Monday, March 24, 2008

Missed No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency?

Last night's No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency is available on the BBCiplayer for watch/download for the next six days.

The Times review is less than glowing:
Given Anthony Minghella's unforgivably early death last week, I shall pass briefly over his last work, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Under his direction, this adaptation of Alexander McCall Smith's original novel looked beautiful. The Botswana Tourist Board will be chuffed. The problem is that Precious Ramotswe does not really live in Africa but in a verbal universe that is McCall Smith's own. His dialogue, so natural on the page, turned out to be unutterable, at least by the actors assembled here, who struggled to attain end-of-term play standards. The sentimentality also seemed raised. I choose to blame Minghella's co-writer, Richard Curtis.

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