The Sunday Telegraph Sunday 11 August 2019 *** 7Give ‘The Crown
in brown’ a
chance, pleads
BBC scriptwriter
By Anita Singh
ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT EDITORIT HAS a cast of Indian actors unknown
to the average British viewer and is
based on a novel that, at 1,535 pages
long, has defeated many a reader.
But the screenwriter Andrew Davies
has pleaded with audiences to give a
chance to his “relatable” new adapta-
tion of Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy,
the first BBC drama to be made without
a single British actor – and a project
jokingly referred to by its director as
“The Crown in brown”.
The BBC will announce tomorrow
that the six-part drama will star
22-year-old newcomer Tanya Manik-
tala in the central role, alongside Tabu,
a renowned Indian actress. Set in the
Fifties, A Suitable Boy does not concern
itself with the British in India, like such
classics as The Jewel in the Crown or A
Passage to India – the latter famously
featuring a blacked-up Sir Alec Guin-
ness as a Hindu professor – but on the
country’s burgeoning independence.
“I guess it’s quite brave of the BBC to
do it,” Davies said. “For English audi-
ences, one of the striking things is that
all the principal characters are Indians.
It’s not one of those things about the
British Raj... I think we’ve had all that.
These Indians are in an independent
India and running their own country.
“It’s nice to see something that takes
the story much further on, after the
English for the most part have gone.”
Maniktala plays Lata, a young
woman whose mother is determined
to find her a suitable love match.
Davies, who turned Pride and
Prejudice into a television hit
starring Colin Firth, said: “I’m
banking on the fact that Lata is
just such a lovely heroine, it’s
easy to identify with her. She
doesn’t want to be bossed
around, she’s funny and she’s
quirky. She’s like the sweet-
est of Jane Austen heroines.
“They’re so relatable,
these characters, I’d be
amazed if people don’t get
hooked on it. And I think
English audiences will just
forget about the fact that
there’s no English characters to FILMMAGICUber drivers
slam the door
on children
travelling alone
Families of Gurkha veterans split
apart by immigration tribunals
By Patrick Sawer and Robert VerkaikGURKHA families are being split up by
immigration tribunals that fail to rec-
ognise the difficult conditions their
children face in Nepal, veteran welfare
campaigners have said.
Their complaints come after the lat-
est case in which the family of a British
Army Gurkha veteran face being sepa-
rated after one of their children was
refused permission to live with them in
the UK.
Surendra Kumar Rai has been re-
fused permission to settle with his par-
ents, despite his younger brother being
allowed to live here.
The 35-year-old was refused entry
clearance to the UK in 2017, the year af-
ter his family had moved here from
their native Nepal the previous year.
His father, who served in the Brigade
of Gurkhas, was granted settled status,
along with his wife and Bimal, their
younger son. That decision followed a
change in the law as a result of a cam-paign led by the actress Joanna Lumley
for Gurkha veterans and their families
to have the right to live in Britain.
But Home Office officials refused to
allow Surendra Rai entry to the UK, ar-
guing that he could not show he was
still financially or emotionally depend-
ent on his father, as required by law.
Surendra Rai appealed against the
decision. An immigration appeal tribu-
nal has now rejected his claim, saying
there was no evidence to show he was
still dependent on his father. The Brit-ish Gurkha Welfare Society said tribu-
nals were failing to take into account
the dire economic conditions in Nepal
when deciding that individuals were
no longer financially or emotionally de-
pendent on their parents.
The Telegraph revealed last week
how the daughter of a British Army
Gurkha veteran faces being separated
from her father after losing the latest
round in her four-year legal battle to
live with him in the UK.
Poonan Shrestha, 30, will have to
have her case heard again after a tribu-
nal said that judges had made mistakes
in an earlier hearing by failing to prop-
erly address the question of whether
she was financially dependent on
Bhishma Bhusan Shrestha, her father,
who now lives in London. The cases
could have far-reaching consequences
for the families of Gurkhas who settled
in this country. There are an estimated
8,000 former soldiers and their fami-
lies living in the UK, many of them in
the garrison town of Aldershot.Joanna Lumley campaigned for Gurkha
veterans to be allowed to live in BritainLuck running out
for ladybird spider
after funding cuts
By Helena HortonLADYBIRD spiders, house sparrows
and tansy beetles are among 80 ani-
mals identified as at risk of extinction
after biodiversity spending was cut al-
most in half in three years.
