Sweeping drama for Poésy and Remayne
Move over Sherlock, I can hear Birdsong. After two decades of deliberation Sebastien Faulks’ fourth novel Birdsong is finally making it onto the screen.
A Working Title production starring Clémence Poésy (Harry Potter, Gossip Girl, In Bruges), Eddie Redmayne (My week with Marilyn) and Joseph Mawle (Made in Dagenham).
Birdsong, a story of love and war has been adapted by Bafta Award winning Abi Morgan who also penned Iron Lady, Shame and The Hour.
The two part television series moves between 1910 and 1916, revealing explicitly the extra marital love affair of Isabella Azaire (Clémence Poésy) and Stephen Wraysford (Redmayne) juxtaposed with scenes of Stephen Wraysford in brutal warfare on the western front six years later.
This series is not for the faint hearted or the prude, with gruesome scenes of exposed stomach linings and bloody intestines contrasting with passionate erotic sex. Make sure tissues are on hand, to block your eyes and wipe them throughout this intense drama.
Lieutenant Wraysford faces the Somme
Birdsong was originally going to be a feature film but Abi Morgan was relieved when it got commissioned into a two part series, “suddenly I wasn’t wrestling with whether it was a war film or a love story”. Morgan has had an incredibly productive year writing Shame, The Hour, The Iron Lady and Birdsong.
Despite her incredible success she has still kept her modesty admitting to acting out scenes in her bedroom as she wrote, calling herself ill-read and disclosing her regrets, “I’ve adapted books where I have made huge mistakes and I’ve kicked myself when I’ve watched them because I’ve strayed too far from the narrative”.
Faulks' passionate lovers brought to screen
Morgan revealed her secret to modifying books for the screen, “I put the book down and jot down everything that I remember” as with adaptation it is often not what you put in but what you leave out.
It is incredibly upsetting when having read a wonderful book it gets corrupted by the transfer to film, yet Morgan committed no such crime in her recreation of Birdsong and she confessed that she had “enjoyed watching it”. At the Bafta screening of Birdsong, Morgan declared “I love television, I love the intimacy of it”.
The beautiful Clémence Poésy was also at the screening, when asked what attracted her to the role of Isabella she responded “her mystery”, I would have replied her wardrobe.
Discussing Isabella’s relationship with Stephen, Poésy mumbled softly in her French/American/English accent “you can feel as if you know someone completely but it turns out you don’t know them at all”, Clemence drifted into a day dreaming trance and I couldn’t help but feel that she was in fact reflecting on her own personal life, who’s been breaking your heart Poésy?
Birdsong will be starting on BBC1 at 9pm on January 22nd taking over Sherlock’s slot. Birdsong has something for everyone war, gore, blood, sex, love, nudity and betrayal, it ticks all the boxes for Sunday night viewing.
It is worth watching if only for Isabella’s beautiful dresses and Clémence ’s tiny waist showing them off, yes I am jealous. I’ll be tuning in again, taking particular notice of the credits, I’m trying to find the dressmaker.
