The Singapore Grip
ITV

ITV’s lavish new four-part adaptation of J.G. Farrell’s 1978 novel about the British colony of Singapore and the city’s fall to the Japanese in 1942 has already attracted criticism from South and East Asian groups in Britain, who have found it “deeply upsetting” that the drama has only one major non-white character – the Chinese refugee, Vera Chang, who forms one part of the central love triangle.

There are complaints too that Vera (played by Elisabeth Tan) is an Asian stereotype, “all cheongsams and enigmatic smiles”. These are certainly delicate times to be attempting a period adaptation set in a British colony. On the basis of episode one (13 September), though, I agree that Vera is a cliché straight out of Shanghai Express – but then everyone in this drama staunchly conforms to stereotype. The half-naked yogi who entertains the British by biting the head off a snake at a colonial party; the silly, snobbish women; the mercenary British businessmen; the cowardly, chinless officials; the dim British servicemen; the fun-loving, free-spirited American soldiers. In Farrell’s wonderful, teeming satirical novel there is space and leisure to give these characters nuance and complexity, to let them unfold and surprise us. With only four episodes to play with, Christopher Hampton’s screenplay so far drives on the plot but its characters are one-dimensional types playing against an extravagant backdrop.