Media studies

The media studies book of reference 2, first noticed at reference 1 in connection with 'King Lear' has now turned up and I have made a start. However, before getting stuck into Lear, I thought I ought to make a start by reviewing the Agatha Christie/Joan Hickson adaptation - 'The Body in the Library' - most recently noticed at reference 3.

From reference 2, I draw the thought that one should have regard to what an adaptation is trying to do. In this case the adaptor is probably trying to strike a compromise between various objectives. First, to create a television drama which works in its own right. To which end one might, perhaps, using enough material from the original to incur royalty charges, but not to be particularly concerned to stick to the text. Very much in the way that Shakespeare cherry picked (as it were) his sources for material which suited his purposes, his objectives. Second, to create a good quality costume drama, a popular genre for which there is steady demand and which sells well at home and overseas. Third, to create a television drama out of a much-loved story which will satisfy all the fans of that story and of the oeuvre in question. Such fans are going to want their adaptation to stick to the text, certainly to the spirit of the text. They are going to want all the bits which they regard as important to be left in. This probably does not allow the setting of the story to be changed in a significant way and requires all the principle roles to survive, preferably without changing their sex, age, colour or orientation.

Another thought being that films are all to apt to impose a simple, linear narrative on the viewer. Indeed, I do not much care for films which go in for a lot of flashbacks. While Grigg explains that some film directors, in particular Peter Brook in his adaptation of 'King Lear', go to some trouble to break this narrative flow, to force the ambiguities, obscurities and difficulties of life onto to the viewer.

A simple linear narrative which in this case needs to follow the suspicions of the detective as they track across and back across the various protagonists, bringing first one into view and then another, while carefully bringing important clues and truths into view at a proper pace, coming to a proper climax. Which also includes, in this adaptation, a number of flashbacks, as suggested by this or that interview.

The adaptation was successful. I have probably watched it at least half a dozen times over the past few years and it still works. I have probably read the story two or three times, with one of these times being over the past week.

Quite a lot of chunks of dialogue have been carried into the adaptation verbatim.

One change is that the adaptation appears to be set after the war, perhaps in the late forties or early fifties, while the book was written in 1942. It is not very clear when the story was set, although there is no reference to the second world war, so presumably some time beforehand. Hopes that the popular car, the Minoan 14, might help, were dashed by the seeming non existence of this car. Both Bing and Google lead us back to this very story. There is at least one horse and cart, but these probably survived into the 1950's, certainly in the country, so no help either. There is a reference to Basil Blake being an ARP, a service created in the mid 1930's. This is probably an anachronism, but not one that matters. We have a well made costume drama set in the years after the second world war. Long enough ago for the dress and manners of the participants to be quaint, amusing and interesting.

Another change is that Superintendent Harper has been dropped from the adaptation, a chap who plays an important role between Colonel Melchett and the hated Inspector Slack. Who adds a few nuances on the work of the police which get left out of the adaptation. And, inter alia, the chap who wants to interview the schoolgirls, the girls who know Pamela, so not an idea of Miss. Marple, as in the adaptation.

A nice twist in the story about the tennis coach is left out of the adaptation, perhaps to let this last end with Miss. Marple's final explanation to her friends, rather than with someone else. The twist being that the tennis coach manages to persuade Past Commissioner Clithering that he is from a county family fallen on hard times, neighbours as it  happens, rather than some Dago dance & gigolo type. But in the very last lines of the story, we learn that that is exactly what he is, after all.

A nice bit in the story where the village gossip has the body in the library quite naked in very short order is left out of the adaptation. Where one might have thought it would have added a bit of spice. Generally the sex in the story, such as it is, is toned down in the adaptation. Perhaps with a view to family and overseas viewing.

Quite a lot of small changes, presumably in the interests of the small screen.

The adaptation leaves out the fact that Pamela's front teeth come out, while Ruby's go in.

The pointy fire business with Miss. Marple's new maid in the adaptation has been invented.

The rustic natures of Constable Palk and his wife are rather pointed up in the adaptation.

The village special - that is to say a young man with special needs, but who is in employment - of whom we see a fair bit in the adaptation has been invented. We wondered whether someone in the production team had such a relative.

The beach walking scene in the adaptation has been invented.

Generally, the story is better than the adaptation on the nuances of behaviour between classes, say in the time before the 1960's. The time which Agatha Christie knew well. And she must have had plenty of personal experience of dealing with servants, just as getting them became progressively more difficult after the first world war.

One could go on. But these are all unimportant changes, which do not disturb the generally close reading of the story by the adaptation.

Reference 1: http://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/12/blessed-lear.html.

Reference 2: Screen Adaptations: Shakespeare's 'King Lear': A Close Study of the Relationship Between Text and Film Paperback - Yvonne Grigg - 2009.

Reference 3: http://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/12/sad-day.html.

Reference 4: http://detective.gumer.info/. Home to a pdf of the story. Curiously, what looks like a website in Russian. But having a searchable pdf is a big help in matters like the present.

Reference 5: http://detective.gumer.info/english.html. What appears to be a collection of books of or about crime fiction in pdf format. Which perhaps ought not to be there? For example, 'The Domesticity of Detectives' by G.K. Chesterton, which might well be an interesting (short) read.