What I watched : Wives and Daughters

I love love looove period dramas. I love the setting, the costumes, the types of characters, the atmosphere... And I'm always discovering new ones to watch. One of the last ones that I saw is Wives and Daugthers, a BBC mini-series from 1999. 

It is the adaptation of the novel Wives and Daughters : An Everyday Story by Elizabeth Gaskell (1864-66). 

The story takes place in the 1830s. Molly Gibson is a young woman living with her dear father as her mother died years ago. But everything changes when Mr Gibson decides to marry again : Molly has to deal with a stepmother she doesn't really like, and meets Cynthia, her new stepsister. Although they are very different in character and behaviour, their friendship grows and they soon become fond of each other. Molly also befriends Mrs Hamley, the wife of the Squire. She is accepted in the house of the family as if she were one of them, and becomes friends with the two sons, Osbourne and Roger. But because of her ties with Cynthia and her stepmother, Molly will be confronted to several intrigues and secrets...

This is a very typical 19th century type of plot, with love affairs, family crises, etc. The character of Molly is very lovable, she represents everything that a young girl ought to be at the time : quiet, nice, polite, pretty, learned...

I also really love the Hamley family : Mrs Hamley, who loves Molly as a daughter (played by the wonderful Penelope Wilson), Mr Hamley, whose age starts to drive him crazy (played by Michael Gambon, a period dramas afficionado !), and Osborne (Tom Hollander, forever Mr Collins to me !) and Roger, the one true gentleman (Anthony Howell).

The miniseries is divided into four episodes, so it is not a long show - it doesn't get boring at all, and you directly fall in the spirit of the story and want to know what's happening next to the characters. The ending, obviously, is happy (period drama tradition !), but the story isn't a fairytale all along... 

If you're into this kind of films, I really recommend you watch it, also it's a bit dated (1999 seems ages ago now !), the images are great, the setting is neat and timeless, and the characters really interesting. Another BBC wonder !

Julia xx