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Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell is a TV adaptation based on a novel by Susanna Clarke.
Since I don’t read books, I’d never heard of it before, but when the trailer appeared on TV, I saw a lot of spooky goings on involving the wonderful Eddie Marsan, so good in the recent Still Life (as well as everything else I’ve seen him in, since the first time he was on my screen guest-starring as Samantha Janus’ ex-boyfriend Stoat in Game On, one of my all-time favourite sitcoms), and Bertie Carvel, recently seen as Nick Clegg in the engaging Coalition, a look at the creation of the coalition in 2010 between the Tories and the Liberal Democrats, and how Clegg could nearly have gone with Labour instead.
Set an in alternate 19th-century England, during the Napoleonic Wars, the series is based around magic once having been around in English and now this pair are bringing it back to the masses, while throwing in a load of upper-class Englishness.
Early on in the first episode, we learn that magic has never hindered anyone in the past, but then again, it’s never helped them, either. In addition, those interested in magic want to go and see it performed by Norrell (Marsan) but while he proposes to give up this profession if it doesn’t work out, he insists that the rest do the same if he DOES make it work, yet only Segundus (Edward Hogg), the man who’s been banging on about it the most, refuses to sign up to it. He still ends up going in, however, and inside, they all see stone gargolyes come to life, which is a great use of CGI as well as also being done to comic effect. The next day, Norrell is less than pleased about the fact the press have portrayed him as a man with a beard and a pointy hat because that’s what they believe a magician to look like. Since it was full of lies, it must’ve been a copy of The Sun. Or the Daily Mail.
There’s also the lovely Phoebe Nicholls (who I’ve always had a thing for), looking far better now than she did in the second half of Fortitude; Cucumber‘s Vincent Franklin was camping it up nicely, and Paul Kaye – turning up in everything these days from Inside No.9 to Humans to The Interceptor – played another magician – Vinculus, who acts like a vagrant but there’s more to him than meets the eye and it was amusing when he was sat with a fortune teller, showing his magician skills, whilst wittering about “The raven is coming“.
In addition, Marc Warren (when will someone make a biopic of Malcolm McDowell and cast Mr Warren in the lead role?) plays a ‘gentleman’ who Norrell somehow managed to conjur up, then he brought a young woman back to life, but for his price, he took half of the remainder of her life for himself.
The subsequent six episodes mostly followed along the same lines, often throwing in a big moment per episode, whilst also attempting to further the plot, but one or two episodes did seem to meander a bit without really going anywhere, which made me think things could’ve been tightened up along the way, but overall, while I didn’t really follow 100% what was going on, it was largely entertaining.
Sunday nights have also became a demanding time for the viewers lately with the 9pm slot taking in not only Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, but also Anna Friel in Odyssey (aka American Odyssey) on BBC2, Sheridan Smith in ITV’s cop drama Black Work, and Gemma Chan spooking us all out in Channel 4’s Humans, based on the Swedish 2012 series, Real Humans.
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell was once said to be unfilmable, but as Eddie Marsan said on BBC Breakfast recently, that would be in the days when there were plans to make it into a two-hour film, whereas these days, TV series are the big thing as you can binge-watch whole series, and thus, you can tell a story over several episodes.
Go to page 2 for a look at the presentation and the extras.
The film is presented in the original 16:9 widescreen ratio and in 1080p high definition, as filmed, and it looks a fantastic pin-sharp transfer, as you’d expect, evoking the early 19th Century period, brilliantly showing off the special FX, be they moving statues, horses rising from the sand or tornadoes. I watched this on a Panasonic 50″ Plasma TV.
The sound is in basic Dolby ProLogic and it’s a shame no Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack was created for this series, since the swirling sound FX would’ve been fantastic for jumping around the speakers, giving split-surround effects. Hence, the aural soundscape feels a bit flat by comparison to what could’ve been achieved.
The extras are as follows. There’s not a great deal but it’s good for a TV series to bring you something whereas most tend not to bother:
- The Making of Jonathan Strange And Mr Norrell (25:00): Chat from key cast and crew members, mixed in with clips from the drama as well as some behind-the-scenes clips. It’s pretty much what you’d expect from a ‘making of’ but it serves the programme well and gives a good flavour of the show. Obviously, it contains spoilers as some of the clips are well into the series.
- Deleted Scenes (11:04): 6 of them, here. Worth a look, but nothing that needs to be added back into the show.
- Bloopers (1:11): Short but hilarious, particularly the last two 🙂
- Making-of shots Episodes 1 and 2: Split into two separate pieces for each episode (1:22) and (2:16), they’re worth pausing and flicking through frame-by-frame if you can as they’re brilliantly done.
- Picture Gallery (2:42): Stills from the programme.
- Picture Gallery: Behind The Scenes (1:42): Stills from… behind the scenes, as you’d expect.
There are subtitles in English and just a handful of chapters with 6 per episode. The menu mixes clips from the programme with the closing credits theme.
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell is available from tomorrow on Blu-ray and DVD, and click on the packshot for the full-size image.
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FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS |
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| OVERALL | 7 |
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 7*60 minutes
Studio: RLJ Entertainment
Warner Home Video
Year: 2015
Released: June 29th 2015
Chapters: 6 per peisode
Picture: 1080p High Definition
Sound: Dolby ProLogic (Dolby Digital 2.0)
Languages: English
Subtitles: English
Widescreen: 16:9 (1.78:1)
Disc Format: 2*BD50
Director: Toby Haynes
Producer: Nick Hirschkorn
Writer: Peter Harness (based on the novel by Susanna Clarke)
Sound: Benoit Charest and Benoit Groulx
Cast:
Jonathan Strange: Bertie Carvel
Mr Norrell: Eddie Marsan
The Gentleman: Marc Warren
Arabella: Charlotte Riley
Lady Pole: Alice Englert
Sir Walter Pole: Samuel West
Childermass: Enzo Cilenti
Vinculus: Paul Kaye
Segundus: Edward Hogg
Stephen Black: Ariyon Bakare
Drawlight: Vincent Franklin
Lascelles: John Heffernan
Honeyfoot: Brian Pettifer
Dr Greysteel: Clive Mantle
Flora Greysteel: Lucinda Dryzek
Laurence Strange: Vernon Dobtcheff
Henry: Robert Hands
Mrs Wintertowne: Phoebe Nicholls
Mr Bickerton: William Chubb
Foxcastle: Martyn Ellis
The Raven King: Niall Grieg Fulton
Mr Bickerton: William Chubb
Mr Gatcombe: John Phythian
Miss Redruth: Sarah Winter
Lord Liverpool: Richard Durden
Jeremy Johns: Steve Jackson
Lucas: Robbie O’Neill
Davey: Freddie Hogan
Houlston: Colin Meredith
Lady at Party: Katy Maw
Man at Party: Darren Southworth
Landlady: Christine Dalby
Landlady’s Daughter: Annie Lovett
Beadle: Glen Mortimer
Shepherd: Alastair Barley
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.
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