TV Reviews : Cloning a Tale of Genetic Adventures

At the very least, Fay Weldon is never boring.

“The Cloning of Joanna May,” Granada Television’s adaptation of her novel about intersecting genetic adventurism and obsessive love, shows at 5 p.m. and again at 9 p.m. Sunday on the Arts & Entertainment cable channel, which is consolidating the original three-part production into a three-hour bloc.

Although not as intriguing or satisfying as “The Life and Loves of a She Devil”--the TV rendering of another Weldon novel that A&E; is repeating March 7-8 and which preceded a cloddish theatrical movie version--this latest Weldon story has its own share of sex-minded oddball characters and dark, satirical wit.

Brian Cox and Patricia Hodge (who was Mary Fisher in “She Devil”) make an interesting pair as a former husband and wife who retain a perverse emotional attachment despite their acrimonious split. What Joanna (Hodge) discovers two decades after the fact is that Carl (Cox), under the guise of having her get an abortion, had her cloned when they were still married. As a result, three younger renditions of Joanna are in circulation somewhere, living separate lives, unaware that they are genetic spinoffs of a woman 20 years their senior.

Although the actresses playing the clones (Laura Eddy, Emma Hardy and Helen Adie) don’t resemble Hodge or each other enough to be convincing as replicas, director Philip Saville and script writer Ted Whitehead give a collaborative effort that preserves Weldon’s enticing weirdness. And don’t miss Cox’s grand performance as the mad, murderous, promiscuous Carl, whose attempts to thrust himself on his clones add a wickedly comic touch.

“For Richer, For Poorer” airs again on Monday and Thursday and March 10, 15 and 18.