A passionate, sensual and very modern version of Thomas Hardy’s infamous novel, combining young, upcoming acting talent with recognisable and much-loved faces. When the beautiful and innocent Tess Durbeyfield is driven by family poverty to claim kinship with the wealthy D’Urbervilles and seek a portion of their family fortune, meeting the manipulative Alec proves to be her downfall.
Ten years passed since the last production of Tess of the d’Urbervilles, then starring Justine Waddell, and this four-episode miniseries based on Thomas Hardy’s Victorian novel does well, again, by sticking closely to the original plot. As far as literary characters go, Tess warns young women to the wild ways of men and inspires all to strive for honesty. The morality implicit to the story is made apparent in this BBC version, and leaves the viewer questioning the effectiveness of Tess’s stringent moral sense, especially by today’s different sexual standards. Tess, in 2008, seems permanently punished for something that not only was not her fault, but also that may be unfortunately more common than perhaps it once was, namely teenage pregnancy. Episode One launches directly into Tess’s early meeting of her true love, the seemingly heroic Angel Clare (Eddie Redmayne). But her family’s poverty trumps the crush; once her robust parents John Durbeyfield (Ian Puleston-Davies) and Joan Durbeyfield (Ruth Jones) discover their hereditary ties to the royal d’Urbervilles, they send Tess off to a mansion to inquire for work. It is there that she encounters the villainous predator, Alec d’Urberville (Hans Matheson), and the tensions between a story about an upwardly mobile lady and a lady doomed by fate begins to take hold. This version of the story explores less its sexual connotations, as does Roman Polanski’s Tess, relying more heavily on the scales shifting hour to hour from fortune to failure and back. Well-worth every moment to be reminded of the ways this classic tale lives on in its application to contemporary life. –Trinie Dalton
Shown on PBS Masterpiece Theatre.
Starring Starring Gemma Arterton, Eddie Redmayne, Ruth Jones and Hans Matheson.
Note: Filmed on location in the English counties of Wiltshire, Somerset, Gloucestershire and Dorset (all in the West Country), a large percentage of scenes were filmed outside, reflecting Hardy’s love of nature and the seasons. Filmed entirely on 35mm film, with stunning results.