Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (miniseries)

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Series title over a 19th century street scene
Genre Fantasy
Historical drama
Based on Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell 
by Susanna Clarke
Written by Peter Harness
Directed by Toby Haynes
Starring
Composer(s)
Country of origin
  • United Kingdom
Original language(s) English
No. of series 1
No. of episodes 7
Production
Executive producer(s)
Producer(s) Nick Hirschkorn
Editor(s) Peter Christelis, Philip Kloss
Cinematography Stephan Pehrsson
Running time 60 minutes
Production company(s)
Distributor Endemol
Release
Original network
Picture format 16:9 1080i
Audio format Stereo
Original release 17 May 2015 (2015-05-17) – 28 June 2015 (2015-06-28)
External links
Official website

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is a seven-part British historical fantasy TV miniseries adapted by Peter Harness from Susanna Clarke's best-selling novel of the same name. It premiered on BBC One on 17 May 2015 and ended on 28 June 2015. It was nominated for four BAFTA awards and recognised by the British Film Institute as one of the top ten most important television programmes of 2015.[1][2]

Plot

Set in England during the Napoleonic wars at the beginning of the 19th century, the series presents an alternative history where magic is widely acknowledged, but rarely practised. Living in the rural north, Mr Norrell (Eddie Marsan) of Hurtfew Abbey is able to make the statues of York Minster talk and move. His manservant John Childermass (Enzo Cilenti) persuades him to travel to London to help in the war against France. While there, Mr Norrell encounters a leading member of the government and makes magic respectable in the realm when he conjures a fairy, called the Gentleman (Marc Warren), to bring the minister's fiancée (Alice Englert) back to life. Meanwhile, Jonathan Strange (Bertie Carvel) meets Vinculus (Paul Kaye), a street magician, while attempting to find a respectable profession, as demanded by his love Arabella (Charlotte Riley). Strange is told by Vinculus that he is destined to be a great magician and so he begins to study magic.[3][4]

Cast

Episodes

No. Title Director Writer UK air date US air date UK Viewers
(millions)		 US Viewers
(millions)
1"The Friends of English Magic"Toby HaynesPeter Harness17 May 2015 (2015-05-17)[5]13 June 2015 (2015-06-13)4.50[6]0.342[7]
Reclusive Mr Norrell comes to London to bring English magic back to prominence. He resurrects Sir Walter Pole's deceased fiancée Emma Wintertowne by making a bargain with the mysterious Gentleman with the Thistle-Down Hair. Meanwhile, charismatic young Jonathan Strange is told that he has the makings of a magician.
2"How Is Lady Pole?"Toby HaynesPeter Harness24 May 2015 (2015-05-24)[8]20 June 2015 (2015-06-20)2.60[9]0.275[10]
Mr Norrell finds that something is amiss with Lady Pole and soon realizes that the Gentleman is behind it. Sir Walter's servant Stephen and Lady Pole are enchanted by the Gentleman and taken away each night. Meanwhile, Strange impresses the newly renowned Mr Norrell and becomes his apprentice.
3"The Education of a Magician"Toby HaynesPeter Harness31 May 2015 (2015-05-31)[11]27 June 2015 (2015-06-27)2.20[12]0.207[13]
Pressed into service for the war against France, Strange receives a less than warm welcome from the Duke of Wellington in Lisbon. He soon makes himself useful, but treads dangerous waters by dabbling in dark magic. Meanwhile, Lady Pole is desperate to communicate her and Stephen's plight to Arabella, though she is enchanted against doing so.
4"All the Mirrors of the World"Toby HaynesPeter Harness7 June 2015 (2015-06-07)[14]4 July 2015 (2015-07-04)1.78[15]0.204[16]
A suicidal Lady Pole tries to kill Mr Norrell, but fails and is placed in the care of Segundus and Honeyfoot. Strange discovers a world behind mirrors, and he and Mr Norrell part ways with irreconcilable differences.
5"Arabella"Toby HaynesPeter Harness14 June 2015 (2015-06-14)[17]11 July 2015 (2015-07-11)1.80[18]0.165[19]
Arabella is tricked into going to the realm of the Gentleman with the Thistle-Down Hair; Strange is deceived by her black magic substitute, which dies, leaving him in mourning. Mr Norrell tries to quash the publication of Strange's book about magic.
6"The Black Tower"Toby HaynesPeter Harness21 June 2015 (2015-06-21)[20]18 July 2015 (2015-07-18)1.60[21]0.227[22]
Mr Norrell uses underhanded magic to make Strange's book literally disappear. Isolating himself in Venice, Strange finally manages to summon the Gentleman. Following him to Lost Hope, Strange discovers that Arabella, Lady Pole and Stephen are under the fairy's spell, but the Gentleman uses all of his strength to cast Strange out and lay a curse of darkness upon him.
7"Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell"Toby HaynesPeter Harness28 June 2015 (2015-06-28)[23]25 July 2015 (2015-07-25)1.70[24]0.187[25]
Strange returns to England in hopes of uniting with Mr Norrell to bring back the Raven King, defeat the Gentleman and regain Arabella.

