Coming soon to BBC Two, Parade’s End stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Rebecca Hall.
Adapted from a quartet of novels by Ford Madox Ford by Sir Tom Stoppard, Parade’s End is set during a formative period of British history – from the twilight years of the Edwardian era to the end of the First World War. At its centre is English aristocrat Christopher Tietjens (Cumberbatch), his beautiful but wilful wife Sylvia (Hall), and Valentine Wannop, a young suffragette, played by Logie-nominated actress Adelaide Clemens (Silent Hill: Revelation 3D, Generation Um, The Great Gatsby).
Here executive producer Damien Timmer introduces the epic five-part mini-series…
“The idea to adapt Parade’s End came years and years ago when I first read the novels. I thought they would make the most extraordinary television, and it struck me that although the novels are revered by critics and commentators, they aren’t particularly well known to a wide audience, which is such a shame. This is one of the great epic stories of modernist fiction and it struck me that if you were going attempting to adapt a masterpiece it would need a very special person to write the screenplay.
“I spent some time mulling this over and then in a moment of great bravery approached Tom Stoppard. Tom asked to read the books – a big commitment because they’re formidably long – and he loved them. And so he set off on his first adventure in television for decades.
“There’s so much to say about Tom’s adaptation; he’s managed to be incredibly faithful to the spirit of Ford Madox Ford’s writing and much of the detail comes from the source material, but he’s also been incredibly bold, for instance the second episode is, in many ways, Tom’s invention. I think our version remains faithful to the spirit of Ford but also really crackles with the unique cleverness and insight of Tom Stoppard.
“At the centre the centre of both Tom’s adaptation and the novels is this dance between these three wonderful characters – Christopher Tietjens, his wife Sylvia and Valentine Wannop; they are such important characters in 20th century fiction and Tom really does bring them to life magnificently.
“And the director, Susanna White, put so much time and dedication into finding out what this world was and then bringing it to life. She has extraordinary intelligence and stamina; and she needed both those things because this is a hugely ambitious piece of work. She manages to balance the pragmatic considerations of putting a big complex shoot together while always thinking first and foremost about the text. Susanna and Tom’s partnership has been one of the great strengths of this production.
“What Benedict Cumberbatch has managed to do is bring Christopher’s inner life to the forefront. He makes him utterly mesmerising, even when he just appears to be watching things unfold around him. He makes for a very interesting and unusual kind of hero.
“He has this very strong moral code, fierce intellect, and in lots of ways rejects the 20th century, exasperating the people around him; he has this huge brain but doesn’t want to engage with things that are happening and unfolding. He drives Sylvia to madness but somehow Benedict makes this incredibly accessible and really fascinating.”
Watch the trailer…
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