The Shadow in the North - BBC adaptation

[Soapy]

I'm watching it right now. I'm not sure what I think of it at the moment. I think Billie's good as Sally, although she doesn't really look like her in my head. Frederick isn't really what I imagined, he's too manly or something. Doesn't seem to have much character. And Jimmy should be a runty little thing with smudged dirt on his cheek.

[Jez]

Ah, I was going to watch it but I didn't like the first one, so in the end I didn't bother. Was it good?

[Ian]

I rather enjoyed it on the whole... My mother wrote a blog about it for the Guardian here.

[Enitharmon]

I didn't see it. Was it as rude about my home town as the book was?

[green ink]

I quite enjoyed it. It made me want to read the book. The actor who played Bellman was very good, he really was very frightening. Billie Piper is also quite good, but I thought she was a bit underused in the first part.
There were some nice touches too, like a certain theater director named Stoker turning down a story about vampires.

[Wolf]

I haven't read the books but i really enjoyed the BBC version.
I wish i'd watched the first one now.

Having no preconcieved ideas about how the characters should look or act i found them all to be very watchable.
I need to go out and get hold of the books.

Wolf.

[Soapy]

In the end i didn't like it. When Fred was dying and hallucinating it made my brother laugh... that's not supposed to happen

[BenMech]

the Ruby in the Smoke film was better than I thought it would be. Looking forward to the US debut, whenever it appears

[jessia]

just finished watching it now. i enjoyed it but it wasn't as good an adaptation as the ruby in the smoke was. after the first 45 minutes it was kind of rushed as if it was trying to catch up with itself (plotwise, i guess it's a much longer story) so it could be finished in the next 45 minutes. and although i love these incarnations of fred and jim (cuuuuuuuute), i can see that they're kind of miscast, jim especially. since these adaptations are being made every year (wiki reports they'll adapt the tin princess too!), a jim in his mid-20s complicates the timeline in the sally lockhart trilogy-plus-one. ten years is supposed to pass between the ruby in the smoke and the tin princess and i feel like jim as he appears in the tiger in the well (year nine in the chronlogy) should look as he did last year.

still, i like him:



and fred:



can't wait for the tiger in the well and socialist sally!

[Aletheia Dolorosa]

Does anyone know if it's possible to get DVDs of these adaptations? They certainly won't screen in Australia, and although I must admit the thought of Billie Piper as Sally causes me physical pain (mainly because I'm old enough to remember her running around shouting inane stuff: 'Why do people always run around in crowds? Because we want to! Because we want to!'), I'm quite interested in seeing these adaptations.

[Ian]

Yes, you can get them on DVD, on Amazon for example.

I think my mother's going to be getting copies on DVD, so if you're just interested in the film then we could give you a copy if you like...

[jessia]

(you can also find them online.)

[Ian]

(you can also find them online.)

...if you can figure out how to torrent

[Aletheia Dolorosa]

That would be most excellent, although I'm not sure how I'd be able to manage the money-getting-to-you thing. Maybe I should just buy them online...

[Australis]

If any Aussie sraffies read this (and are interested, and don't know about it yet...) the ABC is apparently screening The Ruby in the Smoke next Sunday night (18th May), 8.30pm, ABC1 (what was channel 2).

[Ian]

Cheers for the tip off Australis. Stuck it up on the home page.