As it happened, I was in the midst of reading the novel just as the BBC started their TV adaptation of "A Suitable Boy", so we set it to record and left it at that. In the event, LC decided she wasn't interested, so I've watched it myself, finishing last night.
After what they had done to "War and Peace", "Les Miserables" and "The War of the Worlds", I was really nervous about this adaptation. As it happened, though, those fears were unwarranted - always nice when that happens.
"A Suitable Boy" is a very long, very detailed book. Cutting it down to six hours is a massive task. Fortunately, the structure of the novel seems to have supported that well - although the six episodes remain extremely dense, the major plot points have been covered well. The material excised has almost entirely taken the form of subplots that have just been dropped - there's an entire story about Pran's health and career that simply doesn't appear, for instance.
The cast of this adaptation are universally excellent, with those playing Maan and Firoz being particularly of note - the relationship between those two is key to almost the whole novel, and the actors portray that perfectly.
The only character that didn't feel quite right was Haresh - his performance was absolutely fine, and captured the essence of the character, but... the impression I got from the novel was that Haresh was a very plain man, distinguished only when he smiled. The actor here was perhaps rather too attractive for the role. (Then again, maybe it's a case of "TV ugly"?)
But that's a tiny, tiny nitpick. The adaptation was excellent, and I would highly recommend it.
#56: "Faeries", by Brian Froud and Alan Lee
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