Writer 'liberated' by Birdsong TV project
Screenwriter Abi Morgan has spoken of her delight that an adaptation of Sebastian Faulks's novel Birdsong is finally making it onto the screen.
The project began soon after the book was published in 1993 but had never got off the ground despite directors such as Sam Mendes and actors such as Ralph Fiennes being attached.
Ms Morgan was involved in movie plans for nearly 10 years, but said it was "incredibly liberating" when these were ditched in favour of two 90-minute episodes for the BBC. "I wasn't wrestling whether it was a war film or a love story. I felt I could have both, she said. "I love television, I love the intimacy of it."
Morgan, who also wrote the screenplays for The Iron Lady and Shame, said of her success: "I think I'm lucky. I grab my chance. I'm having this moment but next year I've seen the other writers [coming up behind] and they're very good."
In Birdsong, Eddie Redmayne plays Stephen Wraysford, who has an affair with a married woman, Isabelle Azaire (Clémence Poésy) before being plunged into the horrors of the First World War. The adaptation team, led by director Philip Martin, worked with Imperial War Museum experts to recreate the tunnels under the battlefields.
Birdsong starts on BBC1 at 9pm on January 22.
