There has been much criticism over Granada's decision to remake The Forsyte Saga, but they're just following a trend for reinventing the classics. And anyway, who can remember much of the black and white 1967 original?

Granada has been rightly irritated by people criticising the decision to make a new version of The Forsyte Saga for ITV. They've pointed out that nobody complains when Dickens classics are remade, or at the conveyor belt of productions of the same old Shakespeare plays.

What admirers of the original - but do you actually know anyone who can remember much about the 1967 Saga apart from the infamous rape scene? - are really afraid of is that a much-loved piece of television will be overshadowed by a superior new version.

The latest has the advantage of being in colour, not black and white. The £6.5m budget, too, is a lot bigger than the £250,000 spent on the BBC production, although it was the costliest TV drama series ever at the time.

They're also taking things more slowly. The six episodes already filmed cover only the first two books. ITV bosses are so confident, they've already commissioned a second series.

This 2002 version isn't so much a remake as an interpretation. How far you can interpret a costume drama is debatable. A radical reworking would have to set it in modern dress and relocate it to Arizona.

The ITV adaptation looks like playing it by the book with lavish sets, gorgeous costumes and the obligatory all-star cast of vaguely familiar actors. Or over-familiar in the case of Ioan Gruffudd, making his third major TV appearance in as many weeks, following Hornblower and Man And Boy.

Whether Damian Lewis and Gina McKee can measure up to the original Soames and Irene of Eric Porter and Nyree Dawn Porter remains to be seen.

They're younger than the previous cast, a deliberate decision of the makers. "The main characters are meant to be young, sexy and good-looking. We've gone for the youthful passion angle," says producer Sita Williams.

Those who see The Forsyte Saga as a BBC type project, not one for commercial TV, are merely being snobby. Two of the most prestigious drama series ever, Brideshead Revisited and Jewel In The Crown, both originated at ITV. Next up is an adaptation of Boris Pasternak's blockbuster Doctor Zhivago, currently being filmed for that channel.

No matter which channel is doing it, the reinventing of successful series is nothing new. Colin Firth became a wet shirt pin-up as his dripping Darcy emerged from the water in Pride And Prejudice in 1995. Nobody complained they'd seen it all before in previous BBC adaptations of Jane Austen's novel in 1958, 1968 and 1980.

The cinema is well used to filming the same story over and over again, so why should TV be banned from doing the same? Bringing a half-baked new idea to the screen seems silly when a tried and tested one can prove just as effective the second, third, and maybe fourth, time around.

Charles Dickens remains one of the most filmed authors, on TV as well as film. The most recent BBC small screen Great Expectations featured Charlotte Rampling as Miss Haversham and the oh-so-busy Ioan Gruffudd as Pip.

ITV's attempts to usurp the BBC as the number one classic drama provider have moved on apace in the past few years. Alan Bleasdale adapted Oliver Twist for the network. Nicholas Nickleby featured James D'Arcy in the title role. Another version is due to start filming soon with Queer As Folk's Charlie Hunnam as Nick Nick and Jamie Bell, the Billingham teenager of Billy Elliot fame, as Smike.

One-time James Bond, Timothy Dalton, was Mr Rochester in the 1983 BBC Jane Eyre. ITV managed to cram Charlotte Bronte's story into a two-hour movie. Band Of Gold's Samantha Morton played Jane to Ciaran Hinds's Rochester.

The most recent David Copperfield, shown on the BBC two years ago, offers the chance to see an early performance by a now-famous actor.

Among established stars like Bob Hoskins and Maggie Smith, is Daniel Radcliffe, who played Copperfield as a youngster. He's better known now as the screen Harry Potter.

We're not just talking the classics. A good character can be exploited endlessly. Robin Hood was a hit from 1955 to 1959 with Richard Greene as the Sherwood Forest hero. That didn't prevent the BBC making The Legend Of Robin Hood in 1977 or hinder the success of Robin Of Sherwood which ran for four years in the 1980s with two Robins, Michael Praed and then Jason Connery.

Coincidentally, the actors playing Will Scarlet in both went on to greater things - Paul Eddington from the first series, and Ray Winstone from the second.

Baroness Orczy's French Revolution undercover agent The Scarlet Pimpernel was impersonated by Marius Goring, who'd previously played the hero on radio, in an ITV series from the mid-1950s. The BBC resurrected the they-seek-him-here-they-seek-him-there recently with Richard E Grant as the foppish Englishman.

AJ Cronin's The Adventures Of A Black Bag had a good run on BBC in the early 1960s as Dr Finlay's Casebook with grumpy old Dr Cameron, sympathetic younger doctor Finlay and housekeeper Janet rambling about Arden House in Tannachbrae.

ITV's 1993 revival failed to match that success as Ian Bannen, David Rintoul (Darcy in the 1980 Pride And Prejudice) and Annette Crosbie took over from Andrew Cruickshank, Bill Simpson and Barbara Mullen.

If The Forsyte Saga is a gamble, then one planned remake seems even riskier - The Likely Lads.

James Bolam and Rodney Bewes made the parts of Terry and Bob their own in the Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais comedy series. Geordies Ant and Dec deserve full marks for bravery in stepping into their shoes. Whether they'll get equal praise for their performances remains to be seen.

* The Forsyte Saga begins on ITV at 9pm tomorrow.

Published: 06/06/2002