User Reviews

I do realize that the few who would care to read a review of this version of Bouquet Of Barbed Wire are either as old as I am (to have seen the original) or are fans of Brit TV, with time on their hands. To you, the following.

The reason that I gave up so much time in my life, watching this, was because of my absolute fascination with the original, and because of my curiosity about an attempt to remake a gem.

It's not that I am some "original is best" snob that makes me title the review as such. It's just a fact that the original was a better constructed, less convoluted, and far better acted TV event. While I like Trevor Eve, he seems better suited to bland but steady detective roles than to the complex character of Peter, the jealous father, whose petty but intriguing vanity requires a strong actor. Sadly, the same is true of Imogen Poots, who is sorely miscast in the role of Prue. Juno Temple, for example, would have been compelling to watch.

The original roles were played by Frank Findlay and Susan Penhaligon. While Penhaligon's further career may seem, in hindsight, not as brilliant as one might have expected (given her shining performance in the original Bouquet of Barbed Wire) she remains, nonetheless, even in the many lesser roles that she delivered, by far a more interesting and engaging actor to watch than Imogen Poots--whose range seems not to extend beyond either smiling or weeping.

When it comes to the question of Trevor Eve trying to come close to Frank Findlay's performance in the delivery of Peter, it's an even sadder comparison because Findlay was blessed with an immediately perceptible authority, in every role, that forced his audience to patiently wait to see and observe how he went about his work. Mr. Eve, in contrast, at least in this role, just seems to flounder about, from start to finish--as if, somehow, he'll manage to get it right, in the end.

It seems hard to get hold of copies of the original, these days, and the remake is a completely disappointing and unsatisfactory substitute. Almost a double offence, if I didn't have the memory of the original solidly seared in my memory.

Ironically, the entire misadventure of the remake goes to prove the quality of the original, because the novel on which both are based is not high literature, just simply a briefly popular novel published in 1969.

Whereas the original television production was almost an accidental success, in that the right combination of actors deliver a dramatic rendition to equal and even surpass the popular attraction of the book, the remake obviously lacks a comparable impetus. The original London Weekend Television series occurred just seven years after the publication of the novel. The remake appears over thirty years after the LWT production. Given the wan and pallid delivery of the remake, it's painfully obvious that everyone involved in the 2010 production was focused on trying to somehow rekindle a long dead ember of interest that had completely been sated in the better version of 1976.

Christopher Lee is said to have been disappointed by the very idea of a remake of The Wicker Man, suggesting instead that a sequel would be more appropriate, because the original had indelibly hit the mark. Such is the case with Bouquet Of Barbed Wire--a sequel would be far more appropriate than a watery pathetic attempt to remake a gem.