Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
A reader should never judge a book by its cover, but it is possible to assess and value a book by the film or television show it has been adapted from.
Normally it is the other way round when it comes to the argument between how television and literature is consumed; the sense of “The film is not as the book” is always to be heard when comparisons are drawn between the two physical interpretations of the author’s imagination.
However, occasionally what can be brought to the screen outweighs what is able to be described in a book, a case of the budget of many perhaps overshadowing the insight of the one, and whilst it can be seen as an extension, a sense of magnitude prevailing, it also leads to a path where the visual can take on greater significance than the belief that writing, the ability to understand and enjoy written language holds the heart and soul in place.
Such a statement may sound bold to the reader who guards their love with care and patient handling, and yet whilst Joy Wilkinson’s adaptation of her own terrific Doctor Who episode, The Witchfinders, is an intriguing and revealing look on how gender perception and rooted sexism has been a part of western culture since recorded history, it somehow doesn’t quite have the same power, the same spellbound brilliance as what was portrayed on screen.
The Witchfinders is one of the outstanding highlights of Jodie Whittaker’s time at the helm of the Tardis, the first lady of Gallifrey, the mad woman in a blue box, taking on the misogyny of a King who believes in the superiority of both Divine Right and of man over a woman’s right of assertion and autonomy, and for that alone Joy Wilkinson deserves absolute and unrelenting praise, however, and with understanding, what was placed on screen does not quite have the same appeal with the novelisation published by Target.
The message at the heart of the episode is still there, but it is missing the sheer delivery of the performance, the devilry of the antagonist and her insistence of holding the witch trials, the culpability, the consequences of the King, and the facial expression framed superbly by Ms. Whittaker as her character realises, she may be the most important person in the room, but throughout history, it has been, absurdly, a man’s world.
A truly deserving story, a great piece of writing, overshadowed by what was placed on the screen, The Witchfinders may not be as enlightening or edifying as its television cousin, but it still carries with it the truth of how women were persecuted for being learned in 17th Century England, and how that persecution, via modern day examples of toxic male behaviour, fragile ego, and religious intolerance to the idea of women being able to hold men to account, still unbelievably continues.
Ian D. Hall