Newsnight Review discussed the TV adaptation of Dr Zhivago.

Dr Zhivago, made by Granada for ITV, adapted from the book by Andrew Davies.

(Edited highlights of the panel's review)

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MARK LAWSON:
It is probably better known as a screen story than a book now. Did they make a case for doing it again?

GERMAINE GREER:
I'm puzzled. It's not a successful novel - it's a failed epic. It needs scale. The idea of doing it on the small screen seems perverse. There is only one way to do it, to turn it into a soap opera with a historical background. Then, to cross-cut rapidly, to give people one liners, single interchanges, so that you never develop any kind of epic swell...

Doing it this way also leaves you wanting. You need to know how Lara's relationship developed and you don't as you only see it in glimpses. It assumes you know the history, but you are at sea. You are not given a notion of what year you are in, or even the city. I don't understand why they did this.

EKOW ESHUN:
I disagree. This is working in the shadow of the book and of the David Lean film, as a consequence it goes from epic to intimacy. It's about the intensity of the triangular relationship. It's about love and the loss of love.

The background may be assumed, but we get amazing camera work. It's always moving around, focusing on the faces, pulling us right back. We get genuine footage from pre-revolutionary Russia. I think it's a great thing if a Sunday night documentary assumes knowledge of politics and history.

MICHAEL GOVE:
The use of archive looked amateuerish. It looked as if a sixth-former were making a series for the History Channel and doing it badly. The inter-cutting was interesting, but the cutting back to the domestic doesn't work at all. It jars. Considering that they got a proper film director in, I'm amazed that this is a result.

Even when we come to the intimacy, there are visual clich�s aplenty. The moment that Yuri sees Lara through a window is done with no subtlety at all. The scene through the mirror is one of the most obvious clich�s in visual direction.

EKOW ESHUN:
I disagree. This is a romantic drama. The point is it's about two people. There is a glass between them - you call it a clich�, but for me it's an archetypal device about divided love. It's about politics played out through human emotion.

MICHAEL GOVE:
But there is no evidence of emotional depth. Lara's progress is played in a fantastically anaemic way. There is little sympathy for her. Even the seducer is a moustache-twisting villain.