TV
'Edwin Drood' writer: 'I didn't try to channel Charles Dickens'
Published Thursday, Jan 5 2012, 11:06 GMT | By Mayer Nissim | Add comment
Gwyneth Hughes has said that she let the character of John Jasper lead her when completing The Mystery of Edwin Drood.
The screenwriter has ended Charles Dickens's unfinished final work for a new TV adaptation.
In column for The Guardian, she suggested that Dickens's own problems with plotting and endings meant that he might have changed his planned close to the story.
Hughes said: "So I stopped trying to channel the intentions of a dead man and turned instead to his great creation.
"John Jasper, the living, breathing, unforgettable character at the heart of this wonderful story."
She added: "Instead of asking myself what Dickens wanted, I asked what Jasper wanted: lonely, raging, unloved Jasper, one of the most compelling and heartbreaking antiheroes in fiction."
The Mystery of Edwin Drood airs on January 10 and 11 on BBC Two and April 15 on PBS.
Watch a clip from The Mystery of Edwin Drood below:
The screenwriter has ended Charles Dickens's unfinished final work for a new TV adaptation.
© BBC
In column for The Guardian, she suggested that Dickens's own problems with plotting and endings meant that he might have changed his planned close to the story.
Hughes said: "So I stopped trying to channel the intentions of a dead man and turned instead to his great creation.
"John Jasper, the living, breathing, unforgettable character at the heart of this wonderful story."
She added: "Instead of asking myself what Dickens wanted, I asked what Jasper wanted: lonely, raging, unloved Jasper, one of the most compelling and heartbreaking antiheroes in fiction."
The Mystery of Edwin Drood airs on January 10 and 11 on BBC Two and April 15 on PBS.
Watch a clip from The Mystery of Edwin Drood below:
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