Leaving well alone

On Radio 4, normal programming has been replaced by constant trails for "brand new Cranford": this is a surprise to those of us who had assumed that the series' appeal lay at least in part in its being based on a book written in 1851 by an author who died in 1865 - that it was anything but brand new, in fact. But you live and learn. Coming soon to BBC1: brand new Bleak House - Bleaker Than Ever; brand new Middlemarch - At Home with the Ladislaws; and brand new King Lear: The Next Generation.

Comments

[Ms Baroque]

Robert, I'm hearing a rumour that the idea of that was that they took the Cranford characters and made a new storyline... pernicious stuff!

[Robert Hanks]

Yes yes, Ms Sarcasm, I know that's what they were doing. But Katy, it *is* pernicious: because the new stuff dilutes the book and the viewers' sense of the past, which is both dishonest and pointless; and at the same time, putting out this period nonsense blocks opportunities for writers (and actors, directors, costume designers...) trying to produce genuinely new things.

I could understand a commercial broadcaster wanting to turn a ratings-grabbing classic into a franchise; but the BBC, insulated by the licence fee from commercial imperatives, can afford to be a bit more discerning.

Admittedly, "Cranford" is a pretty minor classic, and its structure and tone lend themselves to soap treatment better than most novels, so perhaps I should have left it alone. But if it's enough of a success to start a trend, that would be a bloody awful thing.