Post by sorkinfan on Sept 19, 2006 15:44:13 GMT
admin said:
I'll give the Cracker novels their due - to me they seem very much written from the original scripts, the extra scenes/dialogue in say 'Men Should Weep' or 'Brotherly Love' is very McGovern, and the scenes sit well in that I think if they then stuck them in the TV version they would work fine. With the exception of certain things like Mrs Malcolm dying at the end of MSW novel. I think, if I remember correctly in Fitz's house - when Floyd is there with Judith etc the same as the TV version. I remember reading that and thinking I can perhaps see why that was scrapped. It just seemed a bit too much what with the Beck/Penhaligon thing going on too, but there might have been another reason for it - who knows. (I can't believe this is something the author would have just randomly chose to chuck in there though). Well that's another thing - a lot of writers and directors consider the edit a 'final draft' stage. It a chance to take out things that unbalance your story, yet seemed to work on paper and on the set.
This is why I love DVD - it's where deleted scenes ought to be, and it's a great way to show the work without affecting the original, finished piece. People get to see what could have been.
And hey, I'm back ranting about the Cracker DVDs again. Good for me!
Still, as you say, the novels show some parts of the process we seem doomed never to see any other way. And the apparent rewrite of the Judith/Penhaligan "poetic justice" thing is fascinating.
admin said:
Someone we haven't really mentioned - Jimmy Beck!! He was probably my favourite character next to Fitz and Penhaligon. I hated what he did, but I still could never bring myself to fully hate him, and again that was down to McGovern's writing, and the fact I think deep he just wanted to be a good copper. I think this was also highlighted by his thing with Bilborough, I'm sure half of it was that Bilborough just represented everything he wanted to be. His envy of Fitz too. Sorely missed when he went out of the series, Lorcan Cranitch did an immense job.Agreed. It's a massive performance. And, as you say, McGovern's a genius for showing the world as more than black and white; that good and evil are abstracts, they can't exist. Because everyone thinks they're doing the best thing...even if that thing is diabolical. His bad guys are just damaged, as are the heroes; the difference seems to be in where they direct their pain. Some send it outwards - become killers, rapists - some pour it inwards, and are left with lives of frequent misery.
admin said:
I'm going to stop there now because, I just sound, quite frankly, obsessed!
Oh, and what? You think I sound perfectly balanced?!
admin said:
I've just found this interview with Nicola Shindler who was the script editor for the original series! Proof there was extra stuff we will probably never see:Good stuff!
I once attended an awards lunch at the Beeb and Nicola Schlindler AND Russell T. Davies (pre-Dctor Who) were there. She got a well-deserved award for her huge contribution to independent TV production. And I never got up the nerve to go over and say hello...and maybe bow and scrape a bit.
Nope, I stayed on our table, munching breadsticks, drinking the wine and chatting to someone who produced the Telletubbies.
Regrets - I've had a few...