The Titanic - what you don't know.

It's almost 100 years since the Titanic tragedy and ITV are retelling the story.

ITV's Titanic is a 4 part television version recalling events of the fateful night from numerous perspectives. 

The multi award winning film focused on the 1st class passengers, and slightly on the "working" 3rd class (by showing Jack- Leonardo DiCaprio's character). Whereas this programme attempts to focus much more on "the help". This is hardly surprising given the writer Julian Fellowes also wrote ITV's Downton Abbey.

Before sitting down to enjoy an episode it's worth keeping in mind that this is NOT a dramatic love story but more a brief insight and relies on us already knowing the basic storyline. As you'd expect, it lunges straight into the action at the port and a man running home to his wife. I'm instantly excited about this programme and my hopes that it's going to be of great quality are raised even higher.

Yet as the hour long programme goes on, little by little, my hopes fade, my excitement has been dashed. Fellowes neglects to explain some of the more subtle looks between characters which leaves me feeling confused and agitated rather than intrigued and hooked ready to watch the next episode. Characters are introduced in such a short space of time if you sneeze you will probably have to hit instant rewind. I can still remember "Jack" and "Rose" from the film version, yet I already can't remember the names of the characters in this television version. I'm sure getting the balance right between an action packed programme and a a brief superficial coverage of a story is difficult. Yet I assumed Fellowes would be able to tackle this fine line.

Perhaps I've just been spoilt by James Cameron's Blockbuster Titanic. 

Here's the advert and if you manage to watch it (started on 25th March) let me know what you think either on here or on my twitter @thatsbrit.

 Source

For more British reviews check out what the BBC and the Telegraph newspaper had to say.