North & South: Episodes 1-4
January 9, 2025 3:33 PM - Season 1, Episode 1 - Subscribe
North & South is a four-part BBC adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's 1855 novel of the same name, in which Margaret Hale, a vicar's daughter from rural southern England, relocates with her parents to the northern industrial town of Milton, where she meets mill owner John Thornton and mill workers Nicholas and Bessy Higgins, and becomes embroiled in the bitter conflict between the mill owners and their workers.
North & South was adapted for television by Sandy Welch, directed by Brian Percival, and stars Daniela Denby-Ashe, Richard Armitage, Tim Pigott-Smith, Lesley Manville, Sinéad Cusack, Brendan Coyle, Anna Maxwell Martin, Pauline Quirke, and Joy Joyner.
Sandy Welch started adapting Gaskell's North and South in 2001, making a few changes to emphasize the industrial landscape of the story. Welch's story, for example, begins and ends with the main character Margaret Hale travelling by train, which is not the starting and ending point of the novel (although Gaskell describes the Hales travelling from the South to the North by train). Welch also made the main characters visit the Great Exhibition of 1851. These are changes Welch believed Gaskell would have done "if she'd had the time", since Gaskell had complained of being under pressure to complete the novel by her editor Charles Dickens. In the summer of 2003 Kate Bartlett was brought to the project as a producer and a ten-week period of pre-production started at the beginning of February.
Filming took place from the end of April 2004 until July 2004. Elizabeth Gaskell's fictional town of Milton, Darkshire, was loosely based on Manchester, where Elizabeth Gaskell lived, but the producers decided to shoot many of the town scenes in Edinburgh, which maintains more of its visual and architectural heritage from the industrial Victorian era. Keighley in West Yorkshire became one of the main locations, the cotton mill's exteriors were filmed at Dalton Mill. The scenes inside the mill were shot at Helmshore Textile Museum in Rossendale and Queen Street Mill on the outskirts of Burnley, Lancashire. London was another main location, all the interior scenes were shot at the Ealing Studios in west London and the Great Exhibition scene was shot at Alexandra Palace in North London. Other locations were Selkirk, a town in the Scottish Borders, Burnley in Lancashire, and the Bluebell Railway in Sussex, where the final and the beginning scenes were shot. Additional railway sequences were filmed in Yorkshire, using carriages provided by the Victorian Carriages Trust.
Daniela Denby-Ashe had not originally auditioned for the role of Margaret Hale but for that of Fanny Thornton, and was not sure she would be participating on the project, but the producers had been looking for the right Margaret for a long time and Denby-Ashe's "directness, energy and charm" as well as the chemistry she had with would-be co-star Richard Armitage proved decisive. Armitage himself had been the first actor to read for the role of John Thornton and even though his performance had impressed producer Kate Bartlett and casting director Jill Trevellick, they still had to see many other possible Thorntons. Three weeks after casting Armitage was last cast as Trevellick decided to recapitulate the first auditions, realizing that Armitage was "perfect".
As the BBC had low expectations for the series, it was not well publicized and went almost unnoticed by critics. Audiences, however, were more receptive; hours after the first episode aired in November 2004, the message board of the program's website crashed because of the number of visitors the site was receiving, forcing host bbc.co.uk to shut it down. This sudden interest was attributed to Richard Armitage, a then relatively unknown actor, whose portrayal of the emotionally restrained John Thornton drew parallels with Colin Firth's portrayal of Fitzwilliam Darcy on the BBC's 1995 mini-series Pride and Prejudice and the reception he later received.
Tim Pigott-Smith, who plays Richard Hale in this 2004 production, played the part of Frederick Hale in the 1975 production of North & South.
North & South was voted "Best Drama" in the BBC drama website's annual poll in 2004. Richard Armitage was voted "Most Desirable Drama Star" and "Best Actor," Daniela Denby-Ashe was voted "Best Actress" and three different scenes were voted as the year's "Favourite Moments," with the final scene winning the number one spot. In 2005, the serial's production designer Simon Elliott received a British Academy Television Award nomination for Best Production Design.
The striped dress Daniela Denby-Ashe wears in the final scene was previously worn in Bleak House (2005) by Gillian Anderson and in The Shadow in the North (2007) by Billie Piper.
Richard Armitage plays a character named John, who falls in love with a Margaret, whose father is named Richard Hale. Coincidentally, Richard Armitage's parents were also named John and Margaret.
