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Reinvented Eddie Murphy as the Nutty Professor in yet another reimaging of the Jekyll and Hyde story

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Robert Louis Stevenson

A chilling account of human folly, misery and wretchedness, it unveils the tragic life of a good doctor who becomes a victim of his own discovery.

Stevenson is supposed to have dreamt the story. “Practically it came to me as a gift,” he said. “I am quite in the habit of dreaming stories…They sometimes come to me in the form of nightmares, in so far that they make me cry out aloud. But I am never deceived by them…For instance, all I dreamed about Dr Jekyll was that one man was being pressed into a cabinet, when he swallowed a drug and changed into another being. I awoke and said at once that I had found the missing link for which I had been looking so long, and before I again went to sleep almost every detail of the story, as it stands, was clear to me. Of course, writing it was another thing.”

Published in January 1887, “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde” became an instant success. Over the next century, the novel inspired several major films and stage performances (including comedy “The Nutty Professor”.)Australia Network is presenting its own version of the story this weekend. “Jekyll and Hyde - The True Story” promises to reveal interesting facts of the classic saga. “By day, William Brodie was a prosperous businessman, faithful husband and loving father and a respected Edinburgh civic and church leader.

What no one knew, until his very public trial and bizarre hanging, was that by night Brodie turned gambler, pimp, sexual predator and masked leader of one of Edinburgh’s most notorious gangs. Brodie had fascinated Robert Louis Stevenson all of his life so in 1886, when he was asked to come up with a ‘shilling shocker’ he jumped at the chance. Brodie’s incredible true story and Stevenson’s fictional refashioning of it, takes us into the scientific debate over the reality of the split or multiple personality.”

So keep your date with horror on Australia Network at 6 pm on 9 February; the program would be re-telecast at 10 pm on Feb. 9, and 9 am / 1 pm on Feb. 10.

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