Wives and Daughters

I already knew this was going to be fab after I'd watched the first one, because I have seen lots of the BBC costume dramas, and they are always fab, and I was not disappointed in Wives and Daughters. The cast are (as always) excellent. Particulely Justine Waddel (Estella in Great Expectations) and Keeley Hawes (Lizzy in Our Mutal Friend) I can't wait for the final episode. I'm dying to see what happens!!

A treasure, really. I enjoy films portraying this period, but this is above all my favorite. The acting is incredibly touching. I was in awe with the portrayal of the story throughout its entirety.

Waddell portrayed the character of Molly so well, it made me ache for her. Her obvious childishness throughout the movie makes her eventual development so much more satisfying. She is one of the best dynamic characters I have seen on film. Paterson is all at once likable, firm, loving to his daughter, annoying, and trustworthy. Truly a real characters, full of depth, intricacies, and idiosyncrasies.

This movie reads like an excellent, cozy book. I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys excellent acting and reading fine literature.

The BBC TV miniseries Wives and Daughters (1999) was directed by Nicholas Renton. It's based on the novel written by Elizabeth Gaskell (1810 - 1865). Mrs. Gaskell's work was fairly well know in the 19th Century, but she faded into obscurity until the mid-20th Century. Now critics--particularly feminist critics--have brought her work back into view. The BBC has produced miniseries of three of her novels--this one, Cranford, and North and South.

Although written in 1865, the novel is set in rural England in the 1830's. This was before railroads became the dominant transportation system in England. Horses and stagecoaches were the standard form of transportation. That's where the BBC comes into its own--BBC directors love horses, dogs, sheep, cows, etc. The BBC really knows how to make modern England look like pre-Victorian England.

Although Mrs. Gaskell wrote a generation after Jane Austen, her novels deal with similar situations. Wives and Daughters shows us a strong, intelligent, attractive woman who needs to marry someone who will acknowledge her excellent qualities.

The problem is that her widower father marries a woman who also has a daughter. Although Molly (Justine Waddell) is attractive, her step sister Cynthia (Keeley Hawes) is extraordinarily beautiful. Men come to court Molly, but it's love at first sight when they see Cynthia. That's the basic plot, but there are many ramifications, secrets, and unexpected twists.

As usual, the BBC has assembled an excellent ensemble cast. I was particularly impressed by Waddell and Hawes. Francesca Annis as the-- somewhat--evil stepmother, and Michael Gambon as Squire Hamley were both outstanding. (Sir Michael is alive and well, but he's no longer young. What will the BBC do without him?)

I really enjoyed this miniseries. Because it was made for TV it works well on the small screen. Wives and Daughters has an outstanding IMDb rating of 8.1. I thought that it was even better than that, and rated it 9.

P.S. Sadly, Mrs. Gaskell died just before completing the novel. That means that the BBC had to invent the final chapter. I think they did a good job with that, although we can never know.

This is quite simply an exceptional piece of television theater which the BBC has justifiably gained a world wide reputation for. An outstanding cast bring to life a riveting story of ,intrigue, loyalty, and romance which will delight and enthral all devotee's of the costume drama.

The BBC version of Elizabeth Gaskell's "Cranford" a few years back was mostly about Dame Judi and her spinster cronies and their unbecoming bonnets, but this wonderful series, based on Mrs. G's last novel, focuses on the younger generation: Roger Hamley, the old squire's younger son, seems like a perfect match for Molly Gibson, the doctor's daughter; he's a budding naturalist, she reads Lamarck and other serious works; they both enjoy looking at pondwater through the microscope.

The problem is that Molly's father has just remarried, which brings Cynthia, a vivacious, not-so-serious stepsister, into the picture; before he sets out on a lengthy expedition, Roger proposes to Cynthia. This leaves Molly with plenty of time to help the other characters sort things out—Cynthia's unfortunate entanglement with a caddish young striver (Iain Glen, currently seen on "Game of Thrones"), Roger's older brother's estrangement from their temperamental father (a perfect part for Michael Gambon; twenty years after Waterloo, the old squire's still hatin' on the French).

Master adapter Andrew Davies, assisted by a near-perfect cast, really gets us involved in such no-longer-burning questions as whether a young lady who's "lost her character" by talking with a young man in a secluded spot could get it back by swanning around town for an afternoon with a peer's daughter; Rosamund Pike is charming, and gets to wear the best costumes, as the latter (I wanted to call her the duchess ex machina, but I think she's just the daughter of an earl).

Francesca Annis is clearly enjoying herself in the role of Molly's stepmother, Hyacinth, a scheming, moralizing ex-governess; Dad seems to find her adorable, because she's not the boss of him and, despite the unflattering Mid-Victorian coiffure, she's still Francesca Annis. Though Mrs. Gaskell was a reformer and a progressive on the issues of her day—she clearly approves of Molly and Cynthia's ladylike revolt against the town's gossips and prigs—it's interesting that she weighs in on the current stay-at-home-mom debate by portraying Cynthia as a fractious adolescent who resents her mother for "abandoning" her to go to work as a governess.

Justine Waddell may be a bit too glamorous for the part of Molly, but that doesn't strike me as a dealbreaker; Keeley Hawes, who seems to have had a corner on out-of-control ingenue roles that year (see "The Last September"), is just right for Cynthia. Available on streaming Netflix and Amazon Prime.