[Locke.]

Since the publication of Sebastian Faulks's World War One-era bestseller Birdsong in 1993, actors and film-makers have been falling over each other to bring a version to the screen. Such names as Joe Wright, Sam Mendes, Ralph Fiennes, Andrew Davies, Eva Green, Rupert Wyatt and Damian Lewis have been connected with a string of abortive efforts, but up to now a short-lived stage version directed by Trevor Nunn has been the only dramatisation to have seen the light of day.

All that changes when BBC One's new television adaptation, produced by Working Title Television, hits the small screen on Sunday 22 January. Scripted by Abi Morgan, the screenwriter du jour currently basking in accolades for The Iron Lady and Shame (and for Lovesong in the theatre), and directed by Philip Martin, the BBC Birdsong is in two 90-minute parts, filling the coveted Sunday night slot now vacated by Sherlock. It stars Eddie Redmayne as Stephen Wraysford, the young Englishman who embarks on a scandalous love affair with married Frenchwoman Isabelle Azaire (Clémence Poésy, of Harry Potter and In Bruges fame). The couple's intense relationship in dreamy pre-war Amiens is contrasted with the crushing horrors of trench warfare on the Somme, where Wraysford serves as an infantry officer in the British Army (pictured below). In fact the piece was shot in Hungary, which was apparently cheaper and easier than making it in France.

http://www.theartsdesk.com/tv/birdsong-arrives-bbc-one



This should be great