The Day of the Jackal (Review)

A pointless remake only for the gun-crazy and trigger-happy

When I learned of Sky TV’s plan to adapt Frederick Forsyth’s classic novel, The Day of the Jackal into a series, my first thought was, “Why?”. Then, when I read about plans to update the story, I thought, “Oh no…”. The 1973 film starring Edward Fox is an unmatchable classic, as the production company behind it, Carnival films, acknowledges.

I had no plans to watch Sky TV’s version but curiosity got the better of me. I wish it hadn’t.

The series falls into a genre I call “global pudding” – all those globe-trotting, “If it’s Tuesday, it must be Budapest” films and TV series so beloved of streamers that seem to be more about offering up fabulous locales than interesting stories and characters. Thus, The Day of the Jackal travels from various places in Germany, France, England, Ireland and Spain, where The Jackal has a base and – wait for it – a family. Yes, that’s right, writer Ronan Bennett has given the British killing machine created by Forsyth a young wife and son. It really is as wrong as you might imagine – and a heavy-handed attempt to link the character to the agent on The Jackal’s trail. Both are workaholics, constantly ducking out of family gatherings at inopportune moments.

Unfortunately, the series is so underdeveloped and underwritten, leads Eddie Redmayne and Lashana Lynch seem adrift in a sea of cliches and segments “recycled” from Homeland (I can’t be the only one to have noticed). Both actors deserve better than this.

This adaptation is a pointless affair – it adds nothing to the original by updating the story to the present day. Instead of the attempted assassination of President Charles de Gaulle, we get an attempt on the life of a “tech bro” billionaire who threatens to expose the shady dealings of the megarich with a new platform called River. Really. I was ready to quit halfway through the first episode but I’m something of a masochist and soldiered on. By episode two, I was wondering how much Sky had paid for the rights to adapt the novel – and whose idea it was – it seems such a cynical exercise.

Over the past couple of years, I’ve noticed a number of British companies have struck deals with US networks and streamers, only to deliver projects that are so below par, they are truly baffling – until you start looking at the sums of money involved (more on this in another post).

At £100m, this is Sky TV’s most expensive series to date. While Redmayne received a whopping £1m per episode for this 10-episode series, I have seen nothing reported on Lynch’s salary – but she does get an executive producer credit. Make of that what you will. It reminds me of Claire Foy’s salary for The Crown compared to Matt Smith’s. 

To put this all into perspective, in 2003 ABC’s Lost was the most expensive pilot ever made at $10m – and that involved filming on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, and commandeering a decommissioned airliner. I’d be interested in seeing a budget breakdown for The Day of the Jackal.

Forsyth has written dozens of books, many of which have been turned into films. What Sky seems to have bought is a brand, nothing more. They may just as well have called the series The Hitman and Her – only that title is taken.

Indeed, the whole affair seems to make no sense – until you realise that Redmayne may have been paid £1m per episode but it’s really the hardware that’s the star of the series. Thus, we get detailed descriptions of weaponry and long, lingering shots of the guns used. This is something more than a case of “boys with toys”, this is like an extended version of those adverts featured at arms trade fairs: here’s the missile used to blow up a hospital in Gaza, here’s the bomb used to blow up a school… On and on it goes, allowing the UK to join the US in its theatre of destruction.

After the first episode aired in the UK on November 7, Deadline reported that the series broke records for Sky with overnight ratings of 711,000 and 3m across the week – which implies a hell of a drop-off after the first episode (what wasn’t reported is how many stuck around for the final episode). Sold to 200 territories, that still makes this Sky Original’s most successful series.

But while it may be quids in for Sky, we are all the losers.

I fear what comes next