Truthfully, after having written about the series in fairly exhaustive depth only a few weeks ago, I wasn’t in a hurry to re-watch The Crimson Petal and the White, as enjoyable as I found it. However, thanks to a kind offer from Fremantle’s PR, I’m now finding myself writing a review of the Victorian prostitution drama’s imminent DVD release (in fact, with its release date being 6th June, it’s likely that you’ll be reading this after the DVD’s hit the shelves). To keep the plot description at a minimum (if you want anything more detailed, just have a look at my episode-by-episode entries on here) The Crimson Petal and the White is based on the novel by Michel Faber and tells the story of the intelligent, and extraordinarily talented, prostitute Sugar (Romola Garai) as she beguiles, and starts to inveigle her way into the life of the wannabe writer, ridiculous fop and perfume heir William Rackham (The IT Crowd’s Chris O’Dowd, making a very comfortable first step into ‘drama’). It’s also the finest four hours of television that I’ve seen so far in 2011. While it may not cover the depth of Faber’s doorstop of a book, and skips on some (but not all) of its humour, it does manage to convey its grubby, sordid atmosphere incredibly well (perhaps a bit too well – the first couple of episodes do seem to enjoy wallowing in the filthy surroundings, thanks to some impressive production design and a ‘creative’ use of sound effects) and, possibly, covers the darker twists of the story with more impact than they had in the book. There’s also some excellent work from the supporting cast, including (a nearly unrecognisable) Gillian Anderson, Shirley Henderson, Mark Gatiss, Richard E. Grant, and particularly, Amanda Hale as William’s sweet and innocent/seriously disturbed wife.
Having now watched the series again on DVD, it’s good to note that it stands up well to repeated viewings. The things I had problems with the first time around – some of the special effects, the director’s (Marc Munden, also responsible for the similarly stylish, but less entertaining period drama The Devil’s Whore) love of getting extras to stare accusingly at the camera – are still problematic on repeat viewings and the pacing is still a bit of a problem (which is to be expected from adapting a nine-hundred-and-something page long novel into four hours of telly), but the many thing that the series did well the first time around still work. Additionally, as a result of being able to watch it through in one long, satisfying lump, I noticed things that I hadn’t picked up on before – such as the surprisingly subtle developments in O’Dowd’s performance from a meek and ineffectual over-grown teenager (not far removed from The IT Crowd’s Roy) to something more distant and sinister.
It’s a good thing that the series itself provides so much on repeat viewings as the DVD package Fremantle have put together isn’t that great. To be fair, The Crimson Petal isn’t the sort of series that’s normally sold on the quality of its DVD extras, so its nice that Fremantle have included anything at all, but none of the extras will warrant more than one viewing. What Fremantle have provided are interviews with the director, costume, make-up and production designers and director of photography, which do offer up some interesting details (such as Sugar’s key outfit being based around a rather anachronistic biker jacket), but are very short, and technical and several deleted scenes, which are also short, and don’t add much, if anything, to the story. As if to address the absence of the cast input, there is also a featurette (again, very short) from the BBC’s viewer feedback show Points of View, which features brief soundbites from O’Dowd and Garai, but, annoyingly, references further footage on the Points of View website which is not included here, or still available on-line. In addition to the rest of the cast members, some input from Faber, the screenwriter or the composer (the programme has an excellent score of dreamy electronica) would have been much appreciated.
On that note, while the DVD transfer is an excellent one, with the flesh-tones on the various exposed breasts and buttocks lovingly rendered, Fremantle have oddly decided to not release the series on Blu-Ray, meaning that the background detail in the intricately designed sets is mostly lost. But, while there’s room for improvement on the DVD, The Crimson Petal and the White is still a near-essential purchase for fans of intelligent, adult, television drama.
