[32], BBC Books produced a tie-in edition of Parade's End with Cumberbatch, Hall, and Clemens on the cover. Parade's End is about World War I in the same way that Moby-Dick is about a whale. Now that you've been properly briefed, let's get into what works about the book and what doesn't. It's easy to miss details amidst the density of Stoppard's dialogue (for example, listen closely for the explanation of Reverend Duchemin's fate), and some characters feel sketchy compared to the fully developed leads. As Downton Abbey surges toward its fourth season, "Parade's End" could be altogether average and it would still benefit from Downton's popularity. Fascinating. Christopher and Valentine also find themselves romantically drawn to each other in the fog during the summer solstice. She reenters and throws a plate at Christopher's head. I merely suggest that one's understanding of the book, and subsequent appreciation of its structure, is far more heightened after its completion. Sojourning in Germany, Sylvia's mother expresses her own misgivings. Speaking of characters, there are really only three major characters and a slew of others regularly walking in and out of the picture, buzzily chatting around it, or making only brief appearances. Vincent's fortunes as a writer continue to rise and, after her husband's strangeness results in institutionalisation, Edith begins living with Vincent despite some mortifying incidents at a resort. It was made available in the UK on 16 August 2012.[33]. Ford's novels pose an epic challenge of adaptation, which may explain why "Parade's End" lacks the organic flow of Downton Abbey, but further comparison is pointless: "Parade's End" is in a class by itself, and Stoppard has honored the essence of Ford's decade-spanning fiction without limiting himself to slavish fidelity. Of particular interest to me, as you may have gathered, was the continual display of Tietjens as a thinker, intellectual, and withdrawn man of the mind. [11] Stoppard has stated that he had considered Benedict Cumberbatch for the role of Christopher Tietjens even before Sherlock made him a global star. The impressions, as do the machinations of the characters, wash over you rather than declare their intentions. It's here that Stoppard juggles a host of supporting characters and relationships, including an affair between Tietjens' colleague Vincent Macmaster (Stephen Graham) and Edith Duchemin (Anne-Marie Duff), the frustrated wife of an ill-fated minister (Rufus Sewell) who's keeping secrets of his own. Even as Sylvia shamelessly flirts with other men, Tietjens maintains a façade of contentment until he meets Valentine Wannop (Adelaide Clemens), a young, high-spirited suffragette who represents everything new and progressive in rapidly-changing English society. Nobody behaves very well, and almost everyone does irreversible damage to one another, and often himself or herself in the process. Few seem to have heard about Parade's End. parade definition: 1. a large number of people walking or in vehicles, all going in the same direction, usually as…. [12][13] Adelaide Clemens was cast as Valentine after arriving for her audition in period clothing. One must be okay with that. He loved this country for the run of its hills, the shape of its elm trees and the way the heather, running uphill to the skyline, meets the blue of the heavens. For that alone, the book deserves acclaim. Writing for Roger Ebert's Chicago Sun-Times column, Jeff Shannon wrote that the miniseries has "up-scale directing" and "award-worthy performances" while Brad Oswald of the Winnipeg Free Press called it "a television masterpiece". Stoppard's chronology is linear (as it is in the novels), with Part One (spanning 1908-12), establishing numerous characters while focusing on the story's central love triangle: Christopher Tietjens (Benedict Cumberbatch) is a dignified throwback to the now-fading Edwardian era, an aristocrat from a privileged, land-owning family. Christopher's job is to kit out fresh troops for the front; he directs that the men are to be humanely treated and the horses properly cared for. Christopher develops his friendship with the Wannops, giving the mother a valuable hint about the Balkan situation for her writing and pointedly mentioning the daughter in his Christmas card. Let me explain. Had he imagined that this country would come in he would not have known a mind at rest. One of the greatest instances, and certainly one of the most interesting, of Tietjens's cognitive nature comes nearly two hundred pages into the novel. Their connection is immediate and powerful, and yet Tietjens can't bring himself to kiss her when she gives him a clear and longed-for opportunity. Parade End companion book by Tom Stoppard,[30] which includes the script, production stills, and deleted scenes omitted from the broadcast. It's an apt, and delightfully so, reentrance for a woman who is equal parts Machiavellian thinker, harpy, and sexual predator. Given such a wealth of literary adaptation, upscale direction and award-worthy performances, who's complaining? [28][29] Ford's tetralogy became a best-seller after the dramatisation was broadcast on the BBC. Don't read my description of Sylvia Tietjens as rooted in anything but admiration. Though that may