Four days before Almudena Grandes received the 2018 National Narrative Award for her novel Los pacientes del doctor García, José Luis Martín, screenwriter for series in the category of Isabel or Carlos, Rey Emperador, received one of the most complicated commissions for she has faced in her extensive career: adapting the award-winning novel into a series, the first based on a book by the writer.
Five years later, that challenge sees the light tonight on La 1 and on Netflix -the first series to be broadcast simultaneously on public television and on a pay platform-. Doctor García’s patients is the last legacy of Almudena Grandes, the most ambitious, the most difficult, a “gift”, very “complex”, in the words of the team that has searched hard since October 19, 2018 -it won the award on the 23rd-, to be faithful to the novel, to be faithful to her.
“When they proposed it to me, I presented a first sketch, then ‘the bible’ and then the scripts,” says Martín. “Years passed between that first sketch and the end of filming, which was last July. I found out that Almudena was aware of the scripts that last day and it’s a shame because I would have liked to explain why I did it that way, why I decided not to tell certain secondary stories from his book, certain characters… If any book is your creature, a book like this in which blood, sweat and tears were left, it is difficult for them to modify it”, he affirms.
But Almudena Grandes did participate in this series co-produced by RTVE, Diagonal (Banijay Iberia) and DeAPlaneta, with the participation of Netflix. According to Joan Noguera, director of this blockbuster, the author was able to read several of the chapters before she died and she was able to see the casting, “but we would have loved it if she had been here.”
It is not an easy novel and the series had to be made easy
In fact, both Martín and Noguera and Javier Rey, Doctor García in the series, were most obsessed with the fact that the series was one hundred percent faithful to the book. “I couldn’t allow myself what happens when you read Breakfast at Tiffany’s, by Truman Capote, and then you see Breakfast at Tiffany’s in which the characters have nothing to do with the book,” Martín confesses.
And that is the reason that Los pacientes del doctor García arrives five years after that proposal: to respect the legacy of Almudena Grandes as much as possible. More than 2,500 extras, 150 locations, more than 200 characters played by dozens of actors of all nationalities… In short, a blockbuster that is difficult to see today on free-to-air television.
“The novel is for a reader who has a certain pedigree,” Martín confesses, “who likes to read, who knows how to read, while the audience for the series is much broader, like the audience for any series. It is not an easy novel and the series had to be made easy”, he adds and concludes forcefully: “What we could not afford is that someone who has read the book is disappointed”.
Although several works by Almudena Grandes have been made into movies (Las edades de Lulú, Malena is a tango name, Los aires difíciles), it is the first time in Spain that one of her novels has reached the small screen. Los pacientes del doctor García takes place over 40 years in which great political and social changes take place, both in Spain and in Europe, an added challenge for actors, art teams, makeup and directors when it comes to portraying places and periods that appear in the novel.
It is not only the complexity of adapting 40 years of history -from 1936 to 1978- to a series, it is the innumerable spaces, the historical burden, the difficulty of the characters, the temporary jumps, the reflections… One does not get a National Award of Narrative because yes. The Civil War, the factions, the suffering, the hope, Europe, the defeat, the victories… “Yours, mine, ours, yours… Then people are surprised that we are at war”, Doctor García tells Amparo in the first minutes of the series.
“It is what the horror of war has, which leads to absolutely extreme and crazy situations for those caught in the middle. It has happened, it happens, sadly and it will happen. It is a tendency of the human being and it is reflected in incredible novels, movies , series, but I think people forget them and that’s why we have to show it and tell it,” says Javier Rey about the spirit of Los pacientes del doctor García.
Javier Rey, the protagonist, already immersed in his new job, did not get to agree with the writer, but he was aware at all times of how involved she was in the production of the series. “For me it is a source of pride because it is much more than a television series. It is an exciting story,” says the actor.
We would have loved to see that Almudena is proud of the work we have done
Authentic efforts were made so that all those spaces and places -the Riofrío Palace, the Quinta del Pardo, the Guadalajara Fort, the Military Casino…- that Almudena Grandes described in her work could be present. But also the international locations, which are not few: Russia, Argentina, Germany… They could not be filmed on location due to the cost involved, but the production team worked their ass off to make them appear in the series, so that they would not be not lose a single drop of the essence of the novel. “The most complex thing was being able to reach each era with that 40-year difference and have it have an absolute reality, and have it be true,” says the director.
“It’s not a series about the Civil War,” adds Rey, “that’s the starting point, but it’s 40 years and what counts is a post-war giant and what it means. “We accompany these characters in that ‘non-life’ that have had to live”, says
Whoever has read the book by Almudena Grandes and tonight sits in the armchair at home to see the first chapter of the series will be able to breathe easy. Los pacientes del doctor García goes beyond a faithful adaptation of the novel. And a good part of it is due to that casting that Almudena Grandes witnessed.
Guillermo García, played by Javier Rey, is the Guillermo García that you imagine while you are reading the book. Amparo Priego, played by a sublime Verónica Echegui, is the Amparo of the book, the Amparo who finds herself alone in a Madrid that has not yet fallen into the hands of the rebel forces; the Amparo that in the midst of so much horror manages to steal more than one smile, even a laugh from the viewer. Manuel Arroyo, is Tamar Novas, is the intrigue, the tension, the hidden side that wins wars. And many, many other characters, other actors who absorbed the novel “until they became obsessed.”
“We would have loved to see that Almudena is proud of the work we have done,” says Noguera. It is impossible to know what Almudena Grandes would have thought of the series, but for those who have already seen the series there is no doubt: “It is Almudena, they are her patients.”
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