charles to develop his friendship with the rest of the Flyte family. At this stage, it would have been far better to condense a number of chapters into each episode. Instead we are subjected to laboured acting as the actors introduce large pauses into their lines probably in an attempt to spin out the length of each episode.
During filming, a technicians strike at ITV suspended all activity. At this stage, Granada felt that too much had been missed out of the book and asked Mortimer to rewrite his screenplay with filming starting from scratch after the strike had ended. The result is a laboured, overly long adaptation of a great piece of fiction. Mortimer adapted the book literally creating an episode per chapter. This amounted to over 13 hours of television in eleven episodes. It is said that it is quicker to read the book than watch the resulting series.
The series starts well. The early episodes showing the development of the friendship between Charles and Sebastian as they meet at Oxford and develop a close bond are well acted and portrayed. The issue of the level of love between the two characters is skilfully handled as like in the book, we never quite know how far their love extends. It is later that the drama becomes a lot more laboured. In later episodes Sebastian is exiled leaving Charles to develop his friendship with the rest of the Flyte family. At this stage, it would have been far better to condense a number of chapters into each episode. Instead we are subjected to laboured acting as the actors introduce large pauses into their lines probably in an attempt to spin out the length of each episode.