ITV
ITV’s adaptation of JG Farrell’s novel The Singapore Grip has many contemporary resonances, discovers Caroline Frost
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An epic story of imperial hubris
t’s a false sense of entitlement that we have to get rid of, because it can have catastrophic results. This is a story that recommends modesty. I think arrogance was the main problem and it’s big a problem today in the way things have been handled recently in this country.” Screenwriter Christopher Hampton, who has adapted The Singapore Grip for the small screen, clearly sees recent parallels to the tale told in JG Farrell’s last novel. His epic treatment of Farrell’s 700plus pages comes to ITV this month and tells the story of what Winston Churchill called “the largest capitulation” in British history – the fall of Singapore in 1942. The book was the third in Farrell’s “Empire” trilogy, his
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exploration of the consequences of colonialism. Japan’s victory at Singapore was overshadowed globally by the events of Pearl Harbor just two months previously, but it was, nevertheless, calamitous for the British Empire: it led to the capture of nearly 80,000 Allied soldiers, the death of thousands more, and an evacuation on a massive scale. Hampton’s own uncle was among the desperate throng who boarded ships and fled the island just before the invasion. The screenwriter (an Oscar winner for Dangerous Liaisons) therefore felt a personal connection to the story. He had also known and admired JG Farrell when they both lived in London’s Notting Hill during the 1970s. Tragically, Farrell drowned off the coast of Ireland in 1979.
Hampton was determined to keep the comic, often bemused, tone of the author’s prose in his screenplay, highlighting the military incompetence, casually racist society and all-round complacency that led to Britain’s downfall in the region. “He treats a serious subject with wit and lightness, which gradually darkens as the story darkens,” explains Hampton. “I wanted to preserve the comedy where I could, and it’s very amusing in places. I also wanted to keep the balance between the real-life military characters and the family saga, giving them context.” Hampton, who also served as an executive producer on the project, sounds almost embarrassed when he adds: “I found the whole process of adapting the book immensely
