"Fun, but very hard work"

Radio Times publishes a brief review of Wuthering Heights 2009:

Screenwriter Peter Bowker, a man who can do no wrong after Occupation and Desperate Romantics, puts his hand in the lions' cage with a two-part dramatisation of the most-beloved romantic novel in English literature. Doubtless Emily Bronte devotees will give him a pasting for not sticking rigidly to every single word she wrote, but ignore them - they don't own Wuthering Heights and this is a superb, magnetic piece of drama. Bowker's skill is in making something fresh and vibrant out of a novel that's been parodied (Monty Python), sung about (Kate Bush), turned into sappy films (the 1992 Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche version) and is familiar even to people who haven't read it. It helps, too, that the casting of this new two-part version is nigh-on perfect. Tom Hardy isn't a caricatured, beetle-browed, snarling Heathcliff - he's a hard, cruel man torn apart by an overwhelming love. And Charlotte Riley as Catherine isn't the winsome wet blanket of legend, she's a strong, spirited woman who loves to destruction. The concluding part is tomorrow at 9:00pm. (Alison Graham)

And the Daily Mail talks about the production, interviews Charlotte Riley and talks about the alleged romance between Charlotte Riley and Tom Hardy:

I hadn't met Tom before, so after the first day of rehearsals I thought, as we are going to fall so madly, deeply in love, we had better get to know each other,' says Charlotte.
'So I went up to him as he was rummaging in his car boot and said: "What are you up to, then?" He turned around and suddenly he wasn't Heathcliff any more. He morphed into the role he'd played before that, changing his whole being into Charles Bronson, Britain's most dangerous prisoner!
''I thought: "Oh God, what have I got myself into?" I found out later that Tom switches that role on and off all the time - mainly for other people's entertainment.'
But the cups of tea did the trick, and soon they were sharing a car most days on the way to the film locations on the rugged Yorkshire moors.
'We had a lot of chemistry, even though we didn't have the same taste in music. In the car I'd have to listen to his gangsta rap - Charles Bronson again. I never quite got over his extraordinary transformation.'
They were thrown together again for Sky1's gritty crime drama The Take, shown earlier this year. One of the most harrowing scenes was when she is raped by Hardy's character.
'Because we'd worked on Wuthering Heights - when the love scene was really passionate - we had a good shorthand between us and knew what we were doing. But as well as we knew each other, it had to be handled with delicacy and trust.'
Naturally, there has been gossip and speculation about whether their onscreen partnership has developed into a real romance, and one newspaper reported that Hardy had even left Rachael Speed, the mother of his baby son Louis, for Charlotte.
The story has also circulated on the internet, but Charlotte insists it is not true. 'I share a flat in West London with three other girls,' she says. 'There is no man in my life.' (...)
Writer Peter Bowker has reworked Bronte's story, introducing a scene verging on sado-masochism where Heathcliff as an adopted orphan is brutally whipped by the wealthy snob Hindley (Burn Gorman).
Bowker has also put in a scene in which Heathcliff takes Hindley's fortune through a card game and there is a passionate love-making scene on screen between Heathcliff and Cathy.
'It's funny, because people always ask about the love scenes, but the last thing they are is romantic or sexual', says Charlotte. 'Andrew Lincoln, who plays Edgar Linton, the man she marries, and I had quite a good laugh doing ours.
'But half the time you have to get angles right so you're thinking about the technical stuff and making sure your hair's not going in your mouth. You're very rarely thinking about anything to do with passion. Either that or you're nervous.
'Andrew and I made a pact to just go for it and in the first take we gave far too much. After that, the embarrassment was out there and it was much easier to do it.' (...)
Looking back on Wuthering Heights, Charlotte says: 'It was fun, but very hard work and the pressure was particularly great as it was my first big role.
'Because it was all very emotional, when I'd finished the job I was drained. I went on holiday with my family to Portugal, where I slept pretty much the entire week.' (David Wigg)

In the Yorkshire Post we came across two Wuthering Heights 2009 articles. In the first one, Justine Gaunt talks about Stockeld Park, one of the series locations:

Yorkshire viewers tuning in this weekend to ITV's new version of Wuthering Heights, starring Charlotte Riley, Tom Hardy and Andrew Lincoln, may recognise a local landscape.
It's not on the rugged moorland of Haworth but on the gentler green pastures near Wetherby where you will find the 2,000-acre Stockeld Park estate. At its heart is a beautifully proportioned 18th century, James Paine-designed country house. It's here that Peter and Susie Grant live with their family.
On the subject of Wuthering Heights, Susie Grant describes the filming experience (despite at one stage finding film crews in her precious flower beds) as "a delight". "My overriding memory is of Andrew Lincoln striding up the drive in his greatcoat, incongruously with headphones in his ears, listening to his MP3"
Stockeld Park is a grand country house built in the style of a classic Palladian villa. But it also needs to operate as a warm, bright and welcoming family home for the busy Grant family.
It is the light-filled qualities of the house that come across in the two-part film of Emily Brontë's classic book, says Susie Grant. (...)
Much of the filming for Wuthering Heights took place in the drawing room and library, and Susie says her greatest admiration is reserved for the prop team. They photographed everything in the rooms they used, removed the family furniture, dressed the rooms with absolute attention to detail to make sure they were accurate to period and then, after filming, replaced everything exactly as it was in those initial photographs.

Nick Ahad went to the Bradford premiere of the first episode and talks about it in the second article:

Should I admit this? Go on