Production

Carvel (left) and Marsan (right) as the title characters Strange and Norrell, respectively.

On 30 November 2012, the BBC announced that an adaptation of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell had been commissioned for BBC One.[26] The production was officially greenlit as a seven-hour miniseries in April 2013, with a projected 2014 premiere date.[27][28] BBC America noted that it would broadcast the miniseries during its ""Supernatural Saturday" science fiction and fantasy programming block.[27][28]

Adapted by Harness and directed by Toby Haynes,[27] the series was produced by Nick Hirschkorn, with executive producers Nick Marston, Tally Garner, Dixie Linder, Justin Thomson-Glover, Patrick Irwin and Matthew Read.[3][28][29] Co-production credits are shared by Cuba Pictures and BBC America, Feel Films, Far Moor, Screen Yorkshire and Space.[3][28]

Casting

The BBC announced the casting of Carvel and Marsan in the title roles in October 2013, as well as Warren as The Gentleman, Riley as Arabella, West and Englert as Sir Walter and Lady Pole, Cilenti as Childermass and Kaye as Vinculus.[29] A read-through of the script took place on 23 October 2013.[30] Filming began on 28 October 2013 in Yorkshire, Canada and Croatia.[3] Author Clarke visited the set in November 2013.[31]

Broadcast

The series premiered in the UK on 17 May 2015.[32] It later debuted in the US on BBC America on 13 June 2015,[33] in Canada on The Movie Network and Movie Central on 3 July 2015,[34] and in Australia on BBC First on 6 August 2015.[35]

Critical reception

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell was positively received by critics. It holds an overall 90% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes[36] and a critics rating of 71/100 on Metacritic.[37] It was selected for preservation in the BFI National Archive as one of the ten best TV programmes of 2015.[38]

Evan Ferguson of The Observer wrote that you could describe it as "Harry Potter for adults" but that it was "far snakier and more thrilling" and likened it more to Peter Shaffer's Amadeus: "It’s in the Sunday-night slot lately reserved for Poldark. And it’s 10 times better."[39] Nick Horton was even more enthusiastic in his Den of Geek review:

"What are some of the best British dramas of recent years? Here’s just a few. Wolf Hall, Utopia, Peaky Blinders, Broadchurch, Happy Valley, Luther, Doctor Who and In The Flesh. It's been said to death but remains the case: we truly are in a golden age of original British drama. But now you might just have to make room for a new favourite. I don’t think it’s hyperbolic to say that Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is the finest new drama that’s been on our screens this decade. In fact, if the first two episodes are anything to go by, it could go down as one of the best this century."[40]

While Louisa Mellor added that Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell "has that rare power to engulf" making it:

"...ideal for swallowing in a single gulp. Watched back-to-back, its chapters coalesce into one marvellous, unbroken tale. It’s a bedtime story with tremendous scope; one that will transport you from Yorkshire to London to a Belgian battlefield to Venice, the other realm of Faerie and beyond."[41]

