Desperate Romantics

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Rating 4


Written by Peter Bowker, based on the book ‘Desperate Romantics: The Private Lives of the Pre-Raphaelites’ by Franny Moyles

Directed by Paul Gay (episodes 1, 2 and 3), Diarmuid Lawrence (episodes 4, 5 and 6)

Starring Aidan Turner (Dante Gabriel Rossetti), Rafe Spall (William Holman Hunt), Samuel Barnett (John Everett Millais), Sam Crane (Fred Walters), Amy Manson (Elizabeth Siddal), Jennie Jacques (Annie Miller), Tom Hollander (John Ruskin), Zoë Tapper (Effie Ruskin / Effie Gray Millais), Dyfrig Morris (William Morris), Peter Sandys-Clarke (Edward Burne-Jones), Natalie Thomas (Jane Burden), Rebecca Davies (Fanny Cornforth), Poppy le Friar (Rose la Touche), Mark Heap (Charles Dickens), Ian Puleston-Davies (Mr Siddal), Polly Kemp (Mrs Siddal), Josie Farmiloe (Charlotte Siddal), Philip Davis (Frank Stone)


‘Desperate Romantics’ is a bawdy and exuberant six-part BBC television drama that tells the story of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, the art movement founded in London in 1848. Keeping its tongue firmly in its cheek much of the time, it plays rather like ‘Carry On Pre-Raphaelites’.

Concentrating on the movement’s three founders, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais, it is told through the eyes of a wholly fictional character, Fred Walters. All other main characters are based on real people (with the possible exception of Charlotte Siddal, who I do not know about and who, in any case, plays a small role here).

The series, written by Peter Bowker, whose previous work includes a brilliant updating of Geoffrey Chaucer’s ‘The Miller’s Tale’, plays fast and loose with the truth, but almost everything represented here is based on fact, even if the timelines are distorted for dramatic effect. One small example of this is the reference made to ‘A Child’s World’ (aka ‘Bubbles’), the painting by John Everett Millais that was first exhibited in 1886 and created some controversy during the artist’s lifetime because of its use in a long-running advertising campaign for Pear’s transparent soap. Despite the appearance of an early draft of this work in ‘Desperate Romantics’, the series actually ends some seventeen years earlier in 1869 when Dante Gabriel Rossetti had the body of his wife and muse Lizzie Siddal exhumed so that he could retrieve a small journal of poems he had placed in the coffin.

The six one hour episodes are tremendous fun and pass by quickly – the melancholy concluding episode ends on just the right note of irreverence. The cast is as near to perfect as it is possible to get and there are some fabulous performances. There has been some talk of a second season, which would certainly be possible by drawing on the lives of other later members and associates of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The possibility is enticing and the ending of the final episode does seem to suggest an open door for the future, but it would have a lot to live up to and I would not wish the energy and high spirits of these first six episodes to be dampened.

‘Desperate Romantics’ inspired me to revisit the work of Rossetti, Hunt and Millais and that is probably the biggest compliment I can give it.

Review posted 29 August 2009



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Whitechapel

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Rating 2½


Directed by S J Clarkson

Written by Ben Court and Caroline Ip

Starring Rupert Penry-Jones, Phil Davis, Steve Pemberton, Johnny Harris, Sam Stockman, George Rossi, Christopher Fulford, Alex Jennings, Sophie Stanton and Paul Hickey


Detective Inspector Joseph Chandler (Rupert Penry-Jones) is being fast-tracked by senior police officials. He is appointed by Commander Anderson (Alex Jennings) to head up what appears to be a straightforward murder enquiry in Whitechapel, his last step towards promotion to a senior ranking position. The fastidious and book educated Chandler immediately comes into conflict with cynical down-to-earth Detective Sergeant Ray Miles (Phil Davis) and his team of officers, not least because he insists on taking a hands-on approach and questions their methods and motivation.

Edward Buchan (Steve Pemberton), an eccentric “Ripperologist”, approaches the police, claiming the murder is a copy of that of Mary Ann Nichols, the first canonical victim of Jack the Ripper. He is dismissed out of hand by Miles, but taken seriously by Chandler, creating even more animosity between the two. However, when a second murder bears the hallmark of the Ripper’s second victim, Annie Chapman, it seems that they have a copycat killer on their hands.

Chandler begins to win the respect of his men, but comes into conflict with his superiors. They have no interest in the victims or the ongoing investigation; they simply want to avoid public scrutiny and bad press.

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‘Whitechapel’ was broadcast on ITV in three one-hour segments over a three week period. It gets off to a very ropey start, seeming to follow the path taken by the utterly appalling Lynda La Plante police drama ‘Above Suspicion’, which was broadcast by ITV during Christmas 2008. However, although it continues to be decidedly hackneyed in many respects, it does improve dramatically, particularly during the second and third episodes. Much of the credit must go to Rupert Penry-Jones and the excellent Phil Davis, who work very well together and make two decidedly clichéd characters more interesting than they have any right to be. Penry-Jones is certainly more successful here than he was in the disappointing BBC adaptation of ‘The 39 Steps’. Steve Pemberton, from ‘The League of Gentlemen’, is also watchable in the role of the slightly creepy Jack the Ripper expert.

There is probably not enough substance to the other police officers working the murder enquiry, meaning that they tend to blur into a single entity, and there is too much reliance on annoying visual trickery to try to create an atmosphere. Modern day Whitechapel bears little resemblance to the district that Jack the Ripper haunted back in 1888, but not enough is made of those little nooks and crannies that do remain from Victorian London.

It isn't brilliant, but it is a lot better than I feared it might turn out to be. The Jack the Ripper story is a well-worn path that no longer offers much in the way of surprise, but this is an interesting variation on the theme.

Review posted 17 February 2009



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