What To Watch Now: Literary Adaptations

Little Women Clean Image — Little Women MASTERPIECE on PBS Sundays, May 13 and May 20, 2018 at the special time of 8pm Part One Sunday, May 13, 2018 at the special time of 8pm ET With their father away at war, the March sisters Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy come to terms with their new life alongside their mother, Marmee. The girls also make friends with Laurie, the new boy next door. Top row, left to right: Willa Fitzgerald as Meg, Kathryn Newton as Amy, Annes Elwy as Beth Bottom row: Maya Hawke as Jo For editorial use only. Courtesy of MASTERPIECE on PBS, BBC and Playground

As GBH’s Senior Director of Programming, Ron Bachman oversees programming for the Boston station’s slate of six public television channels.

March 25, 2020

Updated August 08, 2023

Since I’m the senior director of programming at a television station, it won’t exactly come as a surprise to learn that I love watching TV (drama in particular). But I’ve also been a lifelong avid reader (fiction, in particular), so when a television adaptation of a good book comes along, I get all tingly. Fortunately, stellar dramas based on great fiction are a specialty of public television, and we have a terrific library for you.

Below you will find some excellent titles to view, such as E.M. Forster’s Howard’s End, starring an incandescent Hayley Atwell; Les Miserables, which wrestles Victor Hugo’s mammoth novel into a more manageable six episodes with a terrific cast including Dominic West, David Oyelowo and Lily Collins (and while the latter may be the daughter of Phil Collins, you won’t hear the people sing in this version); and Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, also starring a second-generation talent—Maya Hawke, daughter of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman.

But that’s just the first chapter.

If, like me, you’ve spent the last eight years eagerly awaiting The Mirror and the Light, the just-published final volume in Hilary Mantel’s trilogy about Thomas Cromwell, you can refresh your memory of the story so far with Wolf Hall, which adapts the previous two novels.

So settle into your couch and curl up with a good... TV show.