HOLLYWOOD — Nothing says yuletide to an American like a story of Jolly Old England — something about the top hats and scarves, perhaps, and the half-formed thought that there might be no Christmas without Charles Dickens. It is convenient, then, that tonight (Thanksgiving, the unofficial first day of Christmas) BBC America premieres a new production of Thomas Hughes' 1857 novel, "Tom Brown's Schooldays." A tale of the British Rugby boarding school in the 1830s, it's a well-made, sometimes exciting adaptation. It's generally true to the spirit of Hughes' book, though tweaked to satisfy more modern ideas of justice, psychology and social order, not to mention dramatic motivation.

As the essential model for "Harry Potter," it was only a matter of time until the story would be remade. Here, as in J.K. Rowling's books, we have the relationship of a wise and kindly, yet stern, headmaster and a boy with potential — not the smartest kid on the block, but full of native virtue and physical courage.

Stephen Fry, the only marquee name, plays the real Rugby headmaster, Dr. Thomas Arnold, who hovers over the whole book but only occasionally appears in it. The script makes Arnold's first term at Rugby concurrent with Tom's, and the story here is as much Tom Arnold's schooldays as it is Tom Brown's, as the doctor attempts to bring the school into the 19th century."

The new film is more sensational and, surprisingly, more sentimental than its source. As Hughes' book is less of a plotted novel than a kind of nostalgic, episodic fictionalized memoir, filtered through a character based on his brother George, the raw drama here has inevitably been amplified. The villain, the famous Flashman, moves to the center of the action and is promoted from mere bully to a thoroughly bad egg: smoking, drinking, gambling and seducing girls when not torturing our hero and his friends.

The last straw comes when he attacks Arthur (Harry Smith), a sickly new boy put in Tom's charge.

"You're a very strange fellow, Arthur, and strangeness does not flourish here," says Tom.

"It would be a dull old world if we all had to be the same," Arthur says, planting a seed of wisdom in our hero. He also claims not to believe in violence.

"Of course you believe in violence," sneers Tom. "You're British."

And yet violence turns out to be the answer — as it usually does in stories about bullies.