Over on MSN TV today: I've reviewed the premiere of Sky Arts' four-part medical drama A YOUNG DOCTOR'S NOTEBOOK, based on the short stories of Russian playwright Mikhail Bulgakov, starring Harry Potter's Daniel Radcliffe and Mad Men's Jon Hamm, playing the same doctor at two different points in his life.
I wasn't enthusiastic about the prospect of a four-part adaptation of a Russian playwright's work, airing on a niche channel like Sky Arts, but the best surprise of A Young Doctor's Notebook is how engaging, comical and unpretentious it is. Much of that's down to the performance of Daniel Radcliffe as the naïve young physician sent to a remote village on the eve of the Russian Revolution in 1917, who acquits himself remarkably well. The Harry Potter star isn't best known for comedy, but he has a natural sense of rhythm and awkwardness that perfectly suits this innocent character—who's stepped into the shoes of distinguished surgeon Leopold Leopoldovich; an older gent with a shaggy beard, whose standing in the community simply can't be surpassed.
Continue reading at MSN TV...
