This was a valiant stab at televising the much treasured (no pun intended) book by Robert Louis Stevenson.
The costume design, the locations and acting were all superb. Eddie Izzard is by far the best Long John Silver that has ever graced our television screens. Toby Regbo is very well suited as Jim Hawkins.
The program opens with a nice little addition to the book, setting the background up surrounding Flint's crew nicely and explaining the loss of Long John's leg - setting hopes high for the rest of the program.
Unfortunately there are two massive letdowns for anyone who enjoyed the book, namely Trelawney and Livesy. The acting standards from Jones and Mays is high, however the scriptwriters seem to have read a copy of Treasure Island from an alternate universe, where everything is exactly opposite to the original.
Trelawney, has been rewritten from having been a kind, generous adventuring man (if not a little too open at times) to being a two faced, selfish, greedy, penny pinching landlubber. Livesy has been taken from being possibly the most gutsy, daring swashbuckler in the Empire - to a pathetic, quivering coward who is ashamed of what he's become. Unfortunately, this is beyond dramatic interpretation - and seems more like the writers ate the book and defecated this script.
If you can get past these huge inconsistencies and open rewriting of the story (or you haven't read it/seen the original), you are in for a treat - with soaring production values and wonderful acting. If you are a fan of the original, steer well clear as you will most likely spend 3 hours yelling at your television.
The costume design, the locations and acting were all superb. Eddie Izzard is by far the best Long John Silver that has ever graced our television screens. Toby Regbo is very well suited as Jim Hawkins.
The program opens with a nice little addition to the book, setting the background up surrounding Flint's crew nicely and explaining the loss of Long John's leg - setting hopes high for the rest of the program.
Unfortunately there are two massive letdowns for anyone who enjoyed the book, namely Trelawney and Livesy. The acting standards from Jones and Mays is high, however the scriptwriters seem to have read a copy of Treasure Island from an alternate universe, where everything is exactly opposite to the original.
Trelawney, has been rewritten from having been a kind, generous adventuring man (if not a little too open at times) to being a two faced, selfish, greedy, penny pinching landlubber. Livesy has been taken from being possibly the most gutsy, daring swashbuckler in the Empire - to a pathetic, quivering coward who is ashamed of what he's become. Unfortunately, this is beyond dramatic interpretation - and seems more like the writers ate the book and defecated this script.
If you can get past these huge inconsistencies and open rewriting of the story (or you haven't read it/seen the original), you are in for a treat - with soaring production values and wonderful acting. If you are a fan of the original, steer well clear as you will most likely spend 3 hours yelling at your television.