North & South was adapted for television by Sandy Welch, directed by Brian Percival, and stars Daniela Denby-Ashe, Richard Armitage, Tim Pigott-Smith, Lesley Manville, Sinéad Cusack, Brendan Coyle, Anna Maxwell Martin, Pauline Quirke, and Joy Joyner.
Sandy Welch started adapting Gaskell's North and South in 2001, making a few changes to emphasize the industrial landscape of the story. Welch's story, for example, begins and ends with the main character Margaret Hale travelling by train, which is not the starting and ending point of the novel (although Gaskell describes the Hales travelling from the South to the North by train). Welch also made the main characters visit the Great Exhibition of 1851. These are changes Welch believed Gaskell would have done "if she'd had the time", since Gaskell had complained of being under pressure to complete the novel by her editor Charles Dickens. In the summer of 2003 Kate Bartlett was brought to the project as a producer and a ten-week period of pre-production started at the beginning of February.
Filming took place from the end of April 2004 until July 2004. Elizabeth Gaskell's fictional town of Milton, Darkshire, was loosely based on Manchester, where Elizabeth Gaskell lived, but the producers decided to shoot many of the town scenes in Edinburgh, which maintains more of its visual and architectural heritage from the industrial Victorian era. Keighley in West Yorkshire became one of the main locations, the cotton mill's exteriors were filmed at Dalton Mill. The scenes inside the mill were shot at Helmshore Textile Museum in Rossendale and Queen Street Mill on the outskirts of Burnley, Lancashire. London was another main location, all the interior scenes were shot at the Ealing Studios in west London and the Great Exhibition scene was shot at Alexandra Palace in North London. Other locations were Selkirk, a town in the Scottish Borders, Burnley in Lancashire, and the Bluebell Railway in Sussex, where the final and the beginning scenes were shot. Additional railway sequences were filmed in Yorkshire, using carriages provided by the Victorian Carriages Trust.
Daniela Denby-Ashe had not originally auditioned for the role of Margaret Hale but for that of Fanny Thornton, and was not sure she would be participating on the project, but the producers had been looking for the right Margaret for a long time and Denby-Ashe's "directness, energy and charm" as well as the chemistry she had with would-be co-star Richard Armitage proved decisive. Armitage himself had been the first actor to read for the role of John Thornton and even though his performance had impressed producer Kate Bartlett and casting director Jill Trevellick, they still had to see many other possible Thorntons. Three weeks after casting Armitage was last cast as Trevellick decided to recapitulate the first auditions, realizing that Armitage was "perfect".
As the BBC had low expectations for the series, it was not well publicized and went almost unnoticed by critics. Audiences, however, were more receptive; hours after the first episode aired in November 2004, the message board of the program's website crashed because of the number of visitors the site was receiving, forcing host bbc.co.uk to shut it down. This sudden interest was attributed to Richard Armitage, a then relatively unknown actor, whose portrayal of the emotionally restrained John Thornton drew parallels with Colin Firth's portrayal of Fitzwilliam Darcy on the BBC's 1995 mini-series Pride and Prejudice and the reception he later received.
Tim Pigott-Smith, who plays Richard Hale in this 2004 production, played the part of Frederick Hale in the 1975 production of North & South.
North & South was voted "Best Drama" in the BBC drama website's annual poll in 2004. Richard Armitage was voted "Most Desirable Drama Star" and "Best Actor," Daniela Denby-Ashe was voted "Best Actress" and three different scenes were voted as the year's "Favourite Moments," with the final scene winning the number one spot. In 2005, the serial's production designer Simon Elliott received a British Academy Television Award nomination for Best Production Design.
The striped dress Daniela Denby-Ashe wears in the final scene was previously worn in Bleak House (2005) by Gillian Anderson and in The Shadow in the North (2007) by Billie Piper.
Richard Armitage plays a character named John, who falls in love with a Margaret, whose father is named Richard Hale. Coincidentally, Richard Armitage's parents were also named John and Margaret.
I first saw North & South in July 2013, having decided I was in the mood for a period drama, and then picked it off a list of recommended titles I found online -- a bit reluctantly, because I don't care that much for Victorian era pieces. I think Anna Maxwell Martin's presence in it helped persuade me to see it, as I like her a lot and would see anything she was in.
Then I loved it, and still think it one of the best period dramas I've ever seen. I really liked that the conflict between Margaret and John was not contrived or shallow but about serious differences, and that they both have to grow and change before they can meet in the middle.
