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02/01/2003: "Television adaptations: a mixed blessing"
It is true to say that most crime writers would welcome with open arms the chance of having their novel adapted for television. For a start their work reaches millions of potential readers and the money ain't bad either. However, having your detective and your plot handled by the television people can be a mixed blessing because inevitably they institute changes to both. Perhaps the greatest success achieved by a crime writer on television in recent years was Colin Dexter's Morse. However, changes were wrought right from the start. The Welsh, middle-aged Lewis emerged as the younger Geordie played by Kevin Whatley. And while the early episodes captured the quality and complexity of Dexter's superbly crafted novels, the later entries written by TV writers tended to be simpler and more formulaic. It is a common trend. The same can be said of R. D. Wingfield's Inspector Frost, Reginald Hill's Pascoe & Dalziel and Anne Grainger's Inspector Barnaby (Midsommer Murders) and Val McDermid's Tony Hill (Wire in the Blood series). Once the novels are exhausted, it seems the characters no longer belong solely to the writer: they have transmuted into TV personas.
When this happens, the crime writer has to be satisfied with the money, the higher profile and the hope that being on the box helps the sales to increase. The struggle to gain a higher profile is perhaps the greatest problem facing a crime writer today. With so many crime novels published each month it is very difficult to bring yours to the attention of the reading public. Reviews and book signings help, of course, but not as much as an episode on primetime television. And perhaps the writer has to view television in these terms - not as a means of transferring a precious work accurately and with great fidelity to the screen - but as a great commercial for his or her oeuvre which is waiting in a bookshop ready to be snapped up. And really, the best images inspired by a good crime novel are created in the mind and in this case the reader is in control of the casting.
David Stuart Davies on Monday, February 1st 2003 @ 02:21 PM GMT [link]