" Action man Zhivago returns from Lean years "

The Observer -Akin Ojumu,

Adapt a literary classic and you can't escape comparisons with the original. However, that is unlikely to happen with ITV's version of Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago, since most people will hold it up against David Lean's 1965 epic, which starred Omar Sharif and Julie Christie and is remembered as one of the great screen romances.

Hans Matheson and Keira Knightley are the leads in the �7 million, three-part series. According to screenwriter Andrew Davies, Zhivago is more faithful to Pasternak's panoramic novel, set in Russia during the First World War and subsequent revolution, than Lean's beautiful vision.

'I think television is better at showing the intimate relationships. We haven't got the budget to do the spectacle like Lean, but we get to the heart of the book. We also have more [screen] time so we can be subtle and explore the characters more deeply,' he says.

Zhivago, filmed in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, is a big, handsome production, but aims to be more than a postcard drama. For Davies, the story of the doomed lovers Yuri Zhivago and Lara Guishar is a romance involving people 'destroyed by forces much bigger than themselves'. While Lean's film was accused of being simplistic, Davies hopes Zhivago is an accurate representation of the turbulent times.

But how will Matheson and Knightley fare compared with their illustrious predecessors? Davies believes Matheson's Zhivago is 'more a man of action than the thinker, dreamer and observer' of the novel. In the ITV version, Lara assumes more significance, with the focus on her youthful affair with Komarovsky and early marriage to her childhood friend Pasha (Kris Marshall). Lara's relationship with the middle-aged Komarovsky is particularly shocking. Knightley, who had just turned 17 when filming began, looks like a schoolgirl, unlike Christie, who was in her twenties when she made Doctor Zhivago. Apart from a minor role in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Knightley was an unknown when she won the part last year. She has since co-starred in Bend It Like Beckham.

Choosing Matheson and Knightley saved money and also avoided the ITV tendency to shoehorn stars into unsuitable roles. The channel has been criticised for relying on established names in prestige dramas simply because they are on exclusive contracts and supposed to guarantee ratings. If Zhivago is a success, perhaps we can look forward to seeing some new faces on prime-time television.

Zhivago starts on ITV in November September 1, 2002.

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