Mark Aldridge

This is an interesting review of Poirot's history over the 100 years since he first appeared in print in The Mysterious Affair at Styles. It covers, in chronological order, all the print books, the various radio plays, stage plays, films and other media that have featured the detective over that time. There is even the continuation books by Sophie Hannah. It's comprehensive and uses letters and reviews to capture how the different items were viewed at release. It's interesting to see how the attitude towards adaptations has changed over time.
I sense a Poirot read coming on...… (plus d'informations)

Interesting scholarly work on the history of adaptations of Agatha Christie's works. Surprisingly, considering the topic, there are no illustrations. I would have expected visual references when comparing how different actors appeared as familiar characters. I'd love to see some of the non-English adaptations that have taken very different approaches to some of her most popular works. I now understand why I have such problems watching some of the British TV adaptations, as I very much disagree with some of their decisions on choosing when to set the stories, sometimes updating them to modern (or at least much later than they were written) times. Even worse for me is when they adapt a stand-alone story but re-write it include Marple or Poirot as the detective or change the motive or identity of the guilty party. It is academic reading, not something for a casual fan.… (plus d'informations)

Television writers in modern times are largely unfamiliar and anonymous, a line in the credit to most. Few would even be considered as promising suggestions for biographies, even if, like Paul Abbot and Jimmy McGovern, they’d likely be fascinating subjects. With the combination of critical acclaim (Queer as Folk, The Second Coming), popular success (Doctor Who) and flamboyant personality Russell T Davies is perhaps the only truly obvious candidate.

It’s largely a straightforward run through Davies’ life, from his early life in Swansea to the end of his time on Doctor Who. Like many other Who biographies the background details are run through as quickly as possible to get to his career history. Whilst Davies’ own input gives these sections some insight the lack of detail can be frustrating at times – for instance, there’s a reference to a dating incident in which Davies nearly died but which gets not so much as a brief detail (it led me to wonder if episode 6 of Cucumber contained some autobiography). But the book does shine when it moves to Davies’ career, demonstrating how luck, bravery and chutzpah are big factors in any writing career and examining the fine lines between success and failure. Davies’ self-analysis of his work is as intelligent and candid as you’d hope and expect after The Writer’s Tale. A good basic overview if you’re interested in Davies’ career but as it stands this shares the general faults of so many Who biographies in reducing potentially fascinating subjects to no more than career achievements.… (plus d'informations)