The RSPB and Buglife have criticised
Defra after the funding for the depart-
ment as a whole was increased by 11 per
cent but biodiversity investment was
sharply reduced. A Treasury document
has revealed that funding to protect UK
species has declined every year, from
£598 million in the 2015-16 financial
year to £338 million in 2018-19.
Buglife has identified 11 insects at di-
rect risk of dying out. Predators such as
birds and small mammals will be af-
fected. Ladybird spiders are only found
on eight sites in the Dorset heathlands.
Birds on the RSPB’s Red List, which
includes turtle doves, merlins, wood-
cocks, house sparrows and puffins, are
under threat because of the reduction
of their habitats.
A Defra spokesman said its reforms
rewarded farmers “for conserving and
restoring habitats” and developers
would have to deliver “an overall in-
crease in biodiversity”.News
ALAMYidentify with.” A Suitable Boy was first
published in 1993 and has sold around
three million copies worldwide, 1.3 mil-
lion of them in the UK.
Another of the many plots involves a
courtesan and singer, Saeeda Bai
(played by Tabu), whose admirers in-
clude the charming but indolent son of
a state minister (Ishaan Khatter).
Davies was approached about adapt-
ing the book many years ago but
turned it down because he thought it
was too sprawling. However, after suc-
cessfully tackling War and Peace and
Les Misérables, he has developed “a
taste for doing these enormous things”.
He has remained “absolutely faith-
ful” to the book and there are none of
the risqué scenes for which he is fa-mous. A Suitable Boy is being directed
by Mira Nair, the award-winning film-
maker whose credits include Monsoon
Wedding and The Namesake.
Nair described the drama as “The
Crown in brown”, a reference to Netf-
lix’s lavish series, explaining: “That is a
bit of a joke I say, because it’s not really
an imitation of anything at all. But The
Crown is a great, magnificent sweep,
and I certainly see our tale as having
that magnificence and sweep.”
Speaking from India, where filming
is under way, Nair said: “It’s not about a
look at the Raj, it’s not about the white
saviour who comes and teaches us
how to become independent or any-
thing like that. It’s about our own
beautiful flaws and complexities
and peculiarities and loves.
“It’s an epic and intimate tale- epic in that it is really about In-
dia’s first national election in
1952, and how as the country
finds its voice, a young girl
finds her voice.” She insisted
on the Indian casting, which
she described as “radical for
England”, and said the BBC
backed the decision from the
beginning.
By Olivia RudgardPARENTS have been warned not to al-
low their children to travel alone in
Uber cars after complaints from drivers
they are being put under pressure to
break rules by carrying unaccompa-
nied minors.
Uber has a worldwide policy that
bars under-18s from setting up ac-
counts or riding alone. Drivers are told
to check ages by asking for ID, but
many are concerned about offending
their passengers or losing out on earn-
ings if they decline a customer.
The Sunday Telegraph spoke to a
number of parents who admitted al-
lowing their underage children to
travel in the cars alone using a parent’s
account, something which is against
the terms and conditions of the app.
James Farrar, the chair of United Pri-
vate Hire Drivers branch of the IWGB
union, said: “Drivers in the UK are in-
creasingly worried about minors usingride share services. As it stands, they
face an unwinnable dilemma – they are
often pressured into accepting minors
out of fear of being penalised for jour-
ney cancellations and refusals.”
A Transport for London spokesman
said its regulations require drivers to
undergo enhanced background
checks. Uber said that despite this, it
does not allow minors because they
cannot enter contracts or use a credit
card. Its policies state that drivers
should not be penalised for refusing to
pick up an unaccompanied child.
The company’s policies have come
under scrutiny in recent months after a
12-year-old girl from Florida travelled
alone in an Uber to a multi-storey car
park using her mother’s phone and
paid for it using a gift card, before
jumping to her death.
Many parents said they were con-
cerned about letting their teenage chil-
dren drive at night in busy cities, or
take unreliable public transport, and
saw Uber as a safer alternative.
Neither Uber nor its biggest US rival
Lyft ask for proof of age when signing
up new customers. Harry Campbell, an
Uber driver and blogger, founder of the
website the Rideshare Guy and author
of The Rideshare Guide, said: “It’s an is-
sue that Uber and Lyft are keenly aware
about, but obviously they make a lot of
money off these rides.”Tanya Maniktala,
right, who plays the
central role in A
Suitable Boy. Below,
Mira Nair, the
director‘It’s not about the white
saviour who comes andteaches us how to become
independent’18
The age at which Uber’s policy says a
person must be to set up an account or
travel alone in one of its taxisThe ladybird spider, only found in Dorset, is at risk of extinction after cuts to fundingРЕЛИЗ
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