Lord of the Flies

This is a first-class example of an adaptation done right, and television breathing new life into a familiar story.

There’s never been a TV adaptation of Lord of the Flies before and after this masterful version, there probably should never be another.

True, I think it would have benefited from being a tad shorter but it is an extremely classy adaptation which, I imagine, will please Golding purists and newcomers alike.

While some elements of this adaptation – the use of fisheye photography, or the uncanny CGI wild pigs – don’t quite work, it is overwhelmingly a bold, ambitious vision for the novel.

A compelling piece of television in its own right.

Every episode feels simultaneously bloated and thin, a feeling only reinforced by denaturing the otherwise saturated palette during the scenes of violence – primitive, you see? It feels like a gimmick trying to hide the absence of real emotion. When the words do come, they are not great.