I'm on a bit of a Wellsian roll at the moment (see previous post) but it's not necessarily a happy roll. This series produced for Sky Arts looked very promising, not least because the four adaptations of HGW stories are scripted by Graham Duff. Duff is a very good comedy scriptwriter - his radio series Nebulous, starring Mark Gatiss as a futuristic boffin, is well worth seeking out. Like Gatiss, Duff seems to want to branch out into 'straight' genre fiction. But oh dear, what a career stumble this series represent.
For a start, we have Ray Winstone as H.G. Wells.
Ray Winstone.
As H.G. Wells.
So there's that. It's about as sensible as casting Sean Bean as Jane Austen. But it's the choice of stories and the liberties taken with then that really left me frustrated. The episodes are 'The Late Mr Elvesham', 'The Devotee of Art', 'The Moth', and 'The Purple Pileus'.
The first is certainly the best, as Michael Gough gives a fine performance as the elderly genius who snares an unwitting young medical student into a bit of mind-swapping. It's nicely done, and the padding that Duff introduces to bulk out the story to a whole 22 minutes does not jar. The ending, however, goes against the spirit of the original story and seems rather clumsy.
Next up is a very obscure story that owes a lot to Poe's grotesque comedies. It's a bit forgettable, a tale of a devil's bargain that does not really surprise or entertain. 'The Moth' is a little better thanks to a fine central performance by Rupert Graves as the haunted entomologist. 'The Purple Pileus' is not a horror story at all, and Duff mangles the original text to try and make it one. Pity.
A missed opportunity? Certainly. Proof that Wells can't be successfully adapted for a modern TV audience? Not at all. I just hope that next time somebody with more respect for the source material is in charge, and chooses stronger stories. There are, after all, plenty of them.
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