Making The Musketeers relevant to today's cynical audience

Some say there are no new stories. But that doesn't stop the old ones from being reworked. The latest crop of adaptations sees The Musketeers on our screens on BBC Entertainment, DStv channel 120 on Sundays at 9pm.

Adrian Hodges on set

It's already seeing great success overseas, so little wonder that the Musketeers is now on our screens. Series creator and executive producer Adrian Hodges says this version of The Musketeers is not merely an adaptation of the book. It features a series of new adventures sometimes inspired by the novel, sometimes by the events of the period, and sometimes by more contemporary issues given a historical spin.

That means you'll see the characters of D'Artagnan, Athos, Porthos and Aramis, embarking on the kind of adventure usually reserved for movie theatres, not in weekly TV series. Hodges doubts that audiences have grown bored with the ideas of courage, selflessness, romance and heroism outside of the police, hospital and science fiction shows we've come to expect.

Swashbuckling isn't just for pirates...

Hodges feels perhaps the 'hanging back' in approaching this type of content lies in the notion of 'swashbuckling' becoming "fraught with cliché and... traps for the unwary". Or perhaps you see it as more of a code word for insubstantial characterisation, endless swordfights and an old-fashioned approach to storytelling. We don't want period trappings and disposable jokes, especially with today's modern audience being more cynical and more aware of storytelling tricks than any before it.

But that doesn't mean Hodges merely "took the mickey" as he feels Pirates of the Caribbean did - in an attempt to take the genre seriously, he gave everything you'd want to see, like muskets, enormous risks, and last-minute rescues, at the same time injecting something modern and "involving". The Mirror in the UK is excited about this, stating that a 9pm instead of 8pm air time means there's a chance of more action and sexiness.

Did Hodges succeed? Watch the next episode of The Musketeers this Sunday and decide for yourself... The series started on 30 November so here's a quick catch-up if you're already two episodes behind on the ten-part series, with the first episode trailer embedded below.