Don t look down! Black Narcissus fans can t watch as Gemma Arterton s nun climbs terrifying stone steps next to a sheer drop - with one viewer joking: Install a handrail for episode two
First episode of BBC drama, which aired on Sunday, saw Sister Clodagh (Gemma Arterton) tackle a nerve-jangling stone staircase, with a sheer drop into a ravine
Viewers couldn t look as she braved the death-trap steps in howling conditions
Some joked that they hoped there d be a handrail installed before episode two
Remake of Rumer Godden s 1939 novel received lukewarm response from many
British nuns stuck in the Himalayas, living in a crumbling palace where the former local ruler had kept his harem and going slowly mad with pent-up passion over a handsome Englishman.
What’s not to love? This new retelling of Black Narcissus, the 1939 Rumer Godden novel that was turned into an Oscar-winning film starring Deborah Kerr in 1947, is utterly compelling, from the scenery to the simmering sexual tension.
The movie was banned in Ireland, censored in America and described by Martin Scorsese as ‘one of the first truly erotic films’.
We aren’t as easily shocked now, but the new BBC1 three-part series retains plenty of its allure (it’s been produced by Andrew Macdonald, grandson of the 1947 film’s co-director Emeric Pressburger), while adding modern touches such as filming in the Himalayas and using Nepalese actors instead of English ones pretending to be Nepalese.