Heat Visits...Les Miserables

Kay Ribeiro hangs out with the stars of BBC1’s new (non-musical) version

It’s a beautiful day in the centre of Brussels, and we’re standing in a cobbled market place. Little stalls are selling loaves of bread, flowers and carafes of wine, and we’re surrounded by incredibly old-looking shops. If it wasn’t for a couple of strategically placed cherry pickers holding big cameras and tourists taking pictures on their iPhones, we’d think we really were in the 19th century, and the Eurostar was a time machine.

We are, in fact, on the set of Andrew Davies’ exciting new six-part adaptation of Victor Hugo’s classic novel Les Misérables, charting the struggle of France’s underclass and the 1832 Paris Uprising (with Brussels standing in for Paris). Already memorialised by the hit West End musical and Tom Hooper’s 2012 Oscar-winning movie, this visually stunning BBC period drama is no less lavish or ambitious, and boasts a suitably impressive star-studded cast.