Wheatley Revival

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Fri 4 Aug, 2006 12:58:23

It may be wishful thinking but am I alone in sensing the beginnings of a Wheatley revival. I mean of course from the general public, publishers, and the media.
I've strong hopes for the new production of 'Toby Jugg' and DW books are selling regularly on Ebay. The new members who have joined the Library seem full of enthusiasm, Hammer Films are now viewed and reviewed in print much more positivley.
A good example is Hammers DRO. Ten years ago it was criticised for ' wooden acting and inept special effects', now its 'classic', with a superlative performance from Chris. Lee etc.etc.
I think if there were a Dennis Wheatley plc. I would buy a share option.

Michael Karnstein · Post by **Michael Karnstein** » Mon 17 Dec, 2007 08:11:12

Four Wheatley titles have been re-printed during this year. This is probably more than was printed during the 2000Â´s so far. So, I might agree with you Nick.

duncanpaul17 · Post by **duncanpaul17** » Sun 5 Oct, 2008 11:00:39

First of all being positive I've posted this under Wheatley Revival rather than the Decline of Dennis heading.

Reading through, at long last, the posts about the decline of Dennis, I tend to agree with the ones that his work is difficult to obtain in new form is
because his characters have been allowed to "die"

Poriot, Miss Marple, Maigret, Inspector Morse, James Bond, Cadfael etc have all been converted to either the small or large screen to keep the characters alive and consequently keep interest in the authors work.

The character of Bond has also been continued by different authors writing new stories.

If Sharpe can work for TV, Roger Brook should do also, the disadvantage is they both cover a similar period in history.

Gregory Sallust is possibly the character most ripe for TV adaptation, although I personally prefer the De Richleau stories they are spread out over a long period of time which may prove more difficult to adapt, though with imagination it could be done.

I also wonder if Dennis may have suffered because he had so many main characters and wrote one off stories.

Could some of his one off stories had either the Duc or Gregory as the main character?

Hopefully under Chorion's ownership the revival we are all hoping for will happen.

Alan · Post by **Alan** » Mon 6 Oct, 2008 09:46:07

I think you might be onto something here mate - An enterprising producer could shoot Gregory Sallust and "Modern Musketeer" series, but not necessarily confine themselves to just the adventures DW chronicled. Look at Sherlock Holmes - he's faced just about every Victorian personality, from Flashman through Jack the Ripper, Raffles and W G Grace to Annie Oakley, and most of these "happened" long after Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was dead. Robin Hood has enjoyed a similar "career", if anyone's seen the recent BBC series. A three part adaptation of, say, "Strange Conflict" could be bracketed by tales where the Duc and his friends take on Mussolini or use Astral travel to aid the Chindits in Burma. And imagine what could be done with Gregory - he could pop up all over the place, in theatres of war (or pre and post war) that DW never got around to writing about! He might even team up with the Duc for an Xmas special.

There might even by a case for having a DW character team up with Christopher Foyle, or other fictitious WWII persona - though having Gregory Sallust hired to whip Captain Mainwaring's platoon into shape, or bumping into Gary Sparrow from "Goodnight Sweetheart" and giving him tips on how to make his fake secret agent persona more authentic might be taking things a bit too far...

>Gregory Sallust is possibly the character most ripe for TV adaptation, although I personally prefer the De Richleau stories they are spread out over a long period of time which may prove more difficult to adapt...... (respectfully snipped) Could some of his one off stories had either the Duc or Gregory as the main character?

Garry Holmes · Post by **Garry Holmes** » Tue 21 Oct, 2008 23:22:37

For many years, one of the disadvantages that DW faced as far as TV adaptions was the length of his stories. Most drama stuff was 50 minutes long. Nowadays the idea of the feature film length drama series is much more common. Like I've said before, though, the big problem with adapting something like the De Richleau stories to the screen will be the fact that they cover more than one sort of genre. TV producers seem to like stuff to be either 'Detective' or 'Thriller' or 'Supernatural', and get annoyed when boundaries are crossed.

By the way, I've been away for a while. Hello again, everybody!

Charles · Post by **Charles** » Fri 24 Oct, 2008 22:44:08

Welcome back Garry !

Let's hope you get your wish.

A feature length DW adaptation is indeed something to dream of - unless of course it's like 'The (non) Haunting of Toby Jugg' ...

Perhaps Chorion will get something going now that they've bought the rights. A 'Duke de Richleau' special at Christmas for example ? Be better than what they usually turn out ...

All best !