As an enthusiastic Russophile I insisted on watching the first episode last night and was not disappointed. I thought that Andrew Davies did a pretty good job in deliniating the various story lines and depicting the characters. By any standards the book is a hugely long (if not particularly difficult) read, with a large cast of characters and any adaptation must be something of a challenge.
Much of the film was shot on location in Russia, and the spectacular interiors, which echoed in a particularly authentic way, contributed to the atmosphere. The battle scenes were pretty good too.
I did think that anyone who had not read the book (or listened to the wonderful Radio 4 adaptation of the novel last Christmas) might have had some difficulty in working out who was who during the first episode. (The BBC website has photographs of the cast with names, but what is really needed is a family tree!) However, at least the characters appeared to be more or less the right age. In previous adaptations the character of Pierre in particular has been played by someone far too old. My only real criticism of the casting was that Pierre was not big enough and that Prince Andrey was too tall. Otherwise, given the difficulties of squeezing thousands of pages into six hour long episodes I felt that a creditable attempt had been made.
Incidentally, it is Russian Christmas Day on Thursday, so to the occasional Russian readers of the blog I would like to say С Рождеством!
For those who want some more Russian entertainment nearer to home I will be giving an illustrated talk about cultural and historical aspects of St Petersburg at Little Waldingfield History Society in June 2016.
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