The 39 Steps (2008 film)
The 39 Steps | |
---|---|
John Buchan | |
Written by | Lizzie Mickery (screenplay) |
Directed by | James Hawes |
Starring | Rupert Penry-Jones Lydia Leonard David Haig Eddie Marsan Patrick Malahide |
Composer | Rob Lane |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Producer | Lynn Horsford |
Cinematography | James Aspinall |
Editor | Tania Reddin |
Running time | 86 minutes |
Production company | BBC |
Original release | |
Network | BBC One, BBC HD |
Release | 28 December 2008 |
The 39 Steps is a 2008 British television adventure thriller feature-length adaptation of the 1915 John Buchan novel The Thirty-Nine Steps produced by the BBC. It was written by Lizzie Mickery, directed by James Hawes, and filmed on location in Scotland, starring Rupert Penry-Jones, Lydia Leonard, David Haig, Eddie Marsan, and Patrick Malahide. Following three screen versions of the novel and the 1952 and 1977 television adaptations of The Three Hostages, Penry-Jones became the sixth actor to portray Hannay on screen. This adaptation is set on the eve of the First World War and sees mining engineer Richard Hannay caught up in an espionage conspiracy following the death of a British spy in his flat.[1]
The single drama was first shown on
Plot
The story starts on 28 June 1914; Richard Hannay, a mining engineer and an intelligence officer during the Second Boer War, is in London after his recent return from Africa, But finds England "cliquey", "class-bound" and "deathly, deathly dull". Evading German spies, a man named Scudder pushes into Hannay's flat and reveals himself to be a betrayed freelance British Secret Service Bureau agent, who has been on the trail of a German espionage ring with headquarters in Scotland. He has heard rumours of a plot to assassinate a high-ranking European royal, which could lead to war. Believing he will soon be killed, he hands Hannay a notebook to pass to Captain Kell of the Secret Service. While Hannay answers the door, Scudder is shot by one of the German spies who has entered the flat via a back door. The police arrive; Hannay is arrested for murder, but escapes.
Unable to contact Kell, Hannay goes through the notebook, finding it contains pages of code using
In the morning, they escape to Harry's house, where Victoria unsuccessfully attempts to contact Captain Kell. Hannay, alone, meets with Sir George, who sits on the government's
Together by the loch, Hannay and Victoria kiss before she is hit by a bullet fired by a surviving gunman, falls into the loch and disappears. The story concludes four months later, after the start of World War I, when Hannay, in an army officer's uniform, is waiting to meet someone at St Pancras railway station. Harry appears, saying that Victoria wanted to say goodbye, and Hannay sees her in the distance. Harry tells him, "top secret, old man." Victoria disappears behind a luggage trolley and Harry tells Hannay that she will see him after the war.
Cast
- Rupert Penry-Jones - Richard Hannay
- Lydia Leonard - Victoria Sinclair
- David Haig - Sir George Sinclair
- Patrick Malahide - Professor Fisher
- Patrick Kennedy - Harry Sinclair
- Eddie Marsan - Scudder
- Alex Jennings - Captain Kell
- Steven Elder - Vicar / Wakeham
- Werner Daehn - Ackerman
- Peter Stark - Engel
- Sean Kane - London police constable
- Del Synnott - London police constable
- Roger De Courcey - Ventriloquist
- David Gallacher - Professor's butler
- James Bryce - Concierge at Club
- Stewart Preston - Waiter at Club
Production
Development
Announced by the
Writing
At the time of the announcement, Horsford said: "With this adaptation we wanted to stay faithful to the spirit and period of the book, but asked the writer Lizzie to feel free to re-imagine it for a modern audience more familiar with
Casting
Penry-Jones read the book and saw the other versions of the film,[6] but said that Hitchcock's 1959 film North by Northwest was "more of a template for me than any version of The 39 Steps".[7] Explaining why he took on the part, he said to Tim Oglethorpe of the Daily Record:
Part of the appeal was the cars, I'm a bit of a buff ... And I said – jokingly, of course – that I wouldn't be in The 39 Steps unless the action included the famous chase scene in which Hannay is pursued by a biplane. I've always wanted to be chased by a plane like Cary Grant in the movie North by Northwest and I was just delighted when it happened in our version of Steps.[8]
Locations
