BBC Mini Series: North and South
The other day we watched a BBC costume drama, North and South , a 2004 TV adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell’s novel. I have owned the DVD for a couple of years, which was bought together with another BBC period drama, Cranford . At that time, I was unaware of either Gaskell the author or her work. I still haven’t read the original of North and South but have heard that the TV adaptation is quite faithful to the written story. The drama itself is worth watching for its romance, social concerns, its first-class acting, great chemistry between the main actors and atmosphere-creating cinematography. The story takes place in England in the nineteenth-century when English society was divided between its industrial north and the middle-class south. A young lady, Margaret Hale, moves to Milton with her middle-class family from a southern town, Helston; she then struggles to overcome her shock at the ruthlessness of the northern culture, learns to ada...