Television review: The Great Fire

The year 1666 is not a great one for London. In the overcrowded city tensions run high because of conflicts between rich and poor, the last remains of a Plague epidemic, the perilious position of the King and the persecution of Catholics. Thomas Farriner runs a bakery in Pudding Lane. As a widower, he has to take care of his two young daughters and also keeps an eye on his sister-in-law Sarah and her son. One hot September day Thomas' daughter leaves the door of the bakery oven open and so unwittingly starts a fire. Soon, the fire jumps from house to house in the crowded slums, people are trying to flee to safety and street rows are breaking out. Meanwhile, Lord Denton is tracking Sarah who he believes to be a Catholic spy and writer Samuel Pepys tries to convince King Charles II the take some serious measures against the spreading fire.

When ITV first reported they were going to make a miniseries about the Great Fire, I was enthusiastic. After all, this is a time-period which is not very often adapted recently and I'm always eager to learn more about history while enjoying a good story. And it was going to star Andrew Buchan, one of my absolute favourite Brit-actors.

Recently, I watched this 4-part mini-series and unfortunately, I wasn't as impressed as I hoped I would be. For starters, they should hardly haved named this The Great Fire. It's really more of a story (or multiple stories) taking place against the backdrop of the Great Fire, but really, the main characters are preocuppied with so many other things: romance, betrayal, being creepy ;-) The acting is quite good in general. Andrew Buchan does his 'kind and brave' hero act with gusto, Charles Dance gets to be frightening, which he does very well and I was rather impressed by Jack Huston as the wavering King Charles II. Unfortunately, even all this talent can't save mediocre written characters. The 'baddies' are quite over-the-top bad and the good characters sometimes almost too selfless to believe. Especially Sarah Farriner (Rose Leslie) goes overboard with her innocence and helplessness.

Though I know very little about this time period, I read what several critics wrote about The Great Fire and they where not positive about the historical accuracy! To try to make the story more juicy and exciting (as if a fire raging for four days through a crowded capital isn't exciting enough) they made Tom Farriner a widower instead of a married man and added a totally fictional 'Catholic plot' and a fictional villain in Lord Denton. I'm not a total stickler for historical accuracy in all things, but as I said before, I felt like in this case the added plotlines detracted from the titular fire, so I think better storylines could have been explored.

A positive note to end this review: The Great Fire was a really expensive production and this shows. The medieval city of London and the fire are really convincing. In some scenes you can almost feel the heat and get panicky at the small spaces. Also the scenes at the court of the King were set up really big with lots of extras, beautiful scenery and beautiful dresses.

So, total verdict? The Great Fire is a mixed bag. It's not bad for a one-time watch for costume drama enthusiasts, but I fear for me it will not become a favourite.