Filming took place on location in Scotland.[2] Locations used included the area around West Register Street in Edinburgh for the London scenes at the start of the film, Bo'ness railway station,[9] Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum for the interior scenes of St Pancras railway station,[10] Glasgow City Chambers, Culross, Stirling Castle,[11] Dumbarton Castle,[12] the highlands of Argyll and Loch Katrine, used for the finale.[7][13]
Filming
The production was shot using
Film is absolutely right for this project. It has scale, big exterior locations and that's something that still challenges HD .... The HD cameras available to us on our budget are still vulnerable in difficult weather conditions [encountered during filming]. There's no doubt that what we've got on 35mm is just so much more detailed. It has so much more depth of field and richness than we could have got on HD.[7]
Historical inaccuracies
Some
I knew they were wanting to include car chases to make the drama much more exciting to watch. The only trouble was that the cars around this era weren't very fast.[14]
The biplane that chased Hannay was a 1916 Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5a,[8][15] and his apartment is shown as being in a 1920s-style Art Deco building.[16] Other minor mistakes included an anachronistic colour scheme for the British Railway carriages, and the appearance of a Philips 78 gramophone despite the company not being established until 1950.[16]
Ben Stephenson, Head of Drama Commissioning at the BBC, told The Daily Telegraph in reply to complaints about the inaccuracies, said:
The question is: for the seven million people who watched it, did it feel authentic, did it create a sense of period? ...We were creating a realistic world within a world – a world of damsels and heroes and a huge amount of excitement. That, for me, is the priority. Did it create that world? It absolutely did. That's not to say that we don't work increasingly hard to get everything right. But it's hard to get all the details right when it's a 21st century drama, never mind anything earlier.[16]
Broadcast
The adaptation was originally planned to be broadcast on BBC One on Boxing Day,[4] but was later moved to a Sunday night slot on 28 December. It was simulcast in high-definition on BBC HD.
Reception
Overnight viewing figures estimated that the programme was seen by 7.3 million viewers (28% audience share) on 28 December 2008, against a Top Gear: Vietnam Special on BBC Two. It was the most watched programme of the day.[17]
The adaptation received mostly negative reviews from the press, believing it did not match up to Hitchcock's 1935 film version (as predicted by Mickery). Sam Wollaston of The Guardian felt that the romance scene between Hannay and Victoria (when they stay overnight in an inn) was "one of the silliest ever" and felt that after the final scene at the loch and the concluding scene: "It's all very silly .... It doesn't have the pace, the moodiness or the wit."[18] Damien Love of Sunday Herald felt the "tepid pace" was set by the casting of Penry-Jones, and that he "has a style reminiscent of the young Roger Moore, but without the vital, animating spark of self-deprecation. As Hannay, Penry-Jones is not at his best, and more reminiscent of a well-stuffed armchair on wheels."[19] Mick Hume of The Times said "The overall effect was to turn Buchan's blood and thunder tale into a pallid politically correct Enid Blyton story",[20] and The Independent 's Robert Hanks concluded his review by saying that "By the end, my impression was that several pages of the plot must have been eaten by a dog, or a bored actor, and the director had decided, sod it, nobody's going to keep watching this long. Which I wouldn't have if I wasn't being paid."[21]
The adaptation did receive some positive comments however. In The Sunday Times, A. A. Gill praised Penry-Jones and said that it was "racily paced" and was "the closest to the original [the book] and by far and away the most convincing".[22] Roz Laws of the Sunday Mercury also commented on Penry-Jones, saying that he "proved to be just as good a spy in 1914 as he was in Spooks, only more dashing"[23] and Alison Graham of the Radio Times, in her 'pick of the day' piece, said that Penry-Jones is "just perfect as John Buchan's hero" and commented that Victoria (Leonard) was "a splendid suffragette".[24] Alasdair McKay of The Herald said "it was all rather spiffing and well-mannered".[25]
Home media
The adaptation was released on Region 2 DVD on 2 February 2009,[26] and Region 1 DVD on 2 March 2010.[27]
Sequels
Penry-Jones said prior to broadcast that, depending on the reception, "They'd like to do more if they can. I definitely would."[6]
References
- ^ Vagg, Stephen (25 March 2023). "A Brief History of Hitchcock Remakes". Filmink.
