CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reviews last night's TV: Dustin Hoffman living in an East End flat? Now that really is 魔法?

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Esio Trott, BBC 1

率ing:

A stubborn old whatsit, was Roald Dahl. The Cardiff-born author of Charlie And The Chocolate Factory was 申し込む／申し出d an OBE に向かって the end of his life, and he turned it 負かす／撃墜する. He was 持つ／拘留するing out for a knighthood.

So it’s no surprise that he liked tortoises. He 株d their methodical 決意: a tortoise that has made up its mind is a creature not easily dissuaded.

With his long scrawny neck and a 麻薬中毒の beak, he did 似ている one, and he had the tortoise’s beady 注目する，もくろむ, too.

Esio Trot has all of Roald Dahl's trademark whimsy, but not the grandeur, says CHRISTOPHER STEVENS

An author who looks like the reptile 同等（の） of a Sherman 戦車／タンク is one thing. A story that moves at tortoise pace is another.

Esio Trot (BBC1) was one of Dahl’s last tales, and not one of his best.?

It has his trademark whimsy, b ut not the grandeur ― a quirky love story about two lonely retired friends in a 封鎖する of flats, the narrative relies on the fact that tortoises all look alike.

Which, of course, they don’t. So this adaptation, by Bafta-winning director Richard Curtis (who wrote Love 現実に 同様に as Blackadder), had to conjure some 驚くべき／特命の／臨時の tricks to keep us watching for 90 minutes.

His first クーデター was the cast. ‘クーデター’ is too weak a word: this was a sensational line-up.?

Dustin Hoffman, who had always 辞退するd to do TV until the ill-運命／宿命d racetrack series Luck in 2012, played Mr Hoppy, an 熱心な gardener who was in love with his 隣人 Mrs Silver, but too shy to say so.

His Brooklyn accent hasn’t been so 誇張するd since Midnight Cowboy, though we never did find out what a native New Yorker was doing, growing miniature roses in Bethnal Green, London.

Dame Judi Dench was Mrs Silver, making the most of a part with almost no good lines by packing a wealth of character into every movement.?

A 'sensational line-up' - Dustin Hoffman and Dame Judi Dench in the BBC1 adaptation of Esio Trot

She was romantic, she was generous, she had been 傷つける in love more than a few times ― and we knew all this, not because of anything she said, but from the subtlest gestures and 表現s.

Curtis’s other 一打／打撃 of genius was to flip the story の上に its 支援する, so that even Dahl’s biggest fans couldn’t guess what would happen next.?

In the 調書をとる／予約する, Mr Hoppy 支持を得ようと努めるs Mrs Silver by teaching her a 魔法 （一定の）期間 to make her tortoise grow: she has to say its 指名する backwards, ‘Esio Trot.’

Then he 取って代わるs her pet with a succession of bigger and bigger tortoises. She doesn’t 位置／汚点／見つけ出す the trick, and marries him for his 魔法.

With a 一連の clever Curtis 新たな展開s, 含むing the 発見 of Mr Hoppy’s subterfuge, the story almost made sense ― though no one ever explained how Mr Hoppy was able to buy 100 tortoises.?

Pet lovers know they are rarer than dragons’ eggs these days.

A couple of extra touches 追加するd to the 楽しみ, with a glorious Louis Armstrong soundtrack and a lovely narration by James Corden.?

The story wasn’t a patch on Dahl’s best-loved tales, with their 巨大（な） peaches and fantastic foxes.?

But the megastar cast and an ingenious rewrite made it work.