The format of four 2-hour films was, in many ways, unfortunate as it severely constrained the amount of the action which could be shown, however given the exigencies of modern TV scheduling it was probably the only way in which Dance was ever going to get televised. As a devotee of the books, I was apprehensive about how they would translate (sorry, be translated) into TV film. Just how do you condense 12 novels into 8 hours of television? However in my view the dramatisation worked extremely well, notwithstanding the necessary omissions.
What helped the whole production was some interesting, and at times inspired and doubtless extravagant, casting which included: Edward Fox (as Uncle Giles), Zoë Wanamaker (as Audrey Maclintick), John Gielgud (as St John Clarke), Alan Bennett (as Sillery), Miranda Richardson (as Pamela Flitton) ... some interesting choices!!
The idea of hanging the thread of the first part around Nick's affair with Jean was as surprisingly successful, as the opening with the nude Jean opening her front door to Nick was unexpected. The portrayal of the affair worked extremely well for me; it captured the subtle, understated, latent eroticism which comes through from the written page. Even if I didn't find the visualisation of Jean at the time of the affair totally convincing (almost but something for me just not quite) it was compensated for by the realisation. I think I expected that the affair would be portrayed as more erotic, more lascivious; but of course Jean (and probably Nick, too) probably wouldn't have acted that way, at that time and in those circumstances, so it was about right and produced that expectant, understated eroticism.
And that generally sums up how I felt about all four episodes. To describe it as anything short of very good would be nit-picking. (And I'm not one to be easily pleased by TV dramatisation.)
The casting in general I felt was good, and at times inspired! Widmerpool at school was well captured I felt; slightly less convincing in 20s, largely because I felt the voice wasn't quite right - too light/thin, I think. Quiggin and St John Clarke were masterly. Templer, Members and Stringham were also good. Alan Bennett as Sillery I didn't expect to work at all, but it did, just ... maybe the characterisation was a little weaker than I had pictured it, and I still think the hair style was wrong for that date, but overall Bennett pitched Sillery very well (even if it did remain Alan Bennett playing Alan Bennett!). My initial reaction when I saw the casting was that Bennett should have been cast as St John Clarke and Gielgud as Sillery. But on reflection I'm not sure that would have worked.
Jenkins was excellent; just right. And actually not a bad likeness to the young Powell either! Quiet, unassuming, with that curious mix of naiveté and observant but hesitant insight which Powell captures so well.
The realisation into small sketches and cameos, linked by some longer passages, worked well too - because that is much as the books are, and indeed as life is.
Deacon's death didn't convince me as a scene. And I wasn't quite convinced by Edward Fox as Uncle Giles either. He's too smooth, too urbane. I always picture Uncle Giles as just a bit less outwardly smooth; even less cultured. I won't say raffish, but just a little more down at heel. I think the other thing I felt was most lacking was the narration. I think I wanted more narration, much after the style of the books, as this could have allowed some of the extended passages, and the vignettes, to be better covered and even explained.
Part two was another delightful episode. Again I enjoyed the dramatisation, which continued to work well as a series of cameos with the odd longer scene; although I still think it is a pity that so much is, by force of the time available, being chopped out.
The opening flashback to Jenkins's childhood at the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, complete with General Conyers's motor and the appearance of the nude parlour maid again captured the book well.
Jenkins, Widmerpool & Quiggin were again excellent, and I enjoyed the characterisation of Jeavons - in some ways a sad character, but in others really quite a scream! Against the odds I thought Zoë Wanamaker was excellent as the shrewish Audrey Maclintick. It is just a shame that we lost a lot of the scenes in Foppa's and almost the whole of the Moreland/Maclintick scenes.
For me Donners and the Stourwater party didn't work - but then I find this weak in the books too. But overall, again an excellent & enjoyable episode.
I expected part three to be a disappointment, especially as The Military Philosophers is possibly the volume of Dance I enjoy most. But I was not to be disappointed; part three maintained the excellent enjoyment of the series. And enjoyment despite some of the interesting chunks having been cut (again): no Gwatkin, no trip round France with the Allied Commanders, and none of the delights of Blackhead, the Whitehall paper-pusher so hilariously described in the books.
