MaggieB Submission - Melrose Adaptation
I’ve read the Melrose novels and am a little concerned at Benny Boy being lead role in the adaptation.
I found the novels really well written. They’re witty; in parts funny and in others quite unsettling.
But, and it was a HUGE but for me, there wasn’t one character in any of the books who I liked, warmed to or was rooting for. Not one. Not even the titular character. They were all more or less unlikeable.
I can honestly say I was completely disinterested in all the characters, wasn’t really interested in how or if they turned their lives round, and only read to the end of the books because by nature, I hate leaving books unfinished. The end result was I put the last book down with a resigned sigh and a ‘pah’,
I understand how the novel series is held up as an example of how childhood adversity can create a persons adult, emotional ill-health, but re Melrose I think there are 2 main problems.
The first is that whilst the ‘childhood adversity’ in the books is described articulately well and harshly, there’s no escaping the fact it’s a very upper-class view of what adversity is (come spend a day in the real world I found myself thinking whilst reading it).
And the second is I found Melrose to be just an upper-class, self-obsessed, selfish character; far-removed from the ‘real world’, spending far too much time naval gazing and wanting ‘to escape’ from something I couldn’t connect to at all (or see too much trauma in to be honest). He’s a posh-boy with hardly any redeemable qualities. .
And that is my worry with Ben playing him - Melrose (in my mind) is practically a caricature of how Daily Fail readers already portray Ben.
I’d be interested in knowing what others who’ve read the books think.
“And that is my worry with Ben playing him - Melrose (in my mind) is practically a caricature of how Daily Fail readers already portray Ben.”
This is not very encouraging and it sounds very true about what I’ve been told about the books…
