The Long Song

Many people see a show like this and immediately pick on small details about the times or actual history. Well this is fiction, most historical shows are because we don't what actually happened. If you want a story close to the truth watch the History Channel and as far as black and white goes watch something made in the 1950s.

Its ok. Zip fasteners on the dresses though! A 20th century invention. Always a crass mistake.

Adapted from a fictional novel about the before, during and after the abolition of slavery.

This lengthy saga was very successfully realised in this BBC drama. You sensed the author had conglomerated several lives to raise situations and issues that would sustain a long novel.

This sense of expanse played well and there was fine acting throughout. This was great Sunday night viewing and with the entertainment we learnt a great deal about some difficult truths about sugar production.

Not because it is true, as it isn't. Nor because such stories have not been told before, which they have. But because to forget the evils depicted would be to diminish ourselves.

A powerful and moving drama, which shows both the horrors of slavery, with casual cruelty borne of disregard for the human-ness of people of a different colour, and more unusually the on going torment faced by those newly freed. Highly recommended.

Period dramas are extremely common in the UK. There are gritty adaptations to more romanticize tales. The Long Song's is told from a slave's perspective. And the series succeeds on this point. Most audiences, even a British one, are more aware of America's experience of abolishing slavery. The Long Song shows what happens in the Caribbean - it was a time where slaves were rebelling more frequently, making it more dangerous for slave owners.

The series shows that slavery ended for two reasons in the British Empire. The slaves were rebelling and becoming harder to control.There was also a moral campaign in Britain to abolish slavery. The wit that goes along with the heroine's hardships makes this a surprisingly funny but dark look at the end of slavery in Jamaica.

Miss July (Tamara Lawrance) has known nothing except life on a sugar plantation in Jamaica. Taken from her mother at seven years old because Caroline (Hayley Atwell) took a fancy to her as a house slave, July fetches and carries for her mistress, endures her frequent temper tantrums. Tamara Lawrance is wonderful as Miss July.

Despite the heavy subject matter The Long Song was also fairly humorous. Most of this was concentration on Hayley Atwell's character. Caroline is shown to be spoiled and child-like who becomes irate when she doesn't get her way. The character was similar to Queen Anne in The Favourite - a mentally unstable woman in a position of power. The humor helps prevents the series from being too heavy.

The series had cinematic quality even though it was set in the confines of the plantation. The show was shot on location and like any costume drama the production values were of the highest order. There were great looking costumes, scenery, and cinematography. The slave rebellion and Richard's war with the workers added to cinematic quality because of the scale of the scenes and chaos that was happening.

The Long Song was an excellent mini-series that looked at a fascinating period of history and gives audiences an alternative perspective.