David Tennant does a tremendous job as Phileas Fogg in “Across the World in Eighty Days,” an eight-episode “Masterpiece” adaptation of Jules Verne’s traditional story airing Sundays at 8 p.m. on PBS.
It’s all right here — unique locales, witty, charming characters and absorbing episode arcs that unspool as Fogg embarks on his quest to circumnavigate the globe in 80 days — and win a wager of 20,000 kilos wagered by a naysayer with monetary issues in his stuffy London males’s membership.
That’s the fundamental premise, however, in fact, there’s far more, and all of it begins with the forged, led by the inestimable Tennant, who’s terrific in all the pieces during which he’s concerned. He imbues the nebbishy and (very rich) Fogg, who begins his journey with low shallowness and confidence points, with a profitable perspective and a resiliency he didn’t understand he possessed till his unlikely journey will get underway and he proves his mettle.
Touring with Fogg on his quest are his newly employed French valet, Passepartout (Ibrahim Koma) — a waiter from Fogg’s males’s membership who, by way of a sequence of unlucky occasions, results in his make use of — and Abigail “Repair” Fortescue (Leonie Benesch), the headstrong, forthright reporter and daughter of the London Every day Telegraph editor (he calls her a “drive of nature” and admires her pluck).
Abigail calls for to accompany Fogg on his escapades and to chronicle his adventures for the Every day Telegraph — along with her personal bylined column (robust to get in these days), and utilizing her mom’s maiden identify (Repair) to show she’s not driving on her father’s journalistic coattails.
It’s 1872 as Fogg departs London on a steamer for his first port of name, France, with Passepartout and Abigail in tow. They arrive in Paris throughout unstable political instances (a regularity in that period); that, in flip, provides us a little bit of Passepartou’s again story: his rebellious father was killed by the federal government and, now, his youthful brother desires to avenge his loss of life by assassinating the French chief.
There’s motion in every episode — within the opener, Fogg is shot and the trio depart Paris for Italy in a hot-air balloon. In Episode 2, which features a meta shout-out to Verne, Fogg engineers a practice crossing that appears not possible (boosting his morale).
Fogg, Passepartout and Abigail will proceed to battle towards the clock (a motif right here) to make it again to London by Fogg’s Christmas Eve deadline so he can win his wager.
His odds are glorious.
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