Elvis, as we all know, was an alien who has now gone back to his home planet. Paul McCartney is dead and has been replaced by a look-alike. As for Mozart, if he did actually exist, he didn’t die in 1791 but hid himself away in the Rossini family’s home where he worked as a ghostwriter for Gioachino. Or was he poisoned by his long-term rival, Antonio Salieri? This mystery with no historical basis has travelled down through the centuries and was put into writing in 1830 by way of Aleksandr Puškin’s short drama, Mozart e Salieri, which inspired Peter Shaffer’s stage play Amadeus, on which Miloš Forman then based his film, Amadeus, which scooped eight Oscars in 1985. Shaffer’s work has now given rise to the Sky Original series, Amadeus, created by Joe Barton, the first two episodes of which were screened in a world premiere in Milan’s Noir in Festival. The series is set to drop on Sky Atlantic and the streaming service Now on 21 December.

The narrating voice - deeply admiring yet irremediably envious towards Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - comes courtesy of Antonio Salieri, an esteemed Italian composer in the Viennese court of Emperor Joseph II. The series begins with an elderly Salieri attempting suicide by throwing himself out of a window. Mozart’s widow Constanze comes to him and Salieri confesses his crime: he tried to destroy his detested adversary’s reputation, eventually going so far as to kill him. The story takes us back to 1781, ten years before Amadeus’ death. This young man and immensely talented Salzburg-born composer is 25 years old and arrives in Vienna in search of success. He takes a room near to the home of Weber’s widow, who has three daughters, and he becomes attached to one of these girls, Constanze, marrying her the following year. Amadeus determines to enter into the Emperor’s good graces and Salieri secures an initial audience for him. The latter is astounded by the pure creative force of this musician, who produces a continuous stream of multifaceted melodic gems. But he’s also disgusted by his lifestyle. Attentive to etiquette and a deeply religious man, Salieri watches Amadeus fornicating with a soprano in an Imperial Palace bedroom, gorging himself and drinking wine to the point of exhaustion.

Barton shows us important moments in Amadeus’ life, such as his first commission from Emperor Joseph II, who believed opera to be a powerful instrument in his reformist frenzy: Abduction From the Seraglio was a success, despite the Emperor’s ridiculous reproach that the work involved “too many notes”. There’s also the death of their newborn baby, Raymond, while Amadeus and Costanze are in Salzburg visiting the composer’s father in an attempt at reconciliation. The first two episodes are shot at fast pace by Julian Farino. Comparing the series to Forman’s masterpiece would be a pointless exercise, though the series devised by Barton is, in some sense, indebted to the film. But despite relationships between characters and some key scenes remaining the same, many different plot points - Barton has explained – have been introduced, alongside new imaginary situations and references to historic events.

The famous high-pitched, childlike laughter offered up by US actor Tom Hulce has been replaced by foul language courtesy of British talent Will Sharpe, who’s perfectly at ease in Lisa Duncan’s golden-boy clothing. Sharpe’s Mozart is fully aware of his own talent, which breaks with inherited rules and reflects his perception of beauty through harmoniously composed symphonies. Sharpe nonchalantly channels the conflict between conservation and modernisation, between a traditional approach and non-conformity, and between conceiving musical compositions which appeal to established tastes and seeing it as an intimate practice. As Salieri, Paul Bettany delivers one of his most intense performances since Gangster nº 1 and A Beautiful Mind, and Gabrielle Creevy’s turn as Costanze is equally incisive.

Amadeus was produced by Two Cities Television in association with Sky Studios. NBCUniversal Global TV Distribution are managing world sales.