013 Adaptation – Old
It would have been surprising indeed if I had disliked a
dramatization of another Robert Westall novel, and indeed, I found this
adaptation of The Stones of Muncaster
Cathedral to be very well-made—and naturally, quite nastily scary. I think
it’s safe to say it’s set in the 1980s or early 1990s in the fictional
Muncaster, a northern town, where Joe Clarke (Peter Meakin) comes from a family
of steeplejacks, whose firm has been hired to tidy up the towers of Muncaster
Cathedral. There’s one tower in
particular with a sinister reputation.
The drama is framed very well in a non-chronological narrative, with
skeptical police sergeant Allardyce (Terry Molloy) interviewing Joe in the
middle of the mysterious events after a child has leapt to his death from the
sinister tower. Joe, Allardyce, and
historian Reverend Morris (the particularly excellent John Webb) eventually
team up to try to thwart the forces of evil.
The only thing I didn’t like in this story (and sad to say, it’s a
feature of Westall’s work) was the wholly secondary presence of the only female
character, Barbara Clarke (Sunny Ormonde), defined solely in her role as
hysterical wife and mother. The Stones of Muncaster Cathedral also
starred David Holt, Tim Black, Richard Mitchley, Gillian Goodman, Zita Sattar,
and Anthony Peddlar. It was directed by
Rosemary Watts and broadcast originally in 1996.
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