War and Peace

Tegan I always remember Jim Broadbent when he was still in the National Theatre of Brent and they did the French Revolution. He played Marie Antoinette and I remember being amazed to find myself crying over a character played by someone I'd always thought of as a comedy actor.

I loved everything about it, the costumes, scenery, settings, script, cast, the lot! I do agree though that it's going to be difficult condensing the story into just six episodes.
I too have read the book a long time ago, though skipping some of the battles. Tolstoy is sometimes just a bit too descriptive. Also remember the 1972 TV version which was wonderful but a little "grey" in my opinion. This new version explodes with colour. Well done BBC.
As an afterthought I agree that watching it more than once is an excellent idea and would definitely fix the characters in the mind. The book has over 200 characters though so we're getting off lightly here!

Something I've noticed about these grand historical dramas is that the "lower orders" are rarely featured. It annoys me, and suggests that the only people who mattered were those who had money. This seems to be particularly true of Jane Austen adaptations, where you rarely see anyone except the aristocracy and the gentry featured. Same with W and P (so far, anyway). Yet outside the palaces the real world must have been absolutely heaving with peasants.

The lower orders don't feature much in the source material, so it would be a little odd if they were introduced to suit modern sensibilities. Austen's readers would not have paid to read about servants. I think Tolstoy developed an enlightened attitude towards his serfs, but they would not have been expected to feature in a novel set in the early 1800s.

There was a novel about the Bennet servants a couple of years ago that was well received: Longbourn, by Jo Baker.

That's because the poor didn't matter,as we still don't,Russia especially,look how the tsar lived.the people lived off the scraps.
I don't necessarily agree with the way things were,but I think it's vital the makers of true life dramas stick to the facts,and not alter them for PC reasons.As they DO.grrrrrr!

My copy of W&P has just arrived from Amazon - nearly 1000 pages

I'd rather see average-looking people who can act well and bring some character and personality to their roles
I've forgotten his name too, although if he is the actor I think you mean, gettingonabit, I think he is very good - he played the psychopathic killer in Happy Valley (very scary) and the nice but bumbling detective vicar in something on ITV - was it Grantchester? Perhaps his role will develop as the series goes on.

Must look out for Hinterland!

He's called James Norton. I rather liked him as the naughty bumbling vicar ?

lona yes, it was Grantchester!! Thanks.

I suppose you're right about the lower orders. No, they don't feature in the text, so why should they feature in an adaptation? For me (and it seems to be just me) I'd rather be provided with a realistic representation of life as it was (as I think it would have made things more interesting).

For me, watching a never-ending parade of extremely glamorous people prancing about in picturesque surroundings is just a bit.....meh.

Got a bit carried away with "for me" there (I blame the cooking sherry)

James Norton
Yes, it was such a relief to see him as the rather sweet but naughty bumbling vicar after the truly scary psychopathic killer he played on BBC.

I read today that when James Norton was playing the psychopath in Happy Valley he disguised himself as a student and came out of a charity shop carrying a copy of 'War and Peace' under his arm.
Did he know then that he had a part in it I wonder?

To gettingonabit. Dickens is full of the poor and the lower orders and Dickensian showing on TV now is a mish mash of all his books.

hannah I agree -Dickens seems to be the exception. I haven't been able to watch Dickensian, alas.

I just can't get into rich people prancing about in gorgeous palaces and looking glamorous, whilst knowing that outside the palace gates, peasants scratch a living in a feudal system that hasn't changed since mediaeval times.

I'm overthinking this, aren't i.

I had a phase of reading Russian novels and short stories, and Tolstoy wasn't a favourite, too dreamy and rambling for me.
Maxim Gorky wrote about peasants, you can get his books in english. And Chekov's short stories are wonderful, they cover most classes of Russian society.
Gogol was another favourite, but weird. and of course Dostoevsky. Our local library had all these at the time.

I'm loving it. Don't really have a clue what's going on, but it's much better than the radio version. I feel so sorry for the poor little Count (or whatever he is) who got the bum's rush into marriage, and now she's totally leading him up the garden path. I really hope the scriptwriters author (!) has a cunnng plan whereby he can win the dual.

Greyduster The point of Pierre Bezukhov is that he is an awkward bumbling person, there are people like that about.

This story is not about the serfs, but I agree with others in those time in almost any literature, the very poor, serfs still in Russia, had very little importance. The whole situation of the decadence of Russia in the 18/19th century was what led to the stirrings of revolution.

When this novel was written it was written for the intelligencia.
The majority of the poor almost certainly could not read, as in Britain in those days.
The book was written in 1869, you have to judge it by its time.

It does not matter if you like or dislike certain characters in any books or films. If you made every character wonderfully brave and handsome it would be unrealistic.
It seems to me that there are very few American movies which actually show the trials and difficulties of the urban poor of the USA.
That would spoil the glossy impressions of what the USA is like so loved by Hollywood.
At least in Britain in the 1960s there were a lot of films about working class reality with no glitter at all.

Weren't Andrei and Pierre meant to be the two sides of the authors personality? Watched the second part of the Lucy Worsley programme about the Romanovs which gave a lot of background information to the war and how it affected both the rich and the poorer classes and led, eventually, to the revolution.

I'm perfectly well aware that he is supposed to be an awkward bumbling person, but i just take exception to them casting someone who makes him look like a myopic thirteen year old. I stick by my assertion that it is poor casting.

Oh when was that on Tegan ? I really like Lucy Worsley . Also what channel please?

I am watching W&P as I love historical dramas. I have never read the book though so its all very new to me.

I think it's BBC4; I channel hop a lot so I get mixed up .

I'm loving W&P but I do see that the wome seem to be rather underdressed for a Russian winter. I found the main problem in the book was remembering which character is which as they all seem to have numerous names

I've seen an ad for Hinterland so hopefully it will apprear on non-Welsh BBC soon, sounds like it may take over from Young Montalbano

I don't think he looked like a myopic thirteen year old. Or Harry Potter. I think the character will unfold. He most likely has hidden depths.

I am not watching in any kind of academic way. Just enjoying it.

And I am very glad Jessie Buckley is in it. She is doing rather well. smile]