Entertainment For Lively Minds
Miscast Actors
Having watched the first episode of 'Inspector Banks' on TV last week, I have a feeling/impression that Steven Tompkinson is mis-cast in the lead. He just doesn't echo the character that I imagine from the books. Would anyone else agree/disagree?
I know that we all have an impression of certain characters, but there are no doubt countless examples of miscasting in order to get a 'bankable' name for a film or TV series. (Nick Cage in Captain Corelli is an obvious case).
Slightly O/T - whilst away for the weekend, I had the misfortune to watch the film of 'The Other Boleyn Girl'. The female leads were not believable. The dialogue was poor. The sex scenes were perfunctory and cleaned up to meet Hollywood demands - Henry's lust was watered down and the last half hour concertinaed history, with only a passing reference to the battles with Rome, Dissolution and the main events of Henry's reign - ghastly!
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I suffered too ...
John Hannah as Rebus was as bad. Maybe it's something with crime novels .... Branagh ain't no Wallender ....
My biggest issue with Tompkinson is that he's too tall! Banks always looked a bit like Bob Hoskins in my head (with more hair and younger).
Also away for the weekend I was distracted from reading the Word by that damn film (I'd lost control of the remote).
On the radio
The adaptation of the Dirk Gently books by Dirk Maggs on Radio 4 would have been fine, if not for the inexplicable decision to cast Harry Enfield as Dirk. Normally I quite like Harry, but in this he was beyond awful and didn't sound anything like a Dirk to me. I'd always imagined him as an Enn Reitel sounding character. It threw the balance of the whole thing off for me. And given how much I love the Dirk Gently novels (especially the first), it's difficult to to express the disappointment I felt after hearing it. I stuck with it all the way hoping it would improve, to no avail.
The TV drama was lots better, even though I thought Stephen Mangan didn't quite have the air of Dirk for me. He was still a major improvement.