Andrew Davies believes his version of ‘Les Misérables’ will do "the book justice".
The 80-year-old Welsh writer – who is most popular for his adaptation of ‘House of Cards’ in 1990 – doesn’t think anyone has created a successful remake of the 19th century novel by Victor Hugo, although he believes his six-part television series will be a true depiction and will "open people’s eyes".
Speaking about his latest project during a Q&A which followed a special BFI [British Film Institute] screening of his 1987 TV drama ‘Inappropriate Behaviour’ to mark his 80th birthday and more than 50 years writing, he said: "I don’t think anybody has done justice to the book yet before. Certainly the musical doesn’t, it is kind of a pathetic take on bits of the novel.
"But I think this will open people’s eyes to what is actually there. I think it has got an awfully lot of relevance at the moment. Be it people living on the streets there, and we’ve got the problem with migrants in terrible difficulty and there’s a sort of humanity about it all that shines through."
And the creative mastermind – who received the Outstanding Writing for a Mini-series Emmy award for ‘Little Dorrit’ – has admitted he has got a particular actor in mind to play the lead role as Jean Valjean, although he wants to keep the casting under wraps in case he is unable to secure the stars he intends to feature in the show.
He explained: "My Jean Valjean is quite a scary guy, the type of guy who came knocking on the door asking for something to eat you’d be scared stiff. I have got someone I’m thinking about but I can’t say in case we don’t get him. Then we could get someone else who would be wonderful so we can’t talk about casting right now. We’re in the gestation period, no ones in a hurry."
Meanwhile to celebrate Andrew’s birthday and half a century at the helm of the industry, a collection of his original works have been released on the BBC store website, which includes a number of his films from the 1970s and 1980s.
Andrew Davies: Originals Collection available https://store.bbc.com/collections/andrew-davies-originals
Andrew Davies: Adaptations collection https://store.bbc.com/collections/andrew-davies-adaptation.
Andrew Davies: ‘My version of Les Misérables will do book justice’
