Andrew Davies: Between the lines

With his sexy adaptations of 'Daniel Deronda' and 'Doctor Zhivago' about to hit our screens, Andrew Davies tells Louise Jury why he filled in the gaps

Andrew Davies would like everyone to know that his highly charged screen adaptations of the classics are about more than just sex. He may be known as the writer who gave Colin Firth's Darcy wet-shirt sex appeal in Austen's Pride and Prejudice, and whose forthcoming version of Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago sees the young schoolgirl Lara controversially taking the initiative in getting the much older man, Komarovsky, into the bedroom.

But he gets "a bit fed up" with defending himself against critics who object that the sex was not there in the original. "There are people who argue that 19th-century novels should be left entirely alone. But it is quite clear that George Eliot and Trollope and Thackeray were very interested in sex and wanted to write about it," he says. "The conventions of their time were that they couldn't do it directly, but the convention of our time is that we can. So I gladly embrace the freedom to do that."

His willingness to do so will be amply demonstrated over the next few weeks. This Saturday evening, BBC 1 unveils Daniel Deronda, Davies's adaptation of George Eliot's novel of love and identity. The following night, ITV will begin screening its ambitious new production of Zhivago, an £8m project destined to garner comparisons with David Lean's much-loved 1965 film starring Omar Sharif and Julie Christie.

The highly publicised potential clash between the two blockbuster productions – which would have seen the 66-year-old Davies going head to head with himself for ratings – was averted late in the day when the BBC ceded its traditional Sunday-night classic drama slot rather than risk losing the battle for an audience.

Although the mischievous Davies became quite twinkly-eyed with amusement when the two sides were arguing it out, he is pleased that audiences will not have to choose between them – not least because he has been working on Deronda for the last seven years. "It's very difficult – nobody has ever cracked the script before, because the book has these rather dull periods and the hero is rather dull. But Gwendolen [the heroine] is a fascinating character – a spoilt, lovely, flawed beauty."

He suspects that it is the lavishly filmed Doctor Zhivago that will win the ratings war, however. And although he is conscious of the Lean version, he says that going back and rereading the book made clear that there was plenty of material that never made the film. For spectacle, he is not sure how Slovakia and the Czech Republic compare with the vast snowy wastes of the film epic. But Davies thinks that Keira Knightley, the 17-year-old star of Bend It Like Beckham, beats Julie Christie in the Lara role hands down. "She really does look like a schoolgirl, which Julie Christie never really did," he says.

He describes Doctor Zhivago as a "poet's book", but claims that Pasternak "never writes the scenes that you want him to write". When Komarovsky seduces the schoolgirl Lara, Davies says: "There's all this stuff about Lara's confused feelings. Then you turn the page and you realise that she's already in the middle of a full-on affair with him, and she's feeling a mixture of sexual excitement and a tremendous amount of shame and guilt and self-disgust. But what I want to know is, what did he say and what did she say and how did they get to the bedroom?"

And that is where Davies fills in the gaps. "In a way, that frees you up to imagine it for yourself."

Andrew Davies was originally a teacher – choosing teacher-training to avoid doing National Service – and wrote in his spare time. His first play was produced for the BBC in the 1960s by the legendary drama producer Ken Trodd, who was particularly known for his work with Dennis Potter. He laughs that his career languished for half a dozen years when Trodd chose Simon Gray as the up- and-coming writer to foster instead of him. But it got underway eventually, with novels and children's books as well as television drama, although he was 50 before he gave up the teaching.

One of his breakthrough series was A Very Peculiar Practice, which he created as well as wrote. But he admits that it is easier doing adaptations than writing his own scripts. "Thinking up plots has never been one of my strongest points." And he prefers the great classics to adapting airport dross. "It's easier because they're better constructed, have better characters and better dialogue."

Yet working for television today is very different from his early days with the BBC. "Individual producers don't seem to have so much independence any more. They have lost the confidence to let talented people do their own thing. There's too much control-freakery," he says. ITV lacks the legions of executive producers, "but the differences between ITV and the BBC are exaggerated. You meet the same sort of people at both".

His complaints are minor, however, compared with his evident delight in the job. Not least, he likes the fringe benefits such as the parties where he can indulge his love of a good drink and conversation with beautiful women. For all his protestations that everyone thinks that he is obsessed by sex, it is easy to see why. A giant poster of a buxom Alex Kingston as Moll Flanders dominates the study where he works, and there are also several pictures of the enchanting young Keira Knightley. But Davies lives not in the social whirl of London but in Kenilworth, near Coventry, where his social life is dominated by his wife, Diana, an artist, and the television. "I do watch a great deal," he says. He writes not for the London media but for people like the woman who cuts his hair at the local barbers – "somebody not educated but intelligent, who gets moved, amazed, aroused by watching drama from EastEnders to Deronda".

And his output is prodigious. Filming is currently taking place in Romania for his life of Boudicca, starring Alex Kingston, again for ITV. He is working on a new Trollope, He Knew He Was Right, for the BBC. And he has written the latest Bridget Jones film, and says that he is always open to offers on the movie front.

"You make much more money, but you have much less power," he notes. "I know that I got either $200,000 or $250,000 for the first Bridget Jones film, and rather more for the second. I actually don't know how much I get for six episodes of a television script. But writing for television in this country means that I do have a lot of say in what I'm doing. It gets called, 'an Andrew Davies adaptation'. In Hollywood, people hardly notice the writer."

Two factors contribute to his being so much in demand. He is quick and he is a very bankable name. In these days of tight budgets, his involvement minimises the risks of a project as far as it is possible to do so. "I know that there are other writers who I'm sure are wonderful, and they're gnashing their teeth because I get all these jobs. But I'm not going to graciously step down, I'm afraid," he says. "I want to keep this career of mine going as long as I can."

It will be little consolation to his rivals that Davies senior is just turning 96.

'Daniel Deronda' starts on Saturday on BBC 1 at 8.55pm. 'Doctor Zhivago' starts on Sunday on ITV at 9pm