Les Miserables (BBC Miniseries)

Filming in the summer - Baz and Deadline have some info on it tonight, script by Jack Thorne - they have a Twitter page if you're interested in updates. Les Miserables is filming now, though there hasn't been much info on the rest of the cast. 

As pointed out on here that Victor Hugo likes to go round the houses, bungalows, semi detached and the condos for good measure. I am reading the books on and off and it is a slow read and that is I am familiar with the story obviously from the glorious musical. When this first opened at the Barbican many years ago, one of the accusations the reviewer’ levelled at it, was that it turned a mountain of a story into a molehill of a musical. So did the reviewers spend weeks reading the book before the press night as part of their research?

Do you hear the people sing? No. First images released from the Beeb.

So we have Fred West Dominic West as Jean Valjean.

It's Andrew Davies so I suspect we'll get a lot of that. There are a few clips in the BBC upcoming drama trailer too - a millisecond of Olivia Colman scowling, and her Mosquitoes nephew Joe Quinn keeping the red flag flying. I think it's due to be on in the 'War and Peace' slot from New Year.

There is clean and there is 'just stepped out of the salon' clean.  She certainly doesn't look early 19th century clean...

I didn't say she was filthy - just that she looks too clean.

I think it's very rare for directors to be faithful to the age they portray in their films. The only exception I can think of is Pasolini, whose characters in Decameron and Canterbury Tales are shown toothless, unwashed and haggard, as most people were likely to be in medieval times. Even films made about concentration camps are not very realistic about the abysmally appalling looks most people no doubt had in those unfortunate places. I suppose, on the other hand, that some artistic license must be allowed to accommodate contemporary tastes. It should be done carefully, though, to avoid dating a film too much (I can think of Julie Christie in Doctor Zhivago, who looked very sixties, and Sarah Miles, in Ryan’s Daughter who had a more natural, classical look).

I do hope they keep that scene in where Marius is seduced by the Romanian help on the moors above Paris.

Kinda disappointed, it looks too pretty.

At last, a trailer! And with an irl Paris tie-in to go with it.

Derek Jacobi in there too! 

I miss the songs. And the revolve.

And I just can't unsee Fred West whenever I look at Dominic West nowadays. Which is a bit of a problem.

Do we know the actual starting date for this?