The TV version of Lady Chatterley’s Lover is new take on an old novel

An upcoming TV version has taken liberties with Lady Chatterley’s Lover, not least toning down some of the language, writes Susan Griffin.

THERE’S been a lot of talk about the latest small screen adaptation of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, and how explicit it will be. The 1928 novel, written by DH Lawrence, gained notoriety for its explicit language and sexual descriptions, and was banned in the UK until 1960. But Jed Mercurio, who has directed and written the latest BBC version — which stars Holliday Grainger as Lady Chatterley, James Norton as Sir Clifford and Richard Madden as the gamekeeper Mellors — doesn’t believe it’s “an obscene story”, and anyone expecting pornographic trysts between Lady Chatterley and her husband’s gamekeeper will be sorely disappointed.

“DH Lawrence chose to use a certain kind of language in the book because it was groundbreaking and he was making a point about artistic expression, but that battle’s been won,” notes Mercurio, who insists he wasn’t thinking of previous versions of the story while writing his take on the tale.