The Socialist 20 February 2019

Tories out, Blairites out

Nationalise Airbus and other manufacturing plants to save jobs now!

NHS crisis deepens: Workers' and community action can save our health service

What we heard

What we saw

"There's no planet B": Thousands of youth strike against climate change - we need socialist change!

Youth strike for the climate reports: "There's no planet B"

TV: Les Misérables - Hugo's novel and this adaptation both offer a message of hope

The Socialist Inbox

Eight Blairites split - Now kick out the rest

PCS Left Unity must unite on pay and elections

Universal Credit staff ballot for action

Annoyed?! I'm annoyed to be on poverty wages

Nationalise to save jobs at Honda!

Birmingham bin strike against 'blacklisting'

Deliveroo riders strike against exploitative pay and conditions

Leicester college pay strike goes on

Cardiff Uni: urgent action needed to stop job cuts

Hackney: Unite fights racism and victimisation

Harrowing accounts of austerity at Unison women's conference

Unite GLL pay campaign

Spanish state: social polarisation and budget defeat force snap election

Unite union London council workers back Enfield Labour no-cuts call

Leeds TUC presents a no-cuts alternative budget

Socialist Students conference shows potential for fighting leadership

London housing campaigners disrupt auction

Birmingham Uni: Standing up to racism is not harassment!

Leicester Socialists stand against Blairite mayor

Lincoln students back UCU ballot

Leicestershire needs NHS beds

Claimants and union slam Universal Credit

Energy retail firm collapse hits Tyneside

New recession fear stalks the world economy

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TV: Les Misérables - Hugo's novel and this adaptation both offer a message of hope

Les Misérables on the BBC (Click to enlarge)

Derek McMillan

Les Misérables started life as a three-volume novel by Victor Hugo written during his political exile from France. In the preface, he wrote: "So long as the three problems of the age - the degradation of man by poverty, the ruin of women by starvation, and the dwarfing of childhood by physical and spiritual night - are not solved; ... so long as ignorance and misery remain on earth, books like this cannot be useless."

Victor Hugo was identified in the public mind with the main character, Jean Valjean. When a reactionary mob attacked Hugo's house in Brussels at the time of the Paris Commune (1871) - he had denounced the Belgian government's refusal to grant political asylum to the revolutionary Communards - they shouted "Down with Jean Valjean"!

To adapt a three-volume novel into a TV series is no mean feat and it does make the story available to a whole new audience.

The character played by Dominic West - prisoner 24601, Jean Valjean - dominates the narrative of the BBC production of Les Misérables. There are no spoilers in this review but his fate represents the incredible injustice of the regime in France and the appalling treatment of the poor in the wake of the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo.

Fantine and her impossible task of keeping her daughter and her job is brilliantly portrayed by Lily Collins. The poor in general had a rough deal in that period; the working-class women suffered it twofold. It is the death of Fantine which spurs Jean Valjean into action and begins a chain of events which disrupt the comfortable life he has made for himself.

Dark side

The vicious behaviour of Javert, the policeman, played by David Oyelowo is a personalisation of the cruelty of the law. Jean Valjean's 19 years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread is justified for Javert because "it's the law".

Those familiar with the musical version will remember the comic roles of Thérnardier and his wife. The dark side of the characters is much more to the fore in this adaptation. However, the scene in episode three where Madame Thérnadier (Olivia Colman) is making a game out of beating Cosette, to the great amusement of the clientele of their inn, is brilliantly choreographed. It is a situation in which the laughter of the audience is crueller than the actions of the actor.

For all the darkness, the novel and this adaptation both offer a message of hope. Jean Valjean's personal struggle for redemption could be a metaphor for the redemption of French society - which the revolutionaries of the day, like the 'gilets jaunes' (yellow vests) of today, seek to bring about. Socialists should be inspired by this story.