A Suitable Boy’s adaptation is not to be missed

Sunday: A Suitable Boy; (BBC One, 9pm)
Mrs Rupa Mehra pictured with Varun Mehra and Lata Mehra on a trip outMrs Rupa Mehra pictured with Varun Mehra and Lata Mehra on a trip out
Mrs Rupa Mehra pictured with Varun Mehra and Lata Mehra on a trip out

Thank goodness for the BBC. During lockdown it has continued to broadcast top-class drama to keep us all occupied while we’ve been unable to move around as freely as we would like.

In the past few months we’ve been gripped by The Salisbury Poisonings, new versions of Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads, I May Destroy You and The Luminaries, which ended its run last Sunday. Now, taking the last in that list’s place is an eagerly awaited adaptation of Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy which, at well over a thousand pages, is one of the longest novels ever published in a single volume in the English language.

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Condensing that massive tome into six bitesize episodes is no easy task, so the BBC turned to the man considered one of the best in the business – Andrew Davies, whose previous series include the original version of House of Cards, Pride and Prejudice, Bleak House and, most recently, ITV’s take on Jane Austen’s unfinished final book Sanditon.

Mrs Rupa Mehra is keen to find her daughter Lata a husbandMrs Rupa Mehra is keen to find her daughter Lata a husband
Mrs Rupa Mehra is keen to find her daughter Lata a husband

Eyebrows were raised in some quarters when it was announced that Davies, a white Welshman, was taking on a tale written by an Indian and set in the newly post-independence, post-partition India. However, what many didn’t know was that Seth himself had a say in who would be hired to work on his magnum opus.

“I am truly thrilled to be chosen by Vikram Seth to adapt his masterpiece A Suitable Boy for the screen,” claims Davies. “It’s a charming, almost Austenesque story, with a delightfully relatable heroine, set against the turbulent background of India in the years following Partition. It has been a total joy to work on, and I hope that audiences will love it as much as I do.”

Seth adds: “It was with some anxiety that I agreed to my book being put on the screen, but I’m glad I did. With Andrew adapting and Mira Nair directing, I feel that my story is in safe yet inspiring hands. We all passionately believed that the series should be filmed in India with an Indian cast, and we have got great locations and wonderful actors.”

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It’s Nair’s first TV work, but she’s an acclaimed auteur, having directed the likes of Mississippi Masala, Monsoon Wedding and Salaam Bombay!

Lata and Kabir enjoy a rare glimpse of each otherLata and Kabir enjoy a rare glimpse of each other
Lata and Kabir enjoy a rare glimpse of each other

“Vikram tells the story of a free India and our people with wit, clarity and love – I am deeply honoured to be the one bringing this intimate, epic tale of an unseen India to the world,” she says.

The drama has been made on location in such places as Lucknow and Maheshwar with a fine cast that includes Bollywood leading man Ishaan Khatter, Indian screen legend Tabu and rising star Tanya Maniktala.

Maniktala plays the central role of Lata, a student coming of age in northern India in 1951. Her mother is keen to find her a husband – the suitable boy of the title – but Lata is determined to carve her own path through life. Although torn between family duty and the idea of romance, she sets forth on an epic journey of love and self-discovery.

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