This role was the making of Richard Armitage's career, though unfortunately not for Daniela Denby-Ashe's, though her performance was equally good.
Jo Joyner's performance was a hoot. As Fanny, she criticizes Margaret for not being accomplished after Margaret says she cannot play the piano well. Later we hear Fanny playing and singing, and she's terrible and sings like an animal caught in trap. I bet Margaret was being modest and actually can play better than Fanny. There are some more subtle signs of Fanny's heartless self-absorption too, such as her being seen in a purple dress after Boucher's body is found in the canal, drowned and stained purple from the textile mill run-off.
posted by orange swan at 1:04 PM on January 10 [3 favorites]
Then I loved it, and still think it one of the best period dramas I've ever seen. I really liked that the conflict between Margaret and John was not contrived or shallow but about serious differences, and that they both have to grow and change before they can meet in the middle.
This role was the making of Richard Armitage's career, though unfortunately not for Daniela Denby-Ashe's, though her performance was equally good.
Jo Joyner's performance was a hoot. As Fanny, she criticizes Margaret for not being accomplished after Margaret says she cannot play the piano well. Later we hear Fanny playing and singing, and she's terrible and sings like an animal caught in trap. I bet Margaret was being modest and actually can play better than Fanny. There are some more subtle signs of Fanny's heartless self-absorption too, such as her being seen in a purple dress after Boucher's body is found in the canal, drowned and stained purple from the textile mill run-off.
posted by orange swan at 1:04 PM on January 10 [3 favorites]
I just stumbled over this recipe, which looks tasty and gingery: Novel recipes: coconut cake from North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell.
posted by paduasoy at 2:19 AM on January 11
posted by paduasoy at 2:19 AM on January 11
I’ve been rereading North & South a chapter a week over the last year (one of those things that emails you a chapter at a time) and I’m going to have to rewatch this when I’m done!
That last scene is definitely one where you have to rewind it over several times ☺️
posted by exceptinsects at 4:25 PM on January 11
That last scene is definitely one where you have to rewind it over several times ☺️
posted by exceptinsects at 4:25 PM on January 11
Interesting that Fanny is a bigger part in the series, because I was just thinking how in the book the author seems to be kind of unreasonably prejudiced against her for not being as awesome as John, even though she doesn’t really do anything besides choose outfits for her trousseau? Maybe that’s some of what Mrs Gaskell didn’t have time to fill in, haha
posted by exceptinsects at 4:28 PM on January 11
posted by exceptinsects at 4:28 PM on January 11
I remember that in the book, which I read after seeing the miniseries and also loved (and have since bought a thrift shop copy of), one of the reasons Mrs. Thornton didn't like Margaret was that she knew perfectly well that Margaret was superior to her own daughter in a number of ways, and the knowledge nettled her, snerk.
One of my favourite parts of the novel was the description of John Thornton taking tea with the Hales. In his mind, he compares the Hales' sitting room to his mother's parlour, and reflects that while the Thornton parlour is twenty times as fine, it isn't half as comfortable. In the Thornton parlour, books were decoration, while the Hales read their shabby volumes. And he's entranced by Margaret, by the way her bracelet keeps sliding down her wrist as she serves the tea, and envies Mr. Hale for the way he can playfully use his daughter's hand as sugar tongs when adding a cube of sugar to his tea. I've sometimes taken the book from the shelf just to reread that scene, and may have to do so again right now.
posted by orange swan at 7:42 AM on January 12 [2 favorites]
One of my favourite parts of the novel was the description of John Thornton taking tea with the Hales. In his mind, he compares the Hales' sitting room to his mother's parlour, and reflects that while the Thornton parlour is twenty times as fine, it isn't half as comfortable. In the Thornton parlour, books were decoration, while the Hales read their shabby volumes. And he's entranced by Margaret, by the way her bracelet keeps sliding down her wrist as she serves the tea, and envies Mr. Hale for the way he can playfully use his daughter's hand as sugar tongs when adding a cube of sugar to his tea. I've sometimes taken the book from the shelf just to reread that scene, and may have to do so again right now.
posted by orange swan at 7:42 AM on January 12 [2 favorites]
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Brendan Coyle playing the Social Justice Working Man sticks out like a sore thumb (given he plays essentially the same character with different skills in both Downton Abbey and Lark Rise to Candleford). That, and an overall earnestness, made this less enjoyable for me than Cranford (also from Gaskell). But still enjoyable.
posted by janell at 8:29 PM on January 9