“I was hoping for a little more colour.” The words of Abigail Fix in Around the World in 80 Days (BBC One) after she asked Phileas Fogg why he believed he could circumnavigate the globe, and Fogg gave some dull reply about improvements to the speed of public transport.
Abigail, you speak for us all. An adaptation of Jules Verne’s famous story should be a rollicking adventure, brimming with excitement and comic touches – especially when it’s billed as the family highlight of BBC One’s Christmas schedule. So far, this one retains the hue of the Reform Club’s Brown Windsor soup.
It is a French/German/Italian co-production acquired by the BBC, rather than the BBC’s own work. The corporation would argue that this is prudent financial management. Purists might say that it is fitting, given that the original novel was a Frenchman’s view of the English. But the result is a drama that feels unsure of its identity.
The best thing about it is the plot structure, for which Verne must take all the credit. Fogg accepts a wager to complete the round-the-world journey, accompanied by his valet, in a race against time. Each of the eight episodes will take them to different places across the globe. It’s a wonderful conceit, meaning that no adaptation of it can be a total dud.
David Tennant was a rather mournful Fogg when the show kicked off, although he’d undergone a pretty rapid transformation by the time he got to Italy, taking charge of a train and leading a daring rescue plan to save the life of a young boy. Tennant is good at finding the vulnerabilities beneath Fogg’s repressed Englishman. But he is also an actor with comedic talents, and so far they’re wasted here.
