PASADENA, Calif. — BBC America needs you to believe in magic.
The cable channel’s latest series, “Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell,” looks at what happens in 19th century England if magic really existed. Strange powers have faded away over the years but there’s a rebirth when Mr. Norrell (Eddie Marsan) reveals some astonishing abilities.
He comes to London to offer the government his services as a magician — but rising politician Sir Walter Pole (Samuel West) refuses to align himself with such a dark art. Meanwhile, Jonathan Strange (Bertie Carvel) shows more interest in drinking wine and winning the hand of Arabella (Charlotte Riley) until he realizes that he too has magical powers.
Carvel understands the draw of the series is the magical elements. But he wants viewers to understand there’s a lot more to the program.
“I don’t think it’s a story about magic at all. For me, the magic is kind of a side show. It’s flavor. It’s color. But it’s a story about recognizably human characters. So they are in this extraordinary situation, extraordinary world, and some of them have magic powers. But, actually, that doesn’t take away the very, kind of, recognizable and human, ordinary situation,” Carvel says. “They don’t use magic to butter their toast. They still have flaws and human foibles. And so what’s amazing about the tone of the novel is that the magic is completely credible.
“And I hope that’s true of what we’ve made as well, that you feel as though you are in a world where magic has come back, but it’s still a world populated by people that you’d recognize.”
Carvel supports his contention by pointing out that while there are some huge scenes to show off the magic, the majority of the story keeps coming back to the humanity of these people if they just happened to live in a world where magic exists.
The series is based on the 2004 novel by Susanna Clarke. Carvel read the book when it was first released and immediately began to fantasize about what it would be like to be in a TV or film adaptation.
“It’s the best piece of new fiction I’ve ever read. I cast spells for this part and 10 years later they rang me up and I had a chance at it,” Carvel says.
During the decade he waited, Carvel kept busy with a variety of acting jobs, including appearances in the TV shows “Doctor Who,” “John Adams,” “Sherlock” and “Babylon.” He also worked in films such as “Les Misérables.”
Carvel was concerned about the show being as good as the book. Those concerns were dispelled the moment he read the first script and saw the adaptation is so good that it’s not necessary to read the novel to appreciate the drama and mystery.
Riley approached the series differently, having not read the novel.
“I had done pieces before that have been based on novels — ‘Wuthering Heights’ having been one of them — and my instinct for this one was to focus what had been written in the script,” Riley says. “That was main way in. Also, I knew Bertie had read the novel and we worked very closely on our characters and our relationship.”
Her character has been given far more to do in the adaptation, where she is a main player. Having a character set in a different time period is a challenge she loves.
“I enjoy doing period things because the fantastic thing about being an actor is you get to splash around and explore a period in a way you would never be able to do in any other way,” Riley says.
The change in Riley’s character isn’t the only difference from the novel. Peter Harness, who wrote the TV series, chopped the epic novel into seven pieces. Then he had to condense 200 pages of the book into each episode. Everyone involved is banking that it hasn’t taken away any of the magic in the book.
