Taking steps

  

                                                               

     Both Elaine and Harriet have mentioned the BBC's dramatisation of John Buchan's The Thirty-nine Steps. I haven't read the book (nor any Buchan, come to that), and have only the vaguest recollection of the Robert Donat film so I came to the new version with no expectations or prior knowledge whatsoever, but found it really quite fun. It looks as though for now at least you can see the whole thing here; the theme music is fitting, it has old-fashioned trains, a high tweed quotient (always reassuring, rather in the vein of the stage set of a play attended by a lady who, when the curtain went up, said "oh, goody, a chaise longue!"), there are plenty of beautiful Scottish locations, including the village of Culross in Fife, and there are even some shots of Edinburgh posing as London!: if you click on the link to the programme and get to the 1.17 mins section, the building you see is Register House, where I used to spend many hours in the Legal Search Room, only the steps were sadly devoid of Richard Hannay.
   From what I read, the film appears to be a loose adaptation of the story  - 'creative' was one description - with great liberties taken including a rather forward and bossy suffragette who isn't in the book at all, and much that was implausible to say the least. Still, as someone who watches almost no television (I'd never heard of Rupert Penry-Jones, though apparently he's famous) I thoroughly enjoyed it. Would it draw me to the book? Yes it would, but I shall watch this documentary about Buchan and learn more first.

Comments

[Rebecca]

How odd: I gave the book to my son in his stocking this Christmas, drawn by the cover but having heard nothing about it!

[Barbara]

John Buchan was one of the first authors I read in that stage when you're moving between children's and adult books. The 39 Steps is the perfect thriller, I think and that cover is really attractive!
My friend ramblingfancy has just posted about John Buchan's sister Anna, who wrote as O Douglas.

That would have been a link but I can't use HTML in a comment, apparently.

[Elaine]

I did enjoy this - a proper ripping yarn but as I have never read the original, I just took it at face value thought I ws pretty certain that it had nothing to do with Buchan's plot! I am going to get hold of a copy now and read

[Rebecca]

Too bad--those in the US can't access either this or Wallace and Gromit's "A Matter of Loaf and Death", though they are tantalizingly available on line!

[Lindsay]

Buchan is almost a great man, although certainly not a great novelist. But he's a fun read, and I recommend 39 Steps, Mr Standfast, and Greenmantle in particular. Oh, and with a Scottish flavour, you cannot miss John McNab, which is quite wonderful!