Birdsong Episode 2 Review (4/5)

The birds aren't singing totally in its favour.
The finale of Birdsong took a very different tone and style to its predecessor, trading up the modern storyline employed by Faulks in the second half of his novel but keeping true to the hardened yet emotional focus on the traumas of the Great War. Again, the direction was undoubtedly cinematic, especially with less of the script focusing on slowly building up the relationship between Stephen and Isabelle, allowing for a strengthened outlook on the consequences of the military conflict on every man and woman involved. There'll also be no criticisms of the cast from me once again, Eddie Raymande still never ceasing to impress as Stephen in both of his romantic and battle-worn guises, and his ultimately harrowed war hero forced to watch his closest friend die helplessly. Where the second episode of the run faltered most was (again) a case of what words can do in place of shots and constrained running times- many of the soldiers who we saw sent to their deaths on the Somme were totally new to us bar a couple of introductory shots employed for a few seconds earlier in the episode, so our requirement of empathising with them in their final letters to their loves was a bit of a stretch, no matter whether the brevity of their screen-time was meant to represent something symbolically or not. This isn't Faulks' fault at all, and to an extent the production team could hardly side-step this pitfall if they tried, but it does perhaps begin to show us how even the most promising book-to-film adaptations can miss the mark somewhat, moreso than many recent cut-and-paste renditions like the Harry Potter and Percy Jackson movies of late. When it comes to dramas such as Birdsong, the BBC inevitably only get one chance to 'pull it off', and while they have managed it successfully for the most part, I can't help but wonder whether a slightly longer run or even a multi-part feature film (with an interval? Humour me, I know that that's a long shot) would have done the breathtaking literary great more justice than has been done with this impressive adaptation.