Monday 29 April 2013

In Which We Discuss TV Adaptations

Recently, I've been watching ITVs adaptation of Dorothy Koomson's Ice Cream Girls.  I've embedded a TV spot which includes clips and interviews below.




I like Dorothy Koomson's books, though I've not actually read this one before.  I am enjoying the show, though. 

One thing I like about Koomson's work is that I can always rely on her to have a woman of colour in the lead role.  There's nothing wrong with white people, my mother was one, but it's nice to get away from constantly reading about them.

I have a shelf on Goodreads for books with non-white protagonists.  Yes, I know that I have full autonomy in what to read.  But you'd still expect more than nineteen books out of almost a thousand.  I'm quite strict with it, too; I only count it if the one main character is non-white, not if there's one non-white character in a quartet or something.

Another book I liked that was adapted to TV was Sophie Hannah's Point of Rescue (published as The Wrong Mother in the US) and The Other Half Lives, both from her Spilling CID series.  I have it on DVD.  I've had it for a while, in fact, but it took me several months to watch it.  Why?  I was scared.  I love those books.  I didn't want the tv series to suck.

Well, it didn't suck, but it wasn't all that great either, not compared to the books.  The adaptation of Point of Rescue was more faithful than that of The Other Half Lives, but both cut out a lot of the complications and twists of the books.  I did like Olivia Williams and Darren Boyd as Charlie and Simon, though.

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