The BBC’s forthcoming adaptation of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables won’t have any singing but stars Lily Collins and David Oyelowo have discussed the inevitable movie musical comparisons…
Stopping by The One Show to promote the series, Oyelowo was quick to address the obvious associations modern audiences have with Hugo’s novel. “As we all know, there’s been a very, very good filmic rendition of the film recently, so if we’re gonna do it we have to be bringing something new,” he said.
“What we think we’ve done is, for those who love the musical, they will see so much context and dimension that you can’t get in the musical because we have six hours of a brilliant adaptation of the book, the huge book.”
“For those who love the book, they’ll also see those characters come to life.”
Collins agreed, noting that within the first episode her character, Fantine, is given a lot more depth. “Her past, falling in love and having a child is put into a song lyric,” she said.
“The first episode you really get to see her meet who she thinks is the man of her dreams, fall in love, have a child and really understand why she was tricked, and not feel like she was foolish.
“You really are along with her on the journey and you feel just as bad when things go poorly for her.”
Presenter Alex Jones said that the new adaptation ‘spells it out’ a bit more than the musical and Oyelowo added, “that’s what you get with the book, obviously. And that’s what you get from this.”
Les Misérables airs on Sunday 30th December.
We’ll keep you updated on this series.