Gormenghast (TV serial)
 | This section possibly contains original research. (June 2008) |
Gormeghast is a four-episode television serial based on the Gormenghast series by Mervyn Peake. It was produced and broadcast by the BBC.
Cast
| Role | Actor |
|---|---|
| Steerpike | Jonathan Rhys Meyers |
| Lady Gertrude | Celia Imrie |
| Lord Groan | Ian Richardson |
| Lady Fuchsia | Neve McIntosh |
| Flay | Christopher Lee |
| Swelter | Richard Griffiths |
| Titus (12 years) | Cameron Powrie |
| Titus (17 years) | Andrew N. Robertson |
| Dr. Prunesquallor | John Sessions |
| Irma Prunesquallor | Fiona Shaw |
| Nannie Slagg | June Brown |
| Clarice Groan | Zoë Wanamaker |
| Cora Groan | Lynsey Baxter |
| Professor Bellgrove | Stephen Fry |
| Barquentine | Warren Mitchell |
| Doggit | Lewis Rose |
First broadcast shortly after Christmas in 2000, this BBC serial of the celebrated modernist fantasy by Mervyn Peake was designed for an early evening time-slot in much the same vein as the earlier adaptations of The Chronicles of Narnia. Although Peake, a talented and visionary artist, has left numerous drawings concerning his work, the creators preferred a new approach that injected a good deal more colour and humour into what is, on the page, a very dark and exhausted world; a place of shadows, dust, rust and nettles.
The BBC conception was based on the idea that Peake's early life in China had influenced the creation of Gormenghast; thus, the castle in the series resembles the Forbidden City of Peking as well as the Holy City of Lhasa in Tibet. This idea has basic validity, particularly as regards the 'bright carvings' of the wood-working outer dwellers, but purists might consider the entire production rather lighter than the books, which author Anthony Burgess regarded as a great classic of the Twentieth century and an allegory of the two World Wars. An atmosphere of fairy-tale, rather than Gothic expressionism, hangs over the whole production.
Some observers have noted that there is also a Science Fiction element to the mini-series. Gormenghast appears to exist as the last human settlement on an Earth which has been otherwise deserted by man. It may exist in the future. Society is stratified as in Peake's novel, and many Science Fictional dystopias imagine a world in the grip of an Oriental despotism, such as that found in Gormenghast. Strange human powers, stranger branchings are hallmark of both the story and of the best mainstream Science Fiction.