A fun romp set from Daniel Defoe's 1722 novel focusing a poor orphan girl who seeks wealthy life in England . Born in London's Newgate prison , at the beginning she becomes a house servant , and after that , Moll embarks on her first marriage , but being soon widowed and then she decides to make her own way and fortune as well as misfortunes . As Moll (Alex Kingstone) is a beautiful female chased around every bedchamber in London town . Moll Flanders (female derivative of Tom Jones) plots to get ahead through an advantageous series of romances and marriages . Moll ulteriorly marries various lovers , and briefly finds happiness in America until she to be aware by her actual mother (Diana Rigg) that married to a brother , committing incest . But Moll's plans are ruined again when she falls in love for a mysterious aristocrat , who results to be a wanted highway man (Daniel Craig) . As she falls for an impoverished stagecoach robber and she flees from him . Her ulterior life as a whore and thief leads her to drink and near suicide , despite the unwavering friendship of another robber female , and subsequently , things get dreary , landing in prison and a likely candidate for the gallows . However , the ever-enterprising Flanders always finds her way . Not surprisingly , love , cash and marriages conquer all . As at the end , Sir James and lady Molly Seagrave became very rich and well respected citizens , one of the foremost families in America , and quite forgot their former crimes... and rightly so . We cannot always be wringing our hands over the past . In truth , we do what we must , get by any way we can . We are all on the Wheel of Fortune .
TV Mini-series in four episodes well played , compellingly made and adequately setting . A series much after the style of ¨Tom Jones¨ and ¨Fanny Hill¨ with bag of incident and color . This period piece turns out to be the 4th on-screen adaptation of Daniel Defoe's 1722 novel , though it misses of the lip-smacking period relish spoiled with abundant sexual scenes , nudism and mediocre photography . Being pretty faithfully to Defoe novel in telling the fortunes and misfortunes of this lively hustler who eventually finds herself working at the brothel of greed and with a scheming landlady . This adaptation moves the setting of the novel forward a few decades . In the novel, adding up the dates reveals that Moll first goes up to London in the late 1630s , and begins her career as a thief in the 1660s ; in this series, however, these events are associated with Moll attending two plays "The Country Wife" (1675) and "The Way of the World" (1700) ; as the costumes are appropriate to this later period . Nice acting from Alex Kingstone as the wickedly seductive Moll , a spirited heroine who becomes a robber , a prostitute , marries several times and eventually winds up in prison . Alex Kingstone holds everything together with help a talented supporting casting . As the secondary cast is frankly good such as Christopher Fulford , James Fleet , Diana Rigg , Tom Ward , Roger Ashton-Griffiths , Ronald Frazer and Daniel Craig who years later would star in the James Bond films .
Other films based on the bawdy , rousing retelling from Daniel Defoe's novel are the followings : ¨ The amorous adventures of Moll Flanders¨ (1965) by Terence Young with Kim Novak , Richard Johnson , Lilli Palmer , Vittorio De Sica , George Sanders , Leo McKern ; and ¨Moll Flanders¨ (1996) by Pen Densham with Robin Wright Penn , Stockard Channing , Brenda Fricker , John Lynch and Morgan Freeman as a dignified servant . Furthermore , TV rendition (1976) ¨Moll Flanders¨ with Julia Foster , Kenneth Haigh , Barry Jackson and Ian Ogilvy .
