His Dark Materials: What the Must Watch Reviewers think
Must Watch reviewers Scott Bryan and Hayley Campbell share their thoughts on His Dark Materials which started on Sunday November 3 at 20:00 GMT on BBC One... you can catch up on BBC iPlayer... the series continues on Sunday evenings.
His Dark Materials is the TV adaptation of Philip Pullman's trilogy of fantasy novels: Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. It follows two children - Lyra Belacgua and Will Parry - as they wander through parallel universes.
Have you watched it? What did you think? Leave your comments below.
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(Photo credit: BBC/ Bad Wolf/ HBO)
Scott says: "It feels so perfect for Sunday at 8 pm"
“I read the books years ago and it seems to follow closely.
“There was a film about 10 years ago called The Golden Compass, and they packed the entire contents of the books into the film. One of the main themes is this sense of anti-religion and anti-control – that caused a backlash when the film came out. The film tanked at the box office.
“Fast forward to now and they’re focusing on making it authentic to the books. Philip Pullman has been on board and giving notes on what it should look like and feel like.
“It feels so perfect for Sunday at 8 pm – it knocked out [Sir David] Attenborough from that slot. It kind of feels like it’s definitely suited to Sunday nights, and the sort of thing the BBC should be focusing on right now.
"It’s a link-up with HBO which is great for the scale, richness and depth that the BBC wouldn’t be able to do by themselves. The talent behind it is really good.
“It’s really good in its accuracy, plotting and acting – but the first episode has SO much set up.
"What the film did in 10 minutes, this does in an hour. It’s introductory, context, explanation – it’s maybe only 45 minutes in that it really starts.
“My concern is it’s trying to be too faithful, so as a result it might not work on TV as well as a book.”
(Photo credit: BBC/ Bad Wolf/ HBO)
Hayley says: "All signs point to this being a must watch"
“I haven’t read the books, but this is the much-anticipated TV adaptation of the epic fantasy novels by Philip Pullman and it stars James McAvoy and Lin-Manuel Miranda and also Clarke Peters from The Wire
“I can’t tell if it’s good or not because I don’t like fantasy.
“But it is written by Jack Thorne who also wrote the stage play for Harry Potter and The Cursed Child, and This is England – so all signs point to yes, this is a must watch.”
(Photo credit: BBC/Bad Wolf/HBO)
His Dark Materials started on Sunday, November 3 at 20:00 GMT on BBC One. You can catch up on BBC iPlayer. The series continues on Sunday evenings at 20:00 BST.
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