His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman’s children’s fantasy series, seemed destined for instant-classic status when it was first published, in the second half of the 1990s. But, 25 years on, its strident anti-religiousness feels slightly puritanical. And, given the distinctly Jesuitical tinge of the evil Magisterium against which Pullman rails in the novels – they look and sound as if they’ve come straight from the Vatican rather than from tea with the archbishop of Canterbury – the trilogy reads less like My First Book of Atheism than as a potshot at Catholicism.
Perhaps that explains why the HBO-BBC adaptation of the saga, which comes to a close with its third season (BBC One, Sunday, 7pm), has failed to capture the public imagination. His Dark Materials should have landed like a YA Game of Thrones. Instead, the thunder of this by turns huffing and dreary show has been stolen by smarter, more nuanced teen-oriented fantasies such as Shadow and Bone, on Netflix, which makes its point about imperialism, misogyny and the evils of dogmatism without grabbing you by the scruff and yelling in your face.
[ His Dark Materials season one: A terrific Lyra, an invigorating fantasyOpens in new window ]
With hindsight, the charm of the books lay in the incidental pleasure of their race of armoured polar bears, the Panserbjørn. The bears’ CGI-rendered leader, Iorek Byrnison, makes a return as we begin the new season, adapted from Pullman’s The Amber Spyglass, the final book in the trilogy. He spruces up an exposition-heavy first episode that is all about setting up the story for the weeks ahead.
Our plucky heroine, Lyra (Dafne Keen), has been kidnapped by her evil mother, Mrs Coulter (a thrillingly villainous Ruth Wilson), who keeps her daughter in a drug-induced stupor. Meanwhile, Lyra’s friend Will (Amir Wilson) is searching the dimensions for her. He cuts his way between worlds using a magical knife that is essentially Dr Who’s Tardis in handy pocket-sized form.
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He encounters, on his wanderings, two angels, Baruch (Simon Harrison) and Balthamos (Kobna Holdbrook-Smith), who pursue him across worlds. They want Will as an ally; although he isn’t opposed to a team-up, his goal, for now, is to rescue Lyra.
Also on the hoof is Lyra’s father, Lord Asriel (James McAvoy). Accompanied by his “daemon” snow leopard, Stelmaria – a fluffy external manifestation of his superego – he’s assembling an army against the Authority, the aloof ruler of the universe. (The instalment is dedicated to the late Helen McCrory, who voiced Stelmaria in series one and two.) He is, therefore, about to wage Nietzschean war on God himself.
[ His Dark Materials, season two: Frankly it’s a bit of a dragOpens in new window ]
Even hard-core Pullman fans will likely admit that The Amber Spyglass is their least favourite of the His Dark Materials books. It’s the preachiest, and it has some weird stuff at the end about Lyra and Will having a spiritual awakening together.
On screen it’s slow out of the traps, and there is no sign yet of Simone Kirby, the Co Clare actor who plays the boffin and former nun Mary Malone. (It seems rather on-brand for Pullman that, when cooking up an ex-nun, he would give her an Irish-sounding name.) But the episode is rescued by the impressive Byrnison, a grumpy bear, sheathed in armour, whose bite and bark are equally terrifying. He’s great fun – a sparkle of the fantastical woven into what is otherwise a pretty dull tapestry.
