A breathtaking historical dramas, War & Peace is set to transport our hearts and minds back to Russia’s war with Napoleon. As you might expect with the BBC co-producing, this is a brilliantly made and enacted British-American adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s timeless novel about three young people who experience life, love and loss in 1805 Russia.
Lovers of costume drama and romance – not to mention eye-candy period architecture – would be well advised to keep the tissues on hand as the characters are put through life's cruel emotional wringer in what can only be described as a tour-de-force script by Welsh screenwriter Andrew Davies, whose previous work adapting the likes of Vanity Fair, Bleak House, Doctor Zhivago and Pride and Prejudice perhaps emboldened him to finally grapple with the 1,440 pages of Tolstoy's classic.
“I was absolutely surprised to find out how fresh and lively and modern it felt,” says Davies. “I thought it was going to be this great solemn tome. But there’s a lot of humour and affection in it. Once you’ve cut out the bits where Tolstoy is arguing with himself about theories of history, it’s such a vibrant, fun and very moving story with really, really interesting characters. He’s just so good on different sorts of family dynamics. I just fell in love with it.”
One of the most heart-rending characters is Pierre Bezukhov, a hot-headed newcomer in Russian society, brimming with ideas but hopelessly lost as he seeks meaning in his life. He is portrayed by American actor Paul Dano, who has shown his range on Broadway and in movies, including Little Miss Sunshine and There Will Be Blood. He was most recently seen on the big screen last year playing the young Brian Wilson in Love & Mercy, the biographical drama about the founding member of the Beach Boys.
“He’s just a beautiful, beautiful person and spirit and he’s really special,” says Dano, 31, about Bezukhov. “I felt I had a lot to learn from him.
“He is trying to do something good with his life, but he keeps trying and failing to find a purpose ... We all want to have a purpose in life and to find love. And sometimes the things that we think will make us happy don’t. That’s why people relate to Pierre.”
Bezukhov’s earnest good nature is a soothing balm to his friend Andrei Bolkonsky, played by British actor James Norton, a cynical prince who is fed up with his stifling marriage and craves glory on the field of battle.
"The people I play are always searching for something – they are never passive, they are always very active and frustrated with their lot," says Norton, 30, who was nominated last year for a Bafta for his role as ex-convict Tommy Lee Royce in the BBC crime drama Happy Valley.
“Andrei is an extreme version of that. He is this conflicted young soul. He is hankering after something, but he doesn’t know what it is. He tries lots of different things, but none of them work. He tries running off to war and searching for glory, he tries a calm and simple lifestyle on his estate farming, and he tries St Petersburg society.”
The fates of Pierre and Andrei soon become bound to the beautiful, enchanting and big-hearted Natasha Rostova, whom we meet as a teenager in a mad rush to grow up and experience the world. She is played by British actress Lily James, best-known for her turn as Lady Rose Aldridge in smash-hit period drama Downton Abbey, and playing the title role in last year's movie version of Cinderella.
“Natasha is the most lovable romantic character in literature,” says James, 26.
“As she goes on an enormous journey from child to woman, you can see all her flaws. She’s very unabashed but, in spite of that, you still really like her because she has a huge heart and a beautiful soul. She lives in the moment and she’s completely uninhibited – but of course that leads to disaster.”
Over the course of four, two-hour episodes filmed in scenic historical locales (including the Tsar’s old stamping ground of St Petersburg), this mini-series never lacks for heaving bosoms and flashing sabres – and even a nail-biting duel in the snowy woods – as it navigates eight years of upheaval, leading up to the 1812 invasion by Napoleon that would change Russia and its people forever.
As we vicariously experience the dawn of the 19th century through the vast cast – from peasants and soldiers to society hostesses and even Napoleon himself – and their marriages and affairs, battlefields and ballrooms, and births and deaths, the power of the production lies in how it emotionally connects the viewer with the lives of people who lived 200 years ago.
So what do the Russians think of a British writer taking liberties by adapting Tolstoy’s legacy, one of the central works of world literature?
Critics there appear genuinely impressed by this “classic with cleavage” – and, in particular, laud Dano’s sympathetic performance.
The Meduza.ru online newspaper hails his acting as “the main success of the series … an absolutely exact match [to the novel] and probably the most fleshed-out character”.
Surprisingly, perhaps, given the heft of the novel, screenwriter Davies says it wasn’t all that hard to condense and structure his adaptation.
"Not especially. I haven't felt any need to change War & Peace," he says. "Occasionally I have written one or two things that Tolstoy forgot to write!"
• War & Peace begins on Friday, February 5, at 10pm on BBC First, which is available on OSN
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