| Brooding David Morrissey, compelling Anna Maxwell Martin and a script from literary adapter supreme Andrew Davies, sweeping Yorkshire landscapes, love, sex and politics. Who would ask for anything more of a period drama? Hot on the heels of Downton Abbey and Upstairs Downstairs, along comes a more contemporary costume drama, South Riding, which is set in the Depression-era North.
Adapted from Winifred Holtby’s 1936 novel, the BBC1 drama tell the thoroughly modern story of Sarah Burton, an idealistic Yorkshire headmistress, who must choose between the career she has fought for, and unexpected late love. Anna Maxwell Martin plays Sarah, opposite David Morrissey as the local landowner farmer who captures her heart. She says, “My character is in love with a man who doesn’t want her, another character is in love with me. There is politics, humour and, of course, sex.” Many of the novel’s themes echo Holtby’s own life; the daughter of a prosperous Yorkshire farming family, she went to Oxford in 1919, where she became friends with Vera Brittain (mother of Shirley Williams). Both women became writers (Brittain’s Testament of Youth), but Holtby never married and her life tragically cut short when she died of a kidney condition at 37. Expect, as ever, a modern take from Davies: “What appealed to me most is how fresh and relevant it feels, even though it was written and set in the 1930’s. It’s a terrific love story but it’s also a portrait of a whole community in turmoil, with the country in recession. I feel as if we’ve re-discovered a forgotten masterpiece.” Radio Times January 1st - 7th 2011 |
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