Wide Sargasso Sea Press Pack

The Autumn 2006 BBC4 press pack is now available on the BBC website. It contains some information about the Wide Sargasso Sea production that was announced some time ago. Apart from the picture there's nothing really that was not known previously.

Rafe Spall (The Chatterley Affair), Rebecca Hall (The Prestige) and Nina Sosanya (Casanova) head up the cast in a one-off adaptation of Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys' steamy prequel to Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre.

Set in the lush landscape of Jamaica after the emancipation of slaves, it tells the story of the arranged marriage between a white Creole heiress and an Englishman.

Rhys wanted to offer an alternative to Brontë's depiction of Bertha Mason, Mr Rochester's mad first wife, and her powerful work describes not only the meltdown of lust and passion, but also the atmosphere of paranoia and racial tensions that characterised the Caribbean in the 1830s.

Wide Sargasso Sea is adapted by Stephen Greenhorn, produced by Elwen Rowlands and directed by Brendan Maher.

A Kudos production with BBC Wales.

The press pack also contains some additional information about Reader I Married Him. You can watch the promo clip on this link. The second and third episodes will be particularly interesting for Brontëites:

HEROES
Monday 25 September 9pm-10pm TBC
Daisy Goodwin finds that heroes of the 19th century - Darcy, Rochester and Heathcliff remain firm favourites for today's women. She creates an E-Fit of her Mr Darcy and goes to America in search of Rhett Butler from Gone with the Wind. Interviews with P D James, Joanna Trollope and Andrew Davies.

HEROINES
Monday 2 October 9pm-10pm TBC
Contrary to what cynics might expect, romantic heroines have both reflected the times and have been role models for women. Daisy visits the set of the BBC's new Jane Eyre and spends a day with a Yorkshire book group. With Barbara Taylor-Bradford, Sophie Kinsella and Marina Warner.

Categories: Movies-DVD-TV, Wide_Sargasso_Sea