Excellent adaptation (North And South (DVD))

Member Name: tinkabubble

Product:	North And South (DVD)
Date:	14/06/09 (12 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Faithful to the book while also adding something more to the story

Disadvantages: None

This is a great adaptation of the original 1855 novel by Elizabeth Gaskell. Like the novel, which was originally called simply 'Margaret Hale', the television adaptation centres upon Margaret's learning curve as she moves from Helstone in the peaceful and quiet South to the industrial and money orientated Northern town of Milton.

Mr Hale is a clergy man in the South, however, after a crisis of faith, he relocates his family to the North where he teaches and lectures. When Margaret (played by Daniela Denby-Ashe) arrives in the North with her parents, both she and her mother in particular struggle with the difference in life and society in the North and do not like Milton at all at first.

Margaret's perception of Milton is epitomised in the scene where John Thornton (Richard Armitage), owner of Marlborough Mills, beats a mill worker for smoking - for Margaret, Mr. Thornton represents all that she detests about Milton. Furthermore, she also has to contend with his mother, who tends to smother her son and takes a dislike to Margaret, and his two faced sister, Fanny.

However, along with the illness of her mother, being in the North and experiencing the struggles and difficulties of others encourages Margaret to see life from the perspective of others and to understand them and their opinions better. Specifically, she learns to understand Mr Thornton better.

Along the way, she actually falls in love with Milton (and maybe something or someone else too!) and meets new friends in the form of Nicholas and Bessie Higgins, poverty stricken Mill workers. In large part, it is the Higgins' who help Margaret to adjust, especially as her friendship with Nicholas, the workers' strike leader, allows her to understand both sides of the conflict within the novel between facory owners and workers. When she eventually also comes to see Mr Thorntons side of the argument, she is able to forge some what of a union between Higgins and Thornton.

This is really a heart-warming and romantic adaptation, which follows the novel quite faithfully, although, Mr Thornton does seem more aggressive in this adaptation than in the novel; I particularly don't remember the scene where he beats the factory worker from the book (although it was a while ago when I read it so I could have forgotten!).

Yet Richard Armitage adds, I feel, a new depth to the character; his aggression at the beginning means that the audiance, along with Margaret, must go on a complex journey to arrive at the end result of liking Mr Thornton and feeling sorry for him in parts, where as in the book, Thornton always seemed quite easy to like, actually having not much character depth, as I remember it.

Indeed, the cast is chosen very well, particularly Margaret, John, Nicholas (Brendan Coyle) and Bessie (Anna Maxwell Martin). Pauline Quirke is also very good as the Hales' servant Dixon.

All in all, I very much like this adaptation; it is one of those rare novel to TV pieces which is just as good and if not slightly better than the book.

Summary: A classic period drama with a great story and a fantastic cast