The 39 Steps (TV Movie 2008)

The 39 Steps: Directed by James Hawes. With Rupert Penry-Jones, Lydia Leonard, David Haig, Patrick Malahide. Richard Hannay, a mining engineer on holiday from the African colonies, finds London socialite life terribly dull. Yet it’s more than he bargained for when secret agent, Scudder, bursts into his room and entrusts him a coded notebook with map, concerning the impending start of World War I. In no time both German agents and the British law are chasing him, ruthlessly coveting the Roman numerals code, which Hannay believes he must crack himself. Masquerading as a liberal party pundit, Richard also gets stuck with parliamentary candidate Sir George Sinclair’s sister Victoria. They must survive with the secrets and decide who they can trust and how to keep it from others.

“Shades of Robert Donat, Kenneth More and Robert Powell hover over this festive production from the BBC of John Buchanu0026#39;s classic novel, heck I canu0026#39;t even get Michael Palinu0026#39;s brilliant u0026quot;Ripping Yarnsu0026quot; spoof out of my head, but it entertained pretty much all the way by taking itself just seriously enough without reverting to knowing post-modern sarcasm or worse yet campness. This is a u0026quot;Boyu0026#39;s Own Adventureu0026quot; and can only ever work by playing it straight. Donu0026#39;t mess with the Buchan in other words! Rupert Penry-Jones makes a fine Hannay, good looking, muscular if oddly blonde (the perfect Aryan specimen, ironically enough!) and interacts well with Lydia Leonard as the resourceful suffragette-cum-spy Victoria. I really liked Eddie Marson as the rent collector in the BBCu0026#39;s recent u0026quot;Little Dorritu0026quot; dramatisation and so felt a little short-changed with his early demise. Of course the story is one long chase stopping only long enough for the various action or suspense-punctuating set-pieces and I rather liked the fact that these were accomplished without SFX or CGEN tricks.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI last read the book years and years ago so canu0026#39;t state for certain how faithful to source this was, (I only recall the political meeting episode from the novel if truth be told) but otherwise was perfectly happy to sit back, admire the glorious Scottish scenery, ancient cars period costumes and see True-Brit spunk and ingenuity triumph over the evil Bosche. The plot is of course wholly unbelievable and barely hangs together (including to top things off, a literally death-defying recovery by Victoria at the end to complete the happy ending), but just swallow an improbability pill beforehand and enjoy.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThere are a couple of respectful references to Hitchcock scattered about (there must be people out there who think the original Hannay was a Hitch original, so ingrained in the memory is the Robert Donat/Madeleine Carroll film prototype) although quite how u0026quot;North By North-Westu0026#39;su0026quot; crop-duster scene found its way in here Iu0026#39;m not sure and perhaps more could have been made of the handcuff-scene, treated much more cheekily by the Master 70 odd years ago.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNevertheless, Iu0026#39;ll take this standard u0026quot;Tally-Ho!u0026quot; British fare over Indiana Jones any old day and hope thereu0026#39;s a follow-up of sorts as I for one would welcome a revolt into style away from big-budget effects-fests in favour of more homespun dramas like this, tongue-in-cheek or not…”