Literary people on film/ or TV dramas

[Raphael]

So we have had a film at last about dear Junkets. Who else would you like to see have made a film or TV drama (series) made about them who hasn't yet?

I would love to see:

John Clare ( TV drama series- his life was long and a film would be too long)
The Brontes (TV drama or film )

I would also like a drama series about Junkets as Bright Star whilst brilliant, looked at only 2 years of his life.

[Malia]

I've always wanted a good, long BBC "Masterpiece Theatre" (that's the TV show through which a lot of BBC mini-series come to us in the States) mini-series production of Keats's life--focusing on his development as a person and poet. It would probably bore the hell out of most viewers, but I figure if they spend some time on his days at Guys and connect Keats the "physician" with the development into the "physician poet" that might tie a lot of the threads of his life together in an interesting way.

Regarding other writers--hmm. . . recently, I've thought if a movie about a Romantic poet would ever get traction in the "Hollywood world" of movies, it would have to be about Byron. Talk about a "rock star" life--complete with sex, scandal, and intrigue. I think it would go over well with most people. Pretty titillating! And he is a really complex figure.

[Saturn]

Shelley needs a really good in depth TV series or film made about him. Wordsworth and Coleridge's friendship too perhaps, though Julien Temple's Pandaemonium [2000] was a good film it was not really historically accurate, more of an opium-fuelled dream of Coleridge and Wordsworth.

[Raphael]

I've always wanted a good, long BBC "Masterpiece Theatre" (that's the TV show through which a lot of BBC mini-series come to us in the States) mini-series production of Keats's life--focusing on his development as a person and poet. It would probably bore the hell out of most viewers, but I figure if they spend some time on his days at Guys and connect Keats the "physician" with the development into the "physician poet" that might tie a lot of the threads of his life together in an interesting way.

Do you mean a drama or a documentary? No, it wouldn't be boring- Junkets is fascinating...

Regarding other writers--hmm. . . recently, I've thought if a movie about a Romantic poet would ever get traction in the "Hollywood world" of movies, it would have to be about Byron. Talk about a "rock star" life--complete with sex, scandal, and intrigue. I think it would go over well with most people. Pretty titillating! And he is a really complex figure.

Yes- Byron would make a good film- but who to play him?

[Raphael]

Shelley needs a really good in depth TV series or film made about him. Wordsworth and Coleridge's friendship too perhaps, though Julien Temple's Pandaemonium [2000] was a good film it was not really historically accurate, more of an opium-fuelled dream of Coleridge and Wordsworth.

Yes- Shelley too! I think Ben Barnes to play him as he's tall, dark and a good actor.

[Raphael]

I would also like to see one on Robert Burns and William Blake.

[Saturn]

There was a BBC drama on Byron, in 2003 starring Johnny Lee Miller who was very well cast, he was a dead ringer. It's quite good, very much sticking to the legends and very little to do with the poetry but hey, it makes great entertainment.

[Malia]

Is there any way an American can get her hands on that BBC Byron drama, Saturn? What was the title--do you remember?

[Saturn]

The title was strangely...Byron

It's on DVD, here's a link:

http://www.amazon.com/Byron-Jonny-Lee-M ... 732&sr=1-2

[Malia]

That makes it easy!
Thanks for the info.

[Saturn]

I would urge people if they can to find a copy of Pandaemonium, I've never seen poetry visualized so well as in this film, here's a clip where Coleridge recites his poem Frost At Midnight:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4683SBQiN_4

Even better are the depictions of his masterpieces Kubla Khan and Rime Of The Ancient Mariner.

Sadly can't find a clip of those, but here's another clip from the film:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7eq_0cJXiI

It features John Hannah as Wordsworth, the always excellent Samantha Morton as Sara Colderidge, and Samuel West as their mutual friend and 'Lake' poet Robert Southey, and a very early pre Lord of The Rings appearance of ole Gollum hisself, Andy Serkis as John Thelwall the radical poet and political orator.

If you can find it, it's well worth watching.

[Raphael]

I think I might have seeen that when it was out- the first clip rings a bell. A criticism- although I like him as an actor John Hannah is miscast as Wordsworth- Scottish accent and he seems too merry- from reading the descriptions of Wordsworth I get the impression he was very serious and conservative- I doubt he would have been the type to drink jimsonweed! I don't think even Coleridge drank that- it's a very dangerous plant and the effects are far worse than what was shown- scary hallucinations then delirium from what I've read of it. Wasn't Coleridge was an opium addict though?

[Saturn]

Yes John Hannah's Worsdworth is not perfect by any means, it was strange casting, but Linus Roache is great as Coleridge [if a bit thin when playing the older Coleridge].

The scene of course is invented, but Wordsworth wasn't always the dour, conservative man he later become, it depicts the young Wordsworth and Coleridge when they were collaborating on The Lyrical Ballads, the intoxication [taken a bit too literally there] they felt in the other's genius. The more staid Wordsworth emerges later in the film.

I'm not saying it is a perfect film by any means, it takes many liberties with the facts and indulges in flights of fancy, some very bizarre as in the end, but depictions of the romantic poets on screen are few and far between and this is an imaginative, ambitious, if flawed attempt to portray that wondrous time of early English romanticism, when that poetry was a radical, revolutionary force for change, and new ways of thinking, and feeling and expressing oneself.

Oh and Coleridge did unfortunately become an opium addict, but not before he wrote some of the finest and most mystical poems of that or any era.

[Raphael]

Yes John Hannah's Worsdworth is not perfect by any means, it was strange casting, but Linus Roache is great as Coleridge [if a bit thin when playing the older Coleridge].

I thought John Hannah was great in Sliding Doors- he's good but miscast as Wordsworth. Linus Roache was great as Coleridge I agree.

The scene of course is invented, but Wordsworth wasn't always the dour, conservative man he later become, it depicts the young Wordsworth and Coleridge when they were collaborating on The Lyrical Ballads, the intoxication [taken a but too literally there] they felt in the other's genius. The more staid Wordsworth emerges later in the film.

I thought maybe that he got dour as he got older yes. John knew him when he was middle aged didn't he?

I'm not saying it is a perfect film by any means, it takes many liberties with the facts and indulges in flights of fancy, some very bizarre as in the end, but depictions of the romantic poets on screen are few and far between and this is an imaginative, ambitious, if flawed attempt to portray that wondrous time of early English romanticism, when that poetry was a radical, revolutionary force for change, and new ways of thinking, and feeling and expressing oneself.

Yes- the Romantic poets are rarely on screen so it's good to see them at all! I agree with you that this poetic movement was radical and a new form of expression. The Regency was a fascinating time. My mother and I were looking at a portrait of a lady singer from the 1790s in the gallery today and her muslin dress was so sheer you could see her legs through it. That was a big change from a few years before and indeed for centuries- not since the Classical and Celtic times had women been able to wear such free loose clothes.

[quote] and Coleridge did unfortunately become an opium addict, but not before he wrote some of the finest and most mystical poems of that or any era.[quote]

He knew Thomas de Quincey I read- I have the book by Quincey.