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We've been remaking Much Ado forever.
Shakespeare's comedy set the English language prototype for sparring couples -- meant for each other but unable to see it at first and unwilling to admit it later. From Benedick and Beatrice, it's a straight line to Sam and Diane and David and Maddie.
Now, much as Pride and Prejudice became Clueless, Shakespeare's classic has beenreworked into a modern-dress, modern-language Much Ado About Nothing. Arriving on BBC America Sunday, this British import is the first in a series of four updated rewritten adaptations of Shakespearian plays running under the title ShakespeaRe-Told.
If you know the tale the first time, all the better, though you may blanch at some of the more sitcommy intrusions. But if you don't, you can enjoy it just for what it is: a bright romantic comedy with two engaging stars, Damian Lewis and Sarah Parish.
In this adaptation by David Nicholls (Cold Feet), Beatrice and Benedick are insult-trading ex-lovers who are teamed up again as TV anchors. ("Housewives all love him." "We call them women now.") When their battles become distracting, the staff conspires to bring them together.
Shakespeare's secondary couple turns into the station boss's daughter Hero (a terrific turn by Dr. Who's Billie Piper), who's having an affair with the sports anchor Claude (Tom Ellis). They supply many of the early jokes, but they also supply the darker undercurrent that is so often a feature of Shakespeare's comedies -- along with a new resolution that is actually more satisfying than the one Shakespeare supplied.
And that is something, indeed.
Much Ado About Nothing
BBC America, Sunday, 7 p.m. ET/8:30 PT
**** out of four
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