We are aware that this is not totally related to the Brontës themselves. But since Charlotte Brontë was friends with Mrs Gaskell and Mrs Gaskell subsequently became her first biographer, we like to keep track of important things concerning Mrs Gaskell.
And also we have a hunch that most BrontëBlog readers have a soft spot for costume dramas, just like us.
So, remember that
old abandoned project to bring The Cranford Chronicles to the screen starring Dame Judi Dench? Well, it's been got back on track according to a
BBC press release.
Multi award-winning actress Judi Dench is to star in Cranford Chronicles, a new five-part drama serial created by Sue Birtwistle and Susie Conklin from three novels by Elizabeth Gaskell for BBC One.
Scripted by Heidi Thomas (I Capture The Castle, Madam Bovary, Lilies), this witty and poignant landmark drama captures the small absurdities and major tragedies in the lives of the people of Cranford, as they are besieged by forces they cannot hope to withstand.
In 1842, Cranford is a small rural Cheshire town on the cusp of great changes. Some people find romance and opportunities, while others fear the breakdown of social order.
Who will embrace the changes on offer by becoming modern?
Three Elizabeth Gaskell novels have been woven together to create this uniquely rich and comic drama about ordinary human lives during the course of one extraordinary year in this small town.
Jane Tranter, Controller, BBC Fiction, says: "To have Judi Dench, Sue Birtwistle and Heidi Thomas on one drama serial is an honour for BBC Drama.
"Cranford Chronicles is a beautifully big and ambitious period drama - just the way we like them!
"The logistics of mounting such a production have inevitably taken a while to pull together, but the best things are well worth waiting for, and we are all very excited at the prospect of such a piece, and of welcoming Judi Dench back to the BBC."
Dame Judi will play Miss Matty Jenkyns, whose hopes and lively spirit were crushed when she was forced as a young woman to give up the man she loved and to live afterwards in the shadow of her elder sister, Deborah, the arbiter of correctness in Cranford.
Judi Dench says: "I am so excited to be doing Cranford Chronicles. A summer of fun to look forward to!"
Producer Sue Birtwistle was the force behind the highly-acclaimed television productions of Pride And Prejudice and Wives And Daughters.
She says: "Five years ago, I made a wish: to be allowed to conjure an entirely new drama out of three Elizabeth Gaskell novels, and to persuade Judi Dench to play Miss Matty. Dream come true. Is one allowed to be this lucky?"
Further casting is to be announced.
The drama serial is produced by BBC Drama Production and WGBH in association with Chestermead Ltd.
Cranford Chronicles begins filming in April 2007 in the Cotswolds and London.
The producer is Sue Birtwistle; executive producer is Kate Harwood for BBC Drama Production. (AF)
It looks pretty good, though we do wonder about the three-novels-in-one bit. Which two other novels exactly apart from Cranford itself?
Categories: Movies-DVD-TV
I read somewhere that Bronte liked Gaskell's Cranford saying it was "shrewd". Anyone familiar where this quote came from?
ReplyDeleteYou are right. I'm quoting from a letter from Charlotte to Mrs Gaskell, written on 9 July 1853:
ReplyDeleteMy dear Mrs. Gaskell
Thank you for your letter--:it was as pleasant as a quiet chat, as welcome as spring-showers, as reviving as a friend's visit; in short it was very like a page of "Cranford."
That book duly reached me--coming on the very morning you should have come in person--had Fate been propitious. I have read it over twice; once to myself, and once aloud to my Father. I find it pleasurable reading--graphic, pithy, penetrating, shrewd, yet kind and indulgent. ...
Then she goes on to inquire about Mrs Gaskell's writing habits.
I hope that helps.
Cristina--
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for the quote...it will add a boost a recent paper I wrote that claims Gaskell's writing was far from innocuous.
Where did you find that quote, by the way?
Cheers,
Lisa Stockton
You're welcome, Lisa!
ReplyDeleteIt's from the third volume of Charlotte's Letters edited by Margaret Smith.
Gaskell's writing was certainly not innocuous! Sounds like an interesting paper :)