The Musketeers

"Athos, Porthos, Aramis & D'Artagnan"
Image by Maurice Leloir, 1894

I love the 1973 film ‘The Three Musketeers’, and its sequel ‘The Four Musketeers’. It’s got sword fights, makes me laugh and has a cast list many films would kill for. Charlton Heston, Oliver Reed, Raquel Welch, Richard Chamberlin, Christopher Lee, Faye Dunaway, Michael York, Frank Finlay and not forgetting the marvellous Roy Kinnear. Even Spike Milligan appears, improvising with his long johns.

I don’t remember how old I was when I first saw this on telly, but the scene inside the sedan chair when ravishing Raquel is hanging from its roof on the outside, stirred strange and interesting feelings in my young self. As well as being a little saucy, it also has some very dark scenes which can catch you off guard, but fit perfectly within the whole.

So when the BBC started trailing their new drama series ‘The Musketeers’, I booked the telly for 9pm on Sunday. Sunday night is turning into the #1 slot for quality drama. It replaced ‘Sherlock’ on BBC1, and ‘Homeland’ only recently finished its run on Channel 4.

I enjoyed the opening episode a lot, and I’ll be surprised if I don’t follow the whole series through. I haven't read the original Dumas book so I've no idea how this series relates to it, but I'm not greatly fussed. There were a few characters to introduce in the first episode but I think they managed it well enough, still fitting in enough murder and mayhem to keep things ticking along.

The Musketeers themselves are all likeable and distinct from each other so there’s no confusion. I must say they have extremely cool outfits. I did find myself startled by Porthos’s (Howard Charles) teeth every time he grinned, but it does probably distract opponents in a fight. Santiago Cabrera plays Aramis well, and he’s got the looks. He was also good in his roles as Lancelot in ‘Merlin’, and that painter chap in series 1 of ‘Heroes’ (it got rubbish soon after his brains were scooped out).

Of course we have the interesting situation where the current Doctor is playing the chief villain, with Peter Capaldi playing Cardinal Richelieu. He’s great in this, and now I’m looking forward to the next series of ‘Doctor Who’ even more. Apparently he’s going to have to leave ‘The Musketeers’ after this series as he can’t do both. Writing him out won’t be difficult, a well place blade or musket ball will take care of that. It will be interesting to see how they go about replacing him though.

Maybe they should get Christopher Lee back in, complete with his old eye patch.