The Shadow in the North

After watching the first episode I was very much looking forward to seeing this episode. What a letdown. It went all Hollywood the focus changing from the story to an overdose of relationships including the required sex scene. It lost the story. It failed to tell the tale, something episode one was so great at. Bah, Humbug.

The Sally Lockhart mysteries proved to be a mild disappointment. They are not up to the usual BBC period drama standards - or rather they haven't gotten the period drama treatment. The story relies heavily on a Victorian atmosphere, but you rarely get this in the film adaptations. First of all, Miss Piper, lovely and talented as she is, has the least Victorian beauty imaginable. She is so much AD 2000 that every scene with her in it loses every kind of credibility. One can argue that women were born with different features in olden days - but they pretty much tried to rearrange their facial muscles to imitate the accepted standards of any given era. Where today's actresses try to make their lips appear lush and succulent, every Victorian girl would have subconsciously made every effort to make her mouth appear as a tiny rosebud. The same goes for eyes, hair, posture, gestures. Miss Piper walks straight out of 2007 and makes everything around her 2007.

Watching the adaptations, one also gets the impression that the Victorian society was very welcoming to different races and accepted them into the society with open arms. Almost in every single shot featuring the London society, there are Asian, Caribbean and Black people, the latter even boosting rasta hairstyle on one occasion. The golden truth however is that representatives of these races only got into contact with The Society as footmen and servants, and never ever mixed with them.

My overall impression was that these adaptations were meant for a young viewer who cares little for the authenticity of a traditional well mounted BBC period piece production. If you want some moderate tension and a fairly watchable entertainment with some good moments, don't hesitate to view these films. I don't regret sitting through them at one go, I only wish I would have been totally overwhelmed.

Someone in the forest.

Blood on the snow.

He is still there, all in a glass coffin.

Bells, bells...the Bellmann.

There's a shadow in the north.

Now that Sally has lost a father and gained a family, she is ready for the next adventure.

Sally is now an investment counselor. JJ Field and Jim tailor give up their old professions and become detectives.

Again, there are several overlapping spooky problems including lost funds and murderous sward play. We are allowed to speculate and kibitz. About halfway through the movie most of the mysteries start to make sense. Now all we have to do is hope there are not any last-minute twists. Closed Caption helps with some of the mumbling.

Based on a novel by Bill Pullman (author of "The Golden Compass") you can see the Pullman pattern in the story. Pullman always has strong-willed women. Adrian Hodges wrote the screenplay, the same person that wrote the screen play in the first episode and kept the essentials while making it more palatable as a film.

Many people watched the BBC production because Sally (Veronica Lockhart) is well played by Billie Piper of "Dr. Who" fame. Yet all of the other actors most pretty well known in their rights helped make this an excellent presentation. Jim Taylor (Matt Smith) returns from the first episode and has a bigger part.

Strange what you remember and forget so I had to watch it again nearly two decades later.

In THE SHADOW IN THE NORTH, BILLIE PIPER is an implausible choice to play a Victorian lass who is so bold, sensual and modern looking that she makes all the authentic detail look hopelessly jarring because she's so 21st Century in appearance and manner. On the other hand, JARED HARRIS is completely convincing as an evil industrialist who has taken charge of a destructive machine designed to be the ultimate weapon.

Piper is menaced by this evil tycoon from the very start but matches him for boldness every step of the way. He comes to admire her gutsy behavior (especially for a Victorian woman), and therein lies his downfall. Instead of agreeing to marry him, she has revenge on her mind for the way he has engineered the death of her sweetheart.

It's an interesting story, a bit convoluted in the manner in which it unfolds, but heavy with Victorian atmosphere and settings.

An enjoyable mystery, nicely played by most of the cast, but I found the whole story somewhat disconcerting because BILLIE PIPER looked and acted entirely too modern.

I was somewhat worried that this episode might deviate too far from the original book, especially as "The Shadow in the North" is my favourite of the Sally Lockhart quartet. However, I was pleasantly surprised, it stuck extremely close to the book and really brought Philip Pullman's creation to life. The acting was superb, Billie Piper as the Financial Consultant-cum- detective Sally Lockhart was very convincing as the feisty, yet vulnerable young woman who is pulled into a dark underworld of corruption and murder. Equally, Jared Harris as evil tycoon Axel Bellman was great- understated yet chilling, just as Pullman envisaged him. I can't fault the script or pace of it either, it was gripping but managed to obtain the essence of dialogue/ storyline without leaving out anything significant, and some adaptations might tend to do. Overall, highly enjoyable and entertaining, a worthy adaptation of Pullman's great story!