Crime and punishment

Sam Claflin stars as the wronged hero seeking vengeance in Alexandre Dumas' timeless tale

- ELAINE PENN, STEVEN PERKINS

NEW DRAMA The Count of Monte Cristo Saturday, 9pm, U&Drama (box set, U)

Revenge is a dish best served cold, but what happens when your desire for retribution festers for so long that it consumes your whole existence? That's the question at the heart of Alexandre Dumas' classic 1846 novel The Count of Monte Cristo, which receives a new eight-part adaptation beginning this week on U&Drama. Peaky Blinders' Sam Claflin stars as Edmond Dantès, a French sailor whose good fortune sparks such jealousy in his rivals Danglars (The Gilded Age's Blake Ritson) and Fernand (The Borgias' Harry Taurasi) that they conspire to have him charged with treason.

After prosecutor Gérard de Villefort (Borgen's Mikkel Boe Følsgaard) has him imprisoned in the Château d'If, a grim island fortress off Marseilles, Edmond is left to brood on the great wrong that has been done to him. But when fellow prisoner Abbé Faria (Jeremy Irons), who is nearing death, tells Edmond of a vast treasure that's stashed on the island of Monte Cristo, Edmond seizes the opportunity to escape, find the riches and assume a new identity as a wealthy count, while secretly planning to destroy those who ruined his life.