- ^ a b c "The 39 Steps". BBC Press Office. 21 August 2008. Retrieved 31 December 2008.
- ^ Millar, Peter (20 December 2008). "Rupert Penry-Jones plays it Bond-style in the BBC remake of The 39 Steps". The Times. London. Retrieved 31 December 2008.
- ^ a b Thorpe, Vanessa (30 November 2008). "Hitchcock's inventions disappear in BBC's latest version of The 39 Steps". The Observer. London. Retrieved 31 December 2008.
- ^ Davies, Serena (19 December 2008). "The 39 Steps: Rupert Penry-Jones". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 31 December 2008.
- ^ a b Wilkes, Neil (24 December 2008). "Rupert Penry-Jones (The 39 Steps)". Digital Spy. Retrieved 31 December 2008.
- ^ a b c Bell, Matthew (10 December 2008). "TX: The 39 Steps". Broadcast. Retrieved 31 December 2008.
- ^ a b Oglethorpe, Tim (27 December 2008). "Former Spooks star Rupert Penry-Jones returns to action in new version of 39 Steps". Daily Record. Archived from the original on 10 June 2011. Retrieved 18 September 2010.
- ^ "Capital doubles for London in adaptation of Buchan thriller". Edinburgh Evening News. 18 December 2008. Retrieved 1 January 2009.
- ^ "39 Steps storyboard 1". Derek Gray Art. Retrieved 15 February 2009. [dead link]
- ^ Smith, Aidan (14 December 2008). "Ahead of the fourth version of The 39 Steps, Aidan Smith hits the road in hot pursuit of its latest star Rupert Penry-Jones, who tells him why there's plenty of life left in John Buchan's classic thriller". Scotland on Sunday. Retrieved 1 January 2009.
- ^ Kemp, Tina (3 July 2009). "Dumbarton Castle restored by dedicated team of stonemasons". Lennox Herald. Retrieved 11 December 2009.
- ^ "Stars filmed at Loch Katrine for BBC Drama, The 39 Steps". Scottish Water. Archived from the original on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 31 December 2008.
- ^ Caven, Bill (26 December 2008). "Scots Enthusiasts Called in to Provide Old Motors For New TV Adaptation of Spy Novel The 39 Steps". Daily Record. Archived from the original on 29 December 2008. Retrieved 31 December 2008. Alt URL
- ISSN 0033-8060.
- ^ a b c Anita (9 January 2009). "BBC rates entertainment over accuracy". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 14 January 2009.
- ^ Sweney, Mark (29 December 2008). "TV ratings: Top Gear outpaced by The 39 Steps". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 31 December 2008.
- ^ Wollaston, Sam (29 December 2008). "The weekend's TV". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 December 2008.
- ^ Love, Damien (28 December 2008). "TV preview: When the only intrigue is why it exists, you know this is a 39 Steps too far". Sunday Herald. Archived from the original on 13 January 2009. Retrieved 1 January 2009.
- ^ Hume, Mick (29 December 2008). "The 39 Steps; Affinity; Caught in a Trap". The Times. Retrieved 31 December 2008.
- ^ Hanks, Robert (29 December 2008). "The Weekend's Television - The 39 Steps, Sun BBC1/Caught in a Trap, Boxing Day ITV1". The Independent. London. Retrieved 1 January 2009.
- ^ Gill, A. A. (4 January 2009). "Rupert Penry-Jones shines in The 39 Steps". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 4 January 2009.
- ^ Laws, Roz (2 January 2009). "Christmas TV on the BBC was a treat but New Year's Eve was awful". Sunday Mercury. Retrieved 4 January 2009.
- ISSN 0033-8060.
- ^ McKay, Alasdair (29 December 2008). "Tyrants can't beat this spiffing old gent". The Herald. Retrieved 4 January 2009.[permanent dead link]
- amazon.co.uk. Retrieved 17 January 2009.
- ^ "The 39 Steps (2008)". Amazon. 2 March 2010. Retrieved 18 September 2010.
External links
- The 39 Steps at BBC Online
- The 39 Steps at IMDb
- The 39 Steps at AllMovie