Andrew Davies’s greatest hits
A Very Peculiar Practice
BBC (1986-1988)
An original, Bafta-nominated drama about the eccentric staff of a university medical centre, starring Peter Davison. This surreal, cerebral series reveals that Davies is rather more subversive than his apparent obsession with bonnets might lead you to believe.
House of Cards BBC (1990)
In Davies’s hands, Michael Dobbs’s book was turned into the ultimate TV drama about a Machiavellian cabinet minister (played by Ian Richardson). That is until Netflix made it again, this time for American audiences, with Kevin Spacey in the starring role. Davies won an Emmy for his
original version.
Pride and Prejudice BBC (1995)
The globe-conquering fame of the shot of Colin Firth’s Mr Darcy striding out of a lake in a sodden shirt has eclipsed our memories of the genuine minute-byminute delight of this King of Jane Austen adaptations.
Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001)
Yes, Davies has done films, and he can do funny very well. This dramatisation of the romantic tribulations of a gauche twentysomething is hilarious from start to finish.
Daniel Deronda
BBC (2002)
Middlemarch was Andrew Davies’s more attentiongrabbing George Eliot adaptation, but this sumptuously shot Deronda (directed by a young Tom Hooper) was a subtler, stranger affair, with a marvellous central performance from Romola Garai.
Bleak House
BBC (2005)
The one they rolled out in half-hourly time slots – just like EastEnders! The gimmick reminded us that Dickens wrote the soap operas of his day but that didn’t detract from this gripping drama, with a cast led by Gillian Anderson, and Carey Mulligan in an early role.
Mr Selfridge ITV (2013-2016)
Davies’s enjoyment of soapy storylines and romantic dalliances has been allowed to run riot in this reimagining of the life of the founder of the Oxford Street store.