Adaptation as Process: A Genetic Edition of Andrew Davies’ Middlemarch (BBC/WGBH, 1994)

Abstract

This article reports on an interdisciplinary project to produce the first genetic edition of a television adaptation, drawing on the papers of screenwriter Andrew Davies who adapted George Eliot’s Middlemarch for the BBC in 1994. Combining methodologies from digital humanities, television history, and archival theory and practice, the digital resource places Xtensible Mark-up Language versions of Eliot’s novel and Davies’ scripts at the centre of an intertextual framework which enables close cross-referencing. Supported by primary sources derived from thorough production history research, the genetic edition opens up a potentially productive approach to adaptation which foregrounds the creative practice of the screenwriter at the heart of the collaborative process of producing television adaptations of classic novels. Following an outline of the case history, the project and the resource, the article then illustrates some preliminary findings based on new editorial commentary. It concludes that this genetic edition will not only be of interest to Eliot scholars, television historians, and adaptations studies, but might have potential beyond the academy in the development of resources for education and heritage sites.