Oh dear, only a month and a half late.
001 Historical Drama – New
Many years ago, I read The
Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy, which I enjoyed, and I also really
like the Broadway musical of the same name.
However, it took the radio adaptation to remind me what great fun the
story is, though this new adaptation by Jonathan Holloway took pains to show
the serious side of it, too. James
Purefoy is excellent as the foppish Percy Blakeney achieved through a
larger-than-life loutish accent) and the Scarlet Pimpernel, a serious
do-gooder. The trouble is, Percy doesn’t
really know who he is, much less who the Pimpernel is. A chink in his armor shows through when Percy
falls in love with the surprisingly artless Marguerite St Just (Sienna
Guillory) who, just as breathlessly, falls in love with him. Their marriage sours, however, when, back in
England, Percy finds out that Marguerite denounced the St Cyr family and led to
their execution—something the Scarlet Pimpernel was trying to prevent. Will
Marguerite unknowingly betray her husband?
Will Percy learn to trust Marguerite again? Chauvelin, Marguerite’s former lover and the
righteous yet practical upholder of the French Republic, is after her and the
Pimpernel. While Chauvelin in the
musical and Martin Shaw in the A&E mini-series both had some charm, this
Chauvelin, played by Eric MacLennan, is cruel, without anything to recommend
him aside from his tragic devotion to Marguerite. He is less of a buffoon than in other
Pimpernel iterations and very dangerous.
The story is told from the POV of the foppish and not-too-bright Andrew
Ffoulkes (Enzo Cilenti), who without the aid of visuals comes off as a bit
silly, despite the fact he is probably as handsome as Kevin from Ghostbusters. This is a good storytelling device, as we
would have real difficulty knowing what was going on (well, most people would)
without his useful linking narration.
The music, by Sarah Llwellyn, is apparently there to bring the harder
edge as it’s contemporary and synthesized, and for the most part it
succeeds. League of the Scarlet Pimpernel?
Oh please do! It also starred Abby
Wain, Graeme Rose, Mike Rogers, and James Camp. It was directed and produced by
Jonathan Holloway and Sally Harrison.
Lud love me!
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