Our Common Cultural Heritage — Classic Novels and English Television

Modern media have used the novel as a source for drama from the beginning. The production companies responsible for reproducing 'classic novels' have been attracted not just by the ready-made plots and characters, but also, perhaps especially in British film and television, 1 by the status of canonical texts that have a virtually unassailable currency in terms of cultural value. Indeed these two elements are inseparable, with the 'filmability' of the classic novel being shaped and determined by its high status in cultural terms. As the cultural form par excellance of the educated classes, the novel gives filmmakers not just a stock of stories and memorable heroes and villains, but also a direct line to prestige. It is not surprising that the adaptation of the novel to film has been seen as playing a considerable part in establishing the reputation of mainstream film as a serious and important 'popular' culture. 2 The BBC, a key institutional force in bringing classic literature to a wider modern audience, began its involvement in the 1920s — the 1928 radio production of The Three Musketeers is usually seen as a landmark in this respect. 3 Further radio productions of nineteenth-century novels swiftly followed, with the works of such writers as Austen, Dickens, Scott, Trollope and Thackeray, forming the staple of radio serialization. The first classic serial shown by BBC television was a six-part version of Trollope's The Warden (1951). Thereafter classic serials became a regular feature in BBC television scheduling. From 1963-1979 there was a separate BBC department set up specifically for the production of serials generally (called the Serials Department), and it was here that the hugely successful classic serials of that period were produced — possibly the most