BRIDESHEAD REVISITED REVISITED AND RECONSTITUTED

Rats. My all time favorite book is about to be desecrated. This from British entertainment columnist Melanie Reid. A snippet...

Oh dear. 'Tis true. We must all give a languid sigh, clutch our teddy bears closer to our hearts, and prepare to see fond memory debased. Poor old Brideshead Revisited is to be the next victim of Andrew Davies, the screenwriter currently charged with remixing classic works of literature for the Christina Aguilera generation. We cannot foretell what dire things await us, but few people will be taking bets against at least one explosive gay scene involving Aloysius the bear, Sebastian Flyte, and Charles Ryder.

Mr Davies is the man responsible for both Daniel Deronda and Doctor Zhivago, the two costume dramas presently vying for viewers on a Sunday night. We have barely recovered from his previous over-hyped offering, the dark Victorian-themed Tipping The Velvet, a bodice ripper with lesbian overtones.....

...Mr Davies is quoted as saying that he thinks the original ITV version "got the wrong emphasis". He went on: "I'm more interested in the religious side of the book, rather than the Oxford days . . . It essentially begs the question, 'Is God more important than love?' It's a Catholic novel."

He is, of course, correct. Sebastian Flyte's family are ancient aristocratic Roman Catholics, tortured and split and ultimately claimed by their faith. Waugh said his theme was "the operation of divine grace on a group of diverse but closely connected characters". But if anyone thinks that this new version of Brideshead, circa 2003, could get financial backing and then hope to be a box office success by merely exploring the question, "Is God more important than love?", then their heads are buttoned up the back. No, Davies has been hired to inject some, lots of, sex into Brideshead, and we must, as I say, quail for the scenes which Aloysius the bear will witness. Perhaps there are enough of us who remember the 1981 series to club together to buy him a blindfold...