FANTASY EPIC Gormenghast, UKTV Play

LITERARY fantasy is having a big moment on screen, from the promise of more Lord Of The Rings and Game Of Thrones spin-offs to the BBC’s recent adaptation of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials novels. This four-part adaptation of Mervyn Peake’s 1950s novels from 2000 was, in its time, as epic and expensive as it got. Set in the vast castle of Gormenghast, a self-contained city stifled by excessive ritual and strict hierarchies, Peake’s ‘fantasy of manners’ — a comedy in other words — is stuffed with outrageous, obnoxious and scheming characters.

We follow the rise of Jonathan Rhys Meyers’s Steerpike (pictured with Neve McIntosh as Lady Fuchsia) from ‘kitchen rat’ to Machiavellian mastermind, while the outstanding supporting cast features everyone from Christopher Lee and Celia Imrie to Stephen Fry and Eric Sykes.