Assembling a mighty cast and cleverly snipping out all the boring arable bits, the BBC’s War And Peace was an impressive adaptation of a defiantly epic tome. Giddy on that success, the corporation is doubling down on classic fiction, turning next to Les Misérables. A six-part, non-musical TV miniseries is underway.
With Harvey Weinstein producing and the BBC reassembling its War And Peace team, expect a big-budget revisiting of the story with a particular focus on Valjean and Javert’s cat-and-mouse relationship, and extras. Lots and lots of extras.
"I am thrilled to have the opportunity of doing real justice to Victor Hugo at last,” says the man adapting it, Andrew Davies. “Most of us are familiar with the musical version which only offers a fragmentary outline of its story.”
The War And Peace screenwriter is determined to do justice to the novel in an entirely unmusical format. Anyone still recovering from Russell Crowe’s caterwauling in the 2012 movie will be revealed to hear that there are no songs planned.
This new Les Misérables is scheduled to dream its dream on BBC One in 2018.