A truly miserable "Les Miserables"

After reading Ron Shipley's column in the Jersey Evening Post, I too have been comparing the recent series (Sunday's 21:00 BBC1) very favourably with the 2012 musical version. Victor Hugo holds a special place in the hear of Channel Islanders, as he spent his exile both here in Jersey and in Guernsey, where Les Mis was written.

The BBC version follows the book much more faithfully: the incident where Valjean bitterly takes 40 sons from the young Savoyard petit-Gervais isn't glossed over. Derek Jacobi has a stellar cameo as the Bishop and Thenardier is shown as being domestically violent towards his wife. The series paints an image of a truly miserable time, replete with assault, rape and murder: in one chilling scene Fontaine's front teeth are pulled out for the horrified viewing pleasure of viewers. This indecent assault on the senses is coupled with her descent into prostitution being shown in far more graphic detail than in it's twee musical version. It's more filthy, more sexual and more violent- in short, more faithful to Hugo's vision of a truly wretched time.

At the time of writing Valjean has yet to trudge through Parisian sewers with an injured Marius on his back but given that the series has pulled no punches so far, I doubt the Producers will worry over causing offence to squeamish
 viewers!


Nathan Jordan

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