Nord et Sud

I'm a history teacher so I'm very critical of adaptations, especially those that sentimentalize the past in any way. This is a superb rendering of the spirit of the industrial age and the many facets of class struggle within it. It's also a richly romantic love story. The acting by all the cast is uniformly excellent but Richard Armitage as Thornton is a stand-out. The BBC is well-known for their meticulous attention to detail with locations and costumes. The working 19C mills used in the film are like watching a Jacob Riis photograph springing to life. The cinematography is gorgeous and the music is outstanding. This is the best historic fiction on screen I've ever seen.

Just what you need for a cold winter Sunday night! It's nice to have something to really get into, but the 4 weeks it was on went way too fast! The sets, costumes and acting were excellent, especially Richard Armitage's performance as mill owner John Thornton. He's got a brilliant deep, brooding sort of look about him, but with a softer, kind side too that is gradually revealed as the story goes on. The way Richard Armitage portrayed these two sides of Thornton's character was amazing. And as well as being a great actor, he's also very, very good looking! Nice smile (though we don't see it very often - so it's lucky he looks good when being moody/troubled!!)and a lovely voice. (sounds a bit like Sean Bean as a matter of fact!) Oh I'm going to miss this series! But honestly, not just because of Mr Thornton; it really was a gripping story and a great drama. The music was brilliant too, really capturing the mood and feel of the dark, industrial setting.

I bought the DVD version for my wife; she liked the book and enjoyed the BBC version of Wives & Daughters. I've probably seen far too many BBC costume dramas, but we were both gripped immediately and watched the whole thing in one sitting - all four hours. The story is set mainly in England's industrial North West during the 1850s, a time when even the rich seemed on the verge of destitution.

The hero is John Thornton (Richard Armitage) a self-made mill owner, who initially appears to be an aloof and brutal tyrant (Mr. Darcy with a Northern accent). The heroine is Margaret Hale (Daniela Denby-Ashe) a clergyman's daughter from Hampshire who finds it difficult to fit into northern society. Hale's family don't have a lot of money and seem out of place. She befriends the family of a union leader and causes controversy by speaking her mind about working conditions in the mills.

The story is based on a novel by Mrs. Gaskell, and the central characters go through some hardships and misunderstandings before they reach the predictable happy ending. The BBC is very good at this sort of thing. The story was well told with excellent acting, especially from Armitage, Sinead Cusack and Tim Piggott Smith. The characters were articulate and the plot was both credible and absorbing. Overall, it was an enjoyable series.

North and South is my favorite book because I like the basic story and I really love the characters, and this feeling carried over to the series. Even though the BBC Wives and Daughters series was excellent and stuck more strictly to the book than North and South - I still enjoyed North and South more because of the reasons I love the book. I also thought the acting of the whole cast was as good as anything I have seen. North and South is often compared with Pride and Prejudice and while there is a good reason for that, I actually feel it has as much in common with a Dickens tale. The book was actually first published by Dickens in his weekly paper/magazine and was viewed favorably by him. If I was to try and describe the tone of the piece I would describe it as a cross between a slightly less complicated Dickens tale and Jane Austen. I never thought I would find a series I like better than Pride and Prejudice but I have. While it came to a resolved ending as most drama series do, whether tragic or happy, - there were several relationships in this that I wanted to follow further and I was wishing it would continue.

Elizabeth Gaskell may have invented the concept of the North/South divide in British society - some commentators think so. The adaptation of her novel makes it clear that although the North is viewed as a scary place for young Margaret Hale as she is forced to move there, she eventually falls in love with the working people she meets and with a mill owner, John Thornton, played movingly by Richard Armitage. I hope that people will find the social message of Gaskell's story relevant for today even though many viewers will be caught up in the central love story. The story deals with the infancy of the trade union movement and for those of us who had ancestors in the cotton industry, is very important in its portrayal of the dangerous working conditions. Reading the book is well worth the effort because it provides more insight in to the motivations of the characters and explains why they eventually grow to love each other. This is a very enjoyable TV drama and is worth repeating - hopefully the BBC will do so!