![]() ![]() “Around the World in Eighty Days” premieres January 2 at 8 p.m. ![]() Granted, eight hours of “Eighty Days” is a bit too much, but ultimately the series not only answers the “why” of doing a TV version but cleverly plants seeds for another season, as improbable as that sounds given the premise.Īll in all, not a bad day’s (or 80 days) work. A band of travelling performers embark on their most daring feat yet: to recreate the adventures of Phileas Fogg as he sets off on his race around the world. “You’ve undertaken this great journey and you don’t even know why,” Fogg is told by one of the people he encounters, an observation that eventually leads to some uncomfortable soul-searching about his life and motives. That’s thanks in large part to Tennant, a versatile actor whose busy TV schedule has cast him as everything from a demon ( “Good Omens”) to Doctor Who. The individual episodes have an anthological quality, from encounters in Paris, Italy and India to the American West following the Civil War, teasing out the daring escapes while confronting issues like race and colonialism.ĭeveloped by Ashley Pharoah (“Life on Mars”), this international co-production manages to bring a revised spin to Fogg’s role as a bored rich guy, embellish Passepartout into much more than a humble servant and still make the former a sympathetic figure. The greater latitude and time enhances the travel aspects (after movie versions, featuring David Niven and Jackie Chan, in 19, respectively), while introducing more detailed backgrounds and relationships among the central trio fleshes out the characters. His not-really-a-valet French aide Passepartout (Ibrahim Koma), who, in need of a job, lies to secure the gig and an ambitious young journalist, Abigail Fortescue (Leonie Benesch), who are both generally more resourceful than the starched English gentleman they’re accompanying. Where this “Eighty Days” stands out, however, is in Fogg’s companions. Naturally there’s a ticking clock (and a terrific score approximating that by Hans Zimmer and Christian Lundberg) as Fogg undertakes his global trek in the 1870s, in an impulsive response to a challenge from Bellamy (Peter Sullivan), an oily member of Fogg’s snooty club secretly in desperate need of winning their high-stakes wager. David Tennant plays the unlikely adventurer Phileas Fogg, in a slick retelling that significantly updates and expands the story. Around the World in 80 Days (sometimes spelled as Around the World in Eighty Days) is a 1956 American epic adventure - comedy film starring David Niven, Cantinflas, Robert Newton and Shirley MacLaine, produced by the Michael Todd Company and released by United Artists. ![]() What seems like a not-necessary idea actually turns into a pretty good one with “Around the World in Eighty Days,” adapting Jules Verne’s novel into an eight-episode Masterpiece series, one already renewed for another voyage. ![]()
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