Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: David Tennant, Ibrahim Koma, Leonie Benesch, Jason Watkins, Peter Sullivan, Leon Clingman, Anthony Flanagan, David Sherwood, Reza Diako, Jeff Rawle, Richard Wilson, Nicholas Ellenbogen, Lindsay Duncan, Victoria Smurfit, Dolly Wells, Gary Beadle, Charlie Hamblett, Patrick Kennedy, Faical Elkihel.
H G Wells and Jules Verne, two men for whom readers can bestow the title of the Godfather of Science Fiction, perhaps can arguably claim from the beyond that their work has not had the best of treatments when it comes to large screen or television adaptations. It is almost as if the text is too outlandish, too peculiar to capture the essence of their finest works, leaving the fan to console themselves with the imagination and the novels at their disposal.
Whereas Britain’s Wells has received rough treatment in his adaptions even in the 21t Century, and still to date the finest of any version is the George Pal directed The Time Machine from 1960, it seems as though the powers that be within the B.B.C., and in association with other television networks, found a way to bring Mr. Verne’s Around The World In 80 Days to life in such a way that it is not only enjoyable, but a revelation, a giant of modern television tales.
It is no exaggeration on how the eight-part series should be seen as influential, in fact it is a glorious piece of story-telling, colourful, modern without leaving its core historical placing, it brings the enormous cast together in a fluid, funny, fabulous way and makes stars out of two of its leading actors, Ibrahim Koma as the quick witted Passepartout and Leonie Benesch as the journalist Abigail ‘Fix’ Fortescue, and reaffirms, if it needed to, just how adaptable and precise David Tennant is as the epitome of English Victorian reserve as the would-be adventurer Phileas Fogg.
Around The World In 80 Days might upset the purist, to those that believe that an original form should not change shape, but as in almost every case, that reasoning is unsound, and in this sharply delivered quest and exploration of the human spirit, change, alteration, adaption, is a fantastic and delicious treat.
At its very core though the point of the story remains wonderfully intact, the desire to poke the English out of their narrow-minded viewpoint and experience the world as a visitor and not as a dominating force backed up by army and Government is a message, we should be insisting on all who see our tiny, often insular island as the whole world. It is to this that Around The World In 80 Days excels, gives hope that one day anyone of us can see the world in more of its infinite variety than just sitting on a chair and reading about it wonderous colour, its bounty of experience.
An adaption without equal, the imagination of Jules Verne lofted high.
Ian D. Hall