Human drama in double time

It’s a rare day when an authentic tragic hero, in the classical sense, comes to television, where the idea that character equals fate has been typically the stuff of situation comedy (see “I Love Lucy,” “Seinfeld,” etc.). That is reason enough to welcome A&E;’s British-made adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s 1886 novel “The Mayor of Casterbridge,” which premieres Sunday night at 8 after a couple of years warming the shelf -- a kind of bitter tonic to remind us that, whatever TV usually implies, humankind is sometimes driven by things more complex than lust, greed and the desire for a brand-new look or bedroom suite.

It begins sensationally enough, with a drunken farm worker’s auction of his wife and child -- Hardy ripped his story from recent history if not quite from the headlines -- but it’s the slowly unfolding consequences of the act, and the warring of pride and shame, desire and decency within a terminally puzzled man, that make the drama.

That’s not as easy to translate as, say, the teeming melodrama of Dickens or the social comedy of Jane Austen, and while the adaptation is honorably faithful to the novel, it inevitably falls short. Hardy’s broad expanses of time and landscape, his sense of seasonal change and social milieu -- which can function almost as characters -- are given somewhat short shrift. Nervous, overly close camerawork isolates the characters from the setting and even from each other, while the need to cover a lot of ground in relatively short order means that the plot advances at times with the speed of a “Law & Order” investigation. (The DVD that A&E; will release at the end of next month runs substantially longer than this broadcast version, undoubtedly to the good.)

The actors are thus required sometimes to telescope pages of character development and authorial comment into a single meaningful look. For the most part, they’re up to it. Especially good are Ciaran Hinds (“Prime Suspect 3,” “Persuasion”) in the title role, and Jodhi May (“The House of Mirth”) as his long-lost (supposed) daughter; even in repose, May bursts with the urgency proper to a 19th century literary heroine. And Anglo-telephiles will happily note Jean Marsh, of “Upstairs Downstairs,” as a troublesome, plot-advancing old hag.

Though not nearly a triumph, this “Mayor of Casterbridge” is at least never dull; if not always moving, it’s consistently thought provoking, and when a scene is given space to breathe it’s everything you’d want it to be: deep, mysterious, real.

*

‘Mayor of Casterbridge’

Where: A&E;

When: Sunday, 8-11 p.m.

Rating: The network has rated it TV-G (suitable for all ages)