There have been many adaptations of Verne’s book - among the most memorable features David Niven as Fogg and the well-known Mexican comedian Catinflas as his valet. The wonder of it all is that the fallible but intrepid hero, Phileas Fogg (Tennant), accepts a 20,000-pound bet to circumnavigate the globe in 80 days – and well beyond the comfort zone of his exclusive white-men-only London Reform Club. It’s a paean to the unquenchable human spirit behind the Industrial Revolution and the ways that steamships and railroad travel shrunk the world well before the internet.
#AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS DAVID TENNANT SERIES#
2 on PBS’ “Masterpiece.”īased on the 1872 Jules Verne adventure novel about an English gentleman explorer during Queen Victoria’s reign, the eight-episode series clips along, mortal danger at every turn. Who,” “Broadchurch”) as the white male colonialist piñata at the center of the revisionist adaptation of “Around the World in 80 Days,” debuting Sunday, Jan. I may be among the few viewers who actually feels sorry for David Tennant (“Dr. The route around the world is also tweaked, with a first stop in France serving as opportunity to explore Passepartout’s past.I apologize. Both Fix and Passepartout enjoy fleshed out backstories, giving the story a broader, fuller feel, and take to their respective roles with plenty of vigour and spark. The two characters differ from their literary origins, with valet Passepartout now a haunted French revolutionary and Fix a determined young journalist and daughter of Jason Watkins’s kindly, remarkably progressive Daily Telegraph editor (in the book, Fix is a male Scotland Yard detective who secretly believes Fogg to be a notorious bank robber - here the villain of the piece appears to be Fogg’s fellow Reform Club member Nyle Bellamy, with whom he embarks on the fateful wager that starts his journey and who is played in delightfully oily and entitled fashion by Peter Sullivan). Ibrahim Koma and Leonie Benesch, as Fogg’s fellow globetrotters Passepartout and Abigail ‘Fix’ Fortescue, do a grand job of urging the action along in these instances. There’s also a dash of humility (again a reminder of his stint as Doctor Who) that makes his protagonist a very likeable one, if slightly frustrating in those ‘too much talk, too little walk’ moments. When he gazes at the hot air balloon, you might just believe he’s seeing it for the first time, and when he insists that it should fly, “like a bird, like an angel,” you’ll probably find yourself nodding along in keen agreement.
#AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS DAVID TENNANT FULL#
Around the World in 80 Days is alight with the marvels of transport – set in an age full of great, chugging steam trains, plans drawn up for rockets, and a hot air balloon apparently so unbelievable that a boy is chastised for his overactive imagination when pointing it out.ĭavid Tennant is a natural fit for the role of Verne’s gentleman adventurer Phileas Fogg, harnessing the inimitable wide-eyed wonder that made him such a favourite with Doctor Who fans. N our age of Bezosian space jaunts and private jets, it’s easy to forget that not too long ago, travelling around the world was actually a very difficult thing to do.īut the new BBC adaptation of Jules Verne’s 1872 novel is an excellent reminder of just that.
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