David Wiegand of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote that viewers would be "dazzled" by the series, calling the special effects "exquisitely executed" and noting that "Every performance is a winner, from Marsan’s mousey Norrell, to Carvel’s brash Jonathan, to Englert’s increasingly mad and self-destructive Lady Pole."[42] Emily Asher-Perrin praised the overall series at Tor.com but noted, "the ending of this series was altogether abrupt and unsatisfying for my tastes".[43] Mike Hale of The New York Times called it "a largely unremarkable mini-series", adding:

That’s not to put down this BBC production ... but to warn those who enjoyed the best-selling book to temper their expectations. ...Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is great to look at. It moves along at a gallop, and it’s not boring, even if it’s not exactly engaging either. Most important, it has appealing performances by Bertie Carvel as Strange and particularly by Eddie Marsan as the crabbed and proud Norrell. In this one regard, the mini-series can be considered an improvement on the book, where the characterizations of the two magicians were a bit abstract and airless.[44]

George RR Martin, the american novelist and screenwriter wrote in his live journal about popular novels and their adaptations:

"I saw the BBC production of JONATHAN STRANGE AND MR NORRELL before I finally got around to reading Susanna Clarke's novel. In both cases, I loved the book and I loved the adaptation. It does not need to be one or the other. You might prefer one over the other, but you can still enjoy the hell out of both."[45]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.bafta.org/press/press-releases/nominations-announced-for-the-british-academy-television-craft-awards-in-2016
  2. ↑ http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/lists/best-british-tv-2015?utm_content=bufferffa33&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitterbfi&utm_campaign=buffer
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Eddie Marsan and Bertie Carvel cast in Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell for BBC One". BBC. 25 October 2013. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
  4. ↑ "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell". Fantastic Fiction. Retrieved 8 September 2011.
  5. ↑ "Episode 1: The Friends of English Magic". BBC. Retrieved 16 June 2015.
  6. ↑ Farber, Alex (May 18, 2015). "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell spooks 4.5m". Broadcast Now. Retrieved July 14, 2015.
  7. ↑ Metcalf, Mitch (June 16, 2015). "SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 100 Saturday Cable Originals (& Network Update): 6.13.2015". ShowBuzzDaily. Retrieved July 14, 2015.
  8. ↑ "Episode 2: How is Lady Pole?". BBC. Retrieved 16 June 2015.
  9. ↑ Farber, Alex (May 26, 2015). "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell loses 2m". Broadcast Now. Retrieved July 14, 2015.
  10. ↑ Metcalf, Mitch (June 23, 2015). "SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 100 Saturday Cable Originals (& Network Update): 6.20.2015". ShowBuzzDaily. Retrieved July 14, 2015.
  11. ↑ "Episode 3: The Education of a Magician". BBC. Retrieved 16 June 2015.
  12. ↑ Farber, Alex (June 1, 2015). "Britain's Got Talent hits 13.4m peak". Broadcast Now. Retrieved July 14, 2015.
  13. ↑ Metcalf, Mitch (June 30, 2015). "SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 100 Saturday Cable Originals (& Network Update): 6.27.2015". ShowBuzzDaily. Retrieved July 14, 2015.
  14. ↑ "Episode 4: All the Mirrors of the World". BBC. Retrieved 4 June 2015.
  15. ↑ Campelli, Matthew (June 8, 2015). "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell loses out to BBC2". Broadcast Now. Retrieved July 14, 2015.
  16. ↑ Metcalf, Mitch (July 8, 2015). "SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 100 Saturday Cable Originals (& Network Update): 7.4.2015". ShowBuzzDaily. Retrieved July 14, 2015.
  17. ↑ "Episode 5: Arabella". BBC. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
  18. ↑ White, David (June 15, 2015). "Humans becomes Channel 4's biggest-ever drama". Broadcast Now. Retrieved July 14, 2015.
  19. ↑ Metcalf, Mitch (July 14, 2015). "SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 100 Saturday Cable Originals (& Network Update): 7.11.2015". ShowBuzzDaily. Retrieved July 14, 2015.
  20. ↑ "Episode 6: The Black Tower". BBC. Retrieved 14 June 2015.
  21. ↑ Campelli, Matthew (June 22, 2015). "Black Work eases past Humans". Broadcast Now. Retrieved July 14, 2015.
  22. ↑ Metcalf, Mitch (July 21, 2015). "SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 100 Saturday Cable Originals (& Network Update): 7.18.2015". ShowBuzzDaily. Retrieved July 21, 2015.
  23. ↑ "Episode 7: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell". BBC. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
  24. ↑ Kanter, Jake (June 29, 2015). "No fireworks for Clarkson's Top Gear finale". Broadcast Now. Retrieved July 14, 2015.
  25. ↑ Metcalf, Mitch (July 28, 2015). "SHOWBUZZDAILY's Top 100 Saturday Cable Originals (& Network Update): 7.25.2015". ShowBuzzDaily. Retrieved July 30, 2015.
  26. ↑ "Danny Cohen looks ahead at the five key themes to define BBC One in 2013, and announces new commissions". BBC. 30 November 2012. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
  27. 1 2 3 Itzkoff, Dave (8 April 2013). "BBC to Adapt Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell as Mini-Series". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 April 2013.
  28. 1 2 3 4 "BBC AMERICA to Premiere Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell Series in 2014". BBC America. 8 April 2013. Retrieved 12 April 2013.
  29. 1 2 Tartaglione, Nancy (25 October 2013). "Eddie Marsan To Topline Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell For BBC One/BBC America". Deadline.com. Retrieved 16 November 2013.
  30. ↑ Harness, Peter (23 October 2013). "I have to say that was a pretty tremendous day of #JonathanStrangeandMrNorrell readthroughs with our wonderfully embargoed til Friday cast.". Twitter. Retrieved 16 November 2013.
  31. ↑ West, Samuel (25 November 2013). "Susanna Clarke visited #jonathanstrangeandmrnorrell set last week. Said she kept thinking "What are all these people doing outside my head?"". Twitter. Retrieved 9 December 2013.
  32. ↑ "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell". Empire. feelfilms.co.uk. April 2015. pp. 104–5. Retrieved 23 April 2015.
  33. ↑ Daley, Megan (6 May 2015). "BBC America sets summer premiere date for Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
  34. ↑ "The magically mad mash-up of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell". The Globe and Mail. 3 July 2015. Retrieved 7 July 2015.
  35. ↑ Purcell, Charles (July 30, 2015). "New this week (Aug 3): Rogue, Jonathan Strange, Bitten, 7 Days In Hell and live sport". The Green Room. Archived from the original on July 30, 2015. Retrieved July 30, 2015.
  36. ↑ "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 10 July 2015.
  37. ↑ "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell". Metacritic. Retrieved 10 July 2015.
  38. ↑ http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/lists/best-british-tv-2015?utm_content=bufferffa33&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitterbfi&utm_campaign=buffer
  39. ↑ Ferguson, Euan (2015-05-24). "The week in TV: Mad Men; 1864; Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell; The Island with Bear Grylls; 24 Hours in the Past". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2016-03-12.
  40. ↑ "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell: the best UK fantasy in years". Den of Geek. Retrieved 2016-03-12.
  41. ↑ "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell Blu-ray review". Den of Geek. Retrieved 2016-03-12.
  42. ↑ Wiegand, David (11 June 2015). "BBC America’s Strange magic will dazzle you". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
  43. ↑ Asher-Perrin, Emily (29 June 2015). "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell: Chapter Seven". Tor.com. Retrieved 5 July 2015.
  44. ↑ Hale, Mike (10 June 2015). "Review: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, a Battlefield Where Magic Is the Weapon of Choice". The New York Times. Retrieved 10 June 2015.
  45. ↑ grrm. "Last Year (Winds of Winter)". Not A Blog. Retrieved 2016-03-22.

External links

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