Well Loved Books

I've spent a happy evening watching the BBC's newest, shiniest production - The 39 Steps, by John Buchan. This is one of my favourite books, because it's such a super yarn - rather Boys' Own, if you will. As one known to read Biggles books, I expect you can see why I enjoy this one so much.

We all know the gist of the story - Richard Hannay, our hero, returns from some Engineering job in Africa, holes up in London for the first few weeks, but finds after a short while of hanging out at his club he's bored to tears, aching for some adventure. On the cusp of returning to his beloved Africa, he bumps into a chap called Scudder, who, throwing himself on Hannay's mercy, tells him he's a spy, and has information vital to the well-being of Great Britain! He mentions a plot to assasinate a high ranking foreigner, due on British soil soon, shows Hannay his Black Book, and is promptly killed by the very people against whom he's trying to defend the country. Unfortunately for our hero, Scudder managed to get himself killed in Hannay's flat, so Hannay goes on the run, convinced he'll hang for this murder (side note: clearly a lot more credence was given to circumstantial evidence in those days. Side note 2: I had to point out to my girls that while the last public hanging was in the 19th century, people were still being hanged in Britain until some time during the middle of the 20th century, although I can't remember when). Escaping to St Pancras, he boards the first train he sees, subconciously choosing a train bound for Scotland, a place he remembers with fondness from an earlier time, perhaps realising that he'll have a better chance to escape over-zealous policemen in the wilds of Scotland than in the middle of London. Much merriement ensues, with Hannay blundering round the highlands, and while Hannay is, in fact, captured at one point by the damn Bosch mischief workers, he escapes (explosions) to blunder another day. All this time he's working on the code in the Black Book, and eventually works out that the 39 Steps mentioned in the book refer to some steps down to the water in a town in Kent - OK, he had to have help with which town, and which flight of steps.

Now, I don't know the book particularly well, but I do know that the end of the story is NOT in Scotland. And I know that there's absolutely NO romance in the book. OK, I agree, it'd be a better book if there'd been a little flirtation. Every singly film/drama version of this story has included a toothsome wench to hang on Hannay's arm and either squeal girlishly, or, like the one this evening, dispense ascerbic advice and hair-pins (for unlocking handcuffs) with equal ease. That's one thing I'm not going to complain about - it's a poetic licence up with which I will put.

But why, for the love of Mike, do they have to change the story so much. Sure, it'd take too long to show that Scudder had, in fact, stayed with Hannay for at least 3 days before being murdered - and I seem to remember that he was stuck with a long knife. That's a good way to murder someone in a play - stuck with a knife ("Killed by pirates is good!", to quote a favourite film - guesses in the comments please), in fact, skewered to the floor! Brilliant. Guns seem to be so universally accepted nowadays that everyone has to be killed by a gun.

And while I'm prepared to endorse the inclusion of a lady, it's really time to stop being so PC about it. She doesn't have to be cleverer than our hero - sometimes it's nice to be looked after. There's a whole slew of adverts out there which annoy me to ranting point (although, like that letter to the RT, nothing ever happens about that, either) because they portray men as simpletons, and women as the saviours of the universe - and we all know who that is (easy one for you - "Flash, I love you, but we only have 14 hours to save the earth!") All we need do is look at the evidence. There are strong members of each sex, but back in 1914, your average lady was more likely to be a shrinking violet than a strident suffragette. And NO disrespect for those sterling ladies - they got us the ruddy vote, didn't they? And of course, in their rush to portray Victoria as a hard-as-nails, man-hating suffragette, they had to make Hannay look a little pathetic in her company, just in case we thought he may be able to manage on his own. This man has just returned from being an engineer in Southern Africa, do you think he needed a hair-pin weilding bint for that, for goodness sake? He actually has the balls not only to manage on his own, but look after himself, and think quickly on his feet to escape ("Es-cap-ay? I wonder what that means, it's funny, it's spelled just like the word Escape.") the police of England and Scotland, and some pretty determined villains.

It seems almost as if they should have called the play "The 39 Steps, a play based extremely loosely on the book by the same name, written by John Buchan." ("almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea" - the easiest of the lot).

All grumblings aside, I'd very much like to see them take on more of Buchan's works. The next in the series being Greenmantle, and a really good story. I can understand why The 39 Steps is so well known, but Greenmantle is an equally good book, and actually HAS some romance in it!