His Dark Materials

Captivating viewing - His Dark Materials.

Every Sunday at 8pm the family is sat down in the living room, waiting for the latest instalment of His Dark Materials to start on BBC1. It's all very old school; we're tied to a channel and a time and the youngest (8) just can't get his head around why we can't binge-watch the series!

It may come of a surprise to you, but I've never read the books. Blame it on Harry Potter. When the Philosopher's Stone was released, I had so many of my friends telling me that it was brilliant and the next best thing after Tolkien. I excitedly read the book and was disappointed. I've no doubt that the series gets better (having watched the films, I imagine it's the case), but I lost the enthusiasm to go on.

Jill picked up the original trilogy quite quickly and told me it was good, but she'd liked Harry Potter a lot too and I couldn't bring myself to read it.

The Golden Compass - more of a miss than a hit?

I watched - and quite enjoyed - the film version despite its flaws, but it was not enough to make me want to read the book with any sense of urgency. So I failed to get excited about the new BBC series, and how wrong I was!

A great cast.

I'm really enjoying the series; the subtlties and complexities of the world reach out in a way the film never did. I really want to read the books now, but I'm waiting until the series finishes. I don't want spoilers and I don't want to mix my media. Visual arts are different to the written form, and there are always differences.

So far, I highly recommend this.

1 December 2019