The Times (29/Dec/2008) - The 39 Steps

(c) The Times (29/Dec/2008)

The 39 Steps

The 39 Steps? Brilliant. Nothing like a black-and-white Alfred Hitchcock thriller at this time of year, a classic movie the family can still gather around. Unfortunately last night's The 39 Steps really was nothing like that. It was a BBC remake, “based on” John Buchan's rip-roaring spy novel. That's based on as in “stood on and wiped its feet”.

First published in 1915, Buchan's book (proper title, The Thirty-Nine Steps) relates Richard Hannay's frantic quest to prevent a German spy ring stealing Britain's naval defence plans on the eve of the First World War, while avoiding wrongful arrest for murder. It was top-class wartime propaganda about how one man finds himself through sacrifice in his country's cause. By all accounts it went down well with Tommy Atkins in the trenches.

These days, however, the BBC is uncomfortable with militarism and patriotism, while many viewers prefer the “who am I/what am I fighting for?” uncertainties of a postmodern agent such as Jason Bourne. Perhaps the only way to do The Thirty-Nine Steps now would be a fashionably “ironic” send-up, as in the recent award-winning theatre version.

But the BBC was in humourless Auntie mode here. It updated the story by introducing a female character, Victoria (Lydia Leonard), as a catalyst to Hannay's (Rupert Penry-Jones) awakening - what feminists used to call “consciousness-raising”. She proclaimed herself “a suffragette and a spy”, and they had cross-country arguments about women's rights while enemy agents tried to kill them, before he fell in love and thanked her “compassion and commitment” for showing him the way. Then, inevitably, she got shot.

The overall effect was to turn Buchan's blood and thunder tale into a pallid politically correct Enid Blyton story, peopled by characters who I could not easily warm to on a tropical beach never mind wet Scottish moors. Almost all it seemed to have in common with the original were the sort of unlikely plot devices for which Buchan was infamous. Not only was this version less exciting, but also less intelligent than his Boys' Own story. So we knew a German was evil last night because he wore black leather gloves. By contrast, Buchan has Hannay conclude that his enemy was driven by a “white fanatic heat” because “in his foul way he had been a patriot” too. If you want some post-Christmas excitement, read the book - it will feel far shorter and sharper than this adaptation.