seem like an obvious statement, the necessity of patience for a reader interested in getting to said completion is less obvious. As you've no doubt picked up, this book is heavy on impression and full of little moments. There is so much stuffed, some of it artfully and some of it less so, into this novel that exhalation is the first order after completion. The cast was led by Benedict Cumberbatch and Rebecca Hall as Christopher and Sylvia Tietjens, along with Adelaide Clemens, Rupert Everett, Mirand… It's an encyclopedic look at British life at its most pivotal point in the barely-dawned twentieth century. However, they're significant in their own ways. As if carved into bits of shrapnel, the view is often painful and fragmented, but necessary and unavoidable. For a long portion of Some Do Not..., the first novel in the tetralogy, Sylvia is gone. As the war works a profound change on Europe, and Christopher is badly wounded in France, the conflict shatters and rearranges the lives of all three principals, as well as virtually everyone else in their elite circle. In fact, it's worth noting at the outset that it's the sum of its parts that elevate Parade's End to greatness. Widespread accolades are guaranteed to continue with its stateside premiere on HBO, and no wonder: the four source novels by the quintessentially British Ford Madox Ford (later combined as the "Parade's End" tetralogy) were adapted by Sir Tom Stoppard — the renowned playwright/screenwriter's first TV work in 30 years — and director Susanna White is on a hot streak after directing acclaimed TV adaptations of "Bleak House" and "Jane Eyre," in addition to the family feature "Nanny McPhee Returns" and episodes of HBO's "Generation Kill" and "Boardwalk Empire." In stark contrast, Clemens fully embodies Valentine as a young, hopeful idealist who endearingly clings to notions of pure romantic love, even as those notions are challenged by the harsh reality of war and messy human behavior. Along with his working class but talented writer friend Vincent MacMaster, Christopher is unwittingly invited to a meal with Valentine's novelist mother and her friend Edith Duchemin, the wife of a pedantic vicar whose eccentric behaviour brings Edith and Vincent closer. He encounters Valentine at a party, and both reticently and painfully all-but-declare their feelings for each other before he leaves to fight in the trenches. Sylvia, who has been enduring the, February 1918: Christopher, McKechnie and Perowne have all been sent to fight in the trenches, amidst mud, carnage and madness. Though it does have its difficulties and lesser points, there is many a beautiful phrase and a truly staggering display of awareness, on the behalf of Tietjens, which never crosses into self-awareness or gives a glimpse of Ford as puppet-master. (They reminded me of John Huston's humorously repetitive shots of airliners — pointing screen-left when westbound, screen-right when eastbound -- as a cross-country sight gag in "Prizzi's Honor."). That should make things more interesting for any reader, though. For its occasional ploddingness, all of life, love, and loss seem to be covered. It's not about the war. Or they'd make an inane comment regarding the double nominal presence of Ford. A brilliant officer in the Department of Statistics, Tietjens holds firm to the principled conviction that respectable men must adhere to a certain sense of "parade," a code of conduct essential to self-respect and social standing. Cumberbatch (who shot to fame as "Sherlock" and costars in this summer's "Star Trek Into Darkness" and the upcoming "Hobbit" sequels) continues his ascension as an unlikely star of old-school distinction: His seething intensity (and booming baritone) is a perfect match for his role as a good man struggling to maintain his integrity while emotionally coming apart at the seams. [30], Parade's End has been nominated for numerous awards since its original broadcast. To be clear on just what Parade's End is about, I have to invoke a tired reference, and one I briefly alluded to earlier. Hall's performance is equally remarkable for the way she elicits sympathy as Sylvia, even as the character remains despicably self-serving. Much of "Parade's End" explores his inner turmoil as he's caught between true love and marital misery. If not toward his wife, one of the most courageously shrewish, bafflingly manipulative female characters ever constructed, he does feel tenderness, from various distances, for Valentine Wannop. They include behind the scenes footage and selected interviews with crew and cast members. In any event, HBO and one other pop culture phenomenon will probably contribute most to resurgence, however fleeting, of Parade's End. In fact, it's not so much presentation, but thinking and understanding. Whilst playing golf with a reactionary M.P., Christopher rescues young suffragette Valentine Wannop and her fellow suffragette, Gertie, who are being pursued by the police in the course of a day of direct action on the golf links. [2][3] The cast was led by Benedict Cumberbatch and Rebecca Hall as Christopher and Sylvia Tietjens, along with Adelaide Clemens, Rupert Everett, Miranda Richardson, Anne-Marie Duff, Roger Allam, Janet McTeer, Freddie Fox, Jack Huston, and Steven Robertson.