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Andrew Davies' previous dramas include Bleak House and Tipping the Velvet. The Trial of Lady Chatterley is the first drama he has written for BBC Four.
BBC Four: You're best known for adapting literary works but this is an original drama about a novel. Did it seem like a departure?
Andrew Davies: Yes. It's the nearest thing to an original work I've done in a little while. I was actually quite nervous and hesitant at first, and worried about whether it would work, but I was much encouraged by [executive producer] Julie Gardner. In the end, I really enjoyed it.
BBC Four: What was your approach? Did you go back to the novel and back to the trial transcripts?
Andrew Davies: Yes, both. I read the novel again and there's also an excellent book by CH Rolfe called The Trial of Lady Chatterley, which is a transcript of the court case but also has a lot of interesting commentary about how the press regarded it at the time, a lot about the legal
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aspects of the case. Then Julie and I went to see Richard Hoggart, who was really the star defence witness and went on to become a very influential figure. I then sketched out who my two lovers would be and worked out a rough outline. After BBC Four expressed an interest, I wrote it very quickly - about six weeks.
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David Tennant as Hoggart |
It was very exciting because it went immediately into production, which is quite unusual. We were immediately finding a director, casting and then suddenly there was the read-through and we were filming. It was exhilarating and I think everybody seemed very excited by it.
BBC Four: Obviously BBC Four's budget was smaller than you are used to. Did you feel constrained by that?
Andrew Davies: I tend to write what I'd most like to see and then adjust it later if the budget won't stand it. With this it was clear that it would be a small budget. Obviously, we had to have a courtroom, but I was very careful to limit what else we could have: Helena's small flat and Keith and Sylvia's even smaller one. I deliberately didn't write many exterior scenes so it was a wonderful luxury when they told me they had enough money to have the characters go to a street market. I was thrilled to bits! They also managed to film outside the real Old Bailey. The great thing that makes it not look cheap is that wonderful interior at Kingston Town Hall where they've still got the old Kingston Crown Court. They don't use it anymore but it's an exact copy of one of the Old Bailey courts - and quite a scary place to go. I found it quite daunting.
BBC Four: What was your thinking behind the characters of Helena and Keith, the two jurors who have an affair?
Andrew Davies: I thought it would be an interesting dimension to have some real people in 1960 exploring their sexuality in as open a way as the characters in the book were. It's an affair across class barriers in the 1960s that parallels the one in the 1920s but there's also a contrast.
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In Lady Chatterley's Lover, Mellors is so dominant, he takes the lead, and he initiates it. I thought it would be interesting in this if the woman was a bit older than the man and it's she who tends to take the lead. It was also an opportunity to critique the novel a little bit. We have scenes where Helena,
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Louise Delamere and Rafe Spall |
especially, says that there are things about the novel that she doesn't like at all: that Mellors is such a bully, and that he's the one who says all the rude words. When Helena and Keith are saying four-letter words themselves there's a real difficulty about using them in their original meaning. That's what I tried to do in the writing and it comes across really well in the performances. Rafe Spall's character is really quite uncomfortable with all that. Their affair also mirrors things that are going on in the courtroom. The prosecution does make, I think, a serious point, that the novel seems to advocate adultery, but what about the wronged husband or the wronged wife? Adultery can be a painful and cruel thing. Keith has this very sweet wife at home and you really don't want anything bad or sad to happen to her.
BBC Four: When did you first read the novel?
Andrew Davies: I studied English at university and was very keen on Lawrence, so I had read Lady Chatterley's Lover in its unexpurgated version shortly before the trial. I was teaching at a grammar school in London and knew one of my sixth-formers was going over to Paris. I asked if he could get hold of a copy then I'd reimburse him. It cost an enormous sum, something like £5, so I was very pleased to read it in advance but was a bit miffed when the novel came out shortly afterwards and anybody could buy it for 3/6! I actually still have the Paris one on my bookshelf.
BBC Four: As you say, there's some swearing in the drama.
Andrew Davies: The funny thing is that most of the swearwords are spoken by Melvyn Griffith-Jones, the prosecutor, who's about as straight as you can get. It's wonderful the way he comes out and says, "F*** occurs 30 times, C*** 14" as if he's ticking them off a list. I will be fascinated to see what the reaction to the play is. Certainly, watching it myself, some of the sex scenes feel pretty real and pretty raw and slightly uncomfortable because of that. They have the awkwardness and embarrassment of real sex.
 The Trial of Lady Chatterley Homepage
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