We skated quickly through the first half of the war arriving very quickly at the point where Jenkins joins Allied Liaison in Whitehall, stopping on the way really only for a couple of final scenes with Stringham. The Whitehall era is, for me, much the most interesting part of the war trilogy, but I'm not sure the film made as much of it as it could have done.
The characterisation was just as good as before. Miranda Richardson got Pamela Flitton just about right - and that must be a very hard part to bring off. Widmerpool was being the pompous ass just as well as before, only now much more dangerously. Jenkins continuing to be naive. Stringham every bit the pathetic figure painted in the books.
In terms of the film certification it seems we've replaced the previous two episodes' nudity with blood-letting, what with Stringham, Templer, and the bombs on Café de Madrid and Lady Molly's. Will episode four bring back the nudity? Will the director include the Pamela Flitton nude scene(s)?
And so to that final episode ... This I found the least convincing of the four episodes, but then I find the last 3 books the weakest of the 12, and the last particularly weak. This weakness of the later books could just be down to Powell not being so in tune with the 1960s as with the '20s and '30s. After all he was almost 70 by the time he finished Hearing Secret Harmonies (volume 12), and his formative years were clearly the '20s/early-'30s and to some extent the War - as with many of his generation. However well one attunes to the different circumstances of different ages, as one gets older they are never quite as clear as the formative years. And after all the '60s were so very different from both the war years and the pre-war years.
I'm not sure the film got the '50s feel right; somehow there wasn't that vibrant feeling of standing on the edge of a great new age to the Bloomsbury 1950s socialist literary and intellectual scene. Somehow it came over as too dull - but then in general I guess the 1950s were dull and recovering from the war.
I've also always found the last 3 books somewhat disturbing, almost evil, which I can't quite reconcile with the rest of what I know of Powell and his work. The whole move of the last 3 books towards the occult I find disturbing - I'm not sure why, as in general I'm not anti-occult. Maybe it is just that Powell succeeds in painting evil figures too well. And that mood certainly came over in the film.
At this point John Standing took over as the older Jenkins; I didn't find him quite as convincing as Jenkins (tho' still good). But better to swap the actor than go in for more of the hammed-up make-up that some of the other characters got; only Widmerpool seems to have been done even passably well. Alan Bennett as Sillery definitely did not work this time. But again Miranda Richardson brought off (if you'll excuse the pun) Pamela Flitton superbly well; just the right level of the evil but enticing femme fatale, including a final nude scene (film directors predictable to the last!).
And so to consider the series as a whole ...
I greatly enjoyed the series, which was long overdue. It is just a shame that the whole of the 12 books had to be compressed into 4 films as so much of interest had to be left out: scarcely a mention of Prince Theodoric, Barnby, Baby Wentworth, Dicky Umfraville, Lady Anne Stepney, Gwatkin, Bagshaw or Dr Trelawney ... all of whom are hardly peripheral figures. And yet Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited (just one novel) can be (over-)expanded into 11 episodes!
I felt the 4 films did work well; they conveyed the sense of the books, and the sense of the whole of the books, and of life, being a series of cameos connected by the occasional longer scene. I'm glad that Channel 4 have finally had the courage to televise Dance. As I've said, my reservation is that I think I would have liked the films to be a little longer; maybe a 1 hour episode per book. But overall it was well done, the format worked well, and there was some almost inspired casting, tho' one or two errors as well. And the whole did stay fairly loyal to the books; no large scenes or dialogue obviously completely made up out of thin air.
Overall an interesting and enjoyable series. I just fear that having been done once that we'll never see Dance recreated in a different (better?) format and that Powell will remain relatively unknown in comparison with contemporaries like Evelyn Waugh ... which is in my view quite unjustifiable as Powell is a much better writer. I even wonder if Channel 4 will ever repeat show these 4 films? I have the feeling they won't and that they'll get consigned to the dusty archive. I do hope I'm wrong; they're well worth watching again.
