The Musketeers: on set with Peter Capaldi and Vinnie Jones
Aramis (Santiago Cabrera), D’Artagnan (Luke Pasqualino), Athos (Tom Burke) and Porthos (Howard Charles)
Picture: BBC
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A new BBC adaptation of Dumas’s ‘Three Musketeers’ promises to overthrow viewers’ preconceptions, says Florence Waters
In the grounds of a crumbling baroque château in Doksany near Prague, dozens of gnarly-faced Czech extras are gathered around a fighting arena. Apart from the cameras and the odd aeroplane, the set is eerily untouched by modernity.
The landscape beyond is wild, the weather has been harsh throughout the year, and after eight months of filming in gritty conditions there’s an atmosphere of exhaustion and even a threatening sense of aggression on the set. The tense, brooding world of Alexandre Dumas’s best-loved novel The Three Musketeers feels alive.
To one side of the arena is a seated audience of men and women in elaborate 17th-century finery: wigs, ruffs, satin skirts, corsets, powdered chests and curls piled high. Opposite them, looking down on the scene is a stony-faced Peter Capaldi dressed all in black as Cardinal Richelieu and next to him the diminutive figure of a bored-looking young Louis XIII (Ryan Gage, seen most recently in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug), who directs the odd glance or question at the cardinal.
Peter Capaldi as Cardinal Richelieu Photo: BBC
Dumas excelled at creating worlds rife with political intrigue, secrets and power games; subtle nuances in the relationships between characters are key to the BBC’s new adaptation, which takes the plot in a new direction, and will be stretched out over 10 hour-long episodes. The first noticeable difference between this version and the others that come before it is that it largely strips away Dumas’s swashbuckling frills so that we are left with more modern, complex characters. There are no floppy feathered hats, swooshing cloaks or twisting mustachios.
“It’s very clear we’re not trying to do the book,” writer Adrian Hodges says. “I wanted to take the spirit of Dumas but give the characters a full psychological make-up.”
Hodges, whose credits include the film My Week with Marilyn (2011), is not afraid of bringing heroes down to a more human level. “The Musketeers each come with a certain amount of baggage,” he says. “So as the series opens Porthos is gambling (and cheating), Aramis is in bed with a married woman, and Athos is hung over.” Likewise, Capaldi’s Richelieu is not an out-and-out villain. “I didn’t want to give him the Sheriff of Nottingham syndrome, you know, ‘Damn, I’ve been thwarted again!’ Cardinal Richelieu was a political animal, he always wanted the best for France – sometimes [in my adaptation] he’s even on the Musketeers’ side.”
The language of the script plays against expectation too. In one of the early episodes, there’s a moment during a fight when one of the musketeers deliberately avoids helping one of his cohorts, “You know our motto,” he says. “Every man for himself!” replies another. “All for one and one for all,” does not ring out until much later in the series. “I wanted them to earn the right to say it. I wanted it to mean something,” says Hodges.
D'Artagnan (Luke Pasqualino), Porthos (Howard Charles), Athos (Tom Burke) and Aramis (Santiago Cabrera) Photo: BBC
Dumas fans can rest assured, however; all the original characters are in the adaptation and keep their most entertaining Dumasian qualities, from the hot-headed Gascon boy d’Artagnan, to the fey, spoilt Louis XIII, to Milady de Winter’s femme fatale tendencies. The thrust of the story still comes from the king’s loyal inner circle of guards and their quest to uncover the cardinal’s elaborate conspiracies. Much of what is expanded upon in the BBC version involves the musketeers’ backstories, along with a strong romantic subplot that gets only a small part in the original.
Hodges has deliberately written the new plot for a grown-up audience, but has kept sex and violence to a minimum so that older children can enjoy it too. Each episode is a stand-alone drama – “not like the Game of Thrones model, where if you miss one episode you’re completely lost”. But, he says, viewers will get the most out of it if they watch 10 episodes in sequence.
New characters are introduced too, including the Bourbon Queen Marie de’ Medici, based on the real historical royal, who threatens to dethrone the king. Other parts have been written with guest stars in mind. Familiar faces crop up in the titles, from Tara Fitzgerald to Jason Flemyng who, in a dramatic set piece, gets to blow up the Louvre. The week I visit the Prague set Vinnie Jones has flown in from LA to appear as one of Cardinal Richelieu’s guards.
While Jones is waiting for a take of a fight sequence he inspects his sword as if it’s an unnecessary extension to his arm that stands between himself and his adversary. He slips it back in his belt and thrashes a fist playfully at his opponent, a stunt stand-in for Hugo Speer’s head of the King’s Musketeers. The stand-in, a trained Czech fighter, bravely decides to respond in kind. “That was a real punch,” laughs Jones in shock. Stunt coordinator Steve Griffin, who directs all the fight scenes, rolls his eyes. I tell him I’m assuming the Snatch actor is experienced at this sort of thing. He looks at me sideways. “Not with a sword,” he despairs.
Santiago Cabrera, Howard Charles, Tom Burke and Luke Pasqualino Photo: BBC
Griffin has been involved from the beginning. Before filming started he took Luke Pasqualino, who plays d’Artagnan, and the three musketeer actors Tom Burke (Athos, the swordsman), Santiago Cabrera (Aramis, the dead shot) and Howard Charles (Porthos, the buccaneer), on a tough boot camp in the Czech Republic where they were forced to muck out horses, fight with heavy weaponry and grow plenty of facial hair. When I ask the four of them what has been the hardest challenge, they look at their feet. Fighting on horseback? “Running on cobbles in high heels,” admits Charles finally. Burke is quick to correct him: “Cuban heels, Cuban heels. They’re extremely heavy. Being able to run in those took a day’s training at least.”
A notable effort has gone into creating authentically challenging conditions on set. The fight scenes are for the most part filmed without stunt doubles, and the physical extremities of a cold winter and a summer heatwave that sent temperatures up to 35°C have given the actors some sense of the realities of 17th-century conditions. “I still break into a sweat just looking at it,” says Pasqualino of his heavy leather costume.
Luke Pasqualino as D'Artagnan Photo: BBC
“Heroes have changed,” he notes. “The musketeers lived on a knife point and risked their lives for king and country every day. You’ve got to understand and live through their struggle. It’s harder to suspend disbelief these days.”
But this is Dumas. And therefore it’s escapism. Producer Colin Wratten points out, “It’s told from the musketeers’ point of view, and there’s a lot of close-up [filming] but we also wanted it to be beautiful. Every shot is like a Caravaggio painting. There’s a lot of candlelight – candles were the largest part of the budget.”
Maimie McCoy as Milady de Winter Photo: BBC
The musketeers’ gear, meanwhile, is made from Spanish leather, each costume cut uniquely so that the four silhouettes are distinct and full of character. The women wear bold shapes and vibrant silks, with colour and volume; costume designer Phoebe de Gaye borrowed from Alexander McQueen to give them a subtly modern flair. Maimie McCoy proudly lifts her skirt for me to reveal a natty little pistol holster embroidered with Milady de Winter’s symbol, a forget-me-not.
“My silk knickerbockers were so fantastic that they were written into the script,” she says.
The Musketeers starts on Sunday 19 January at 9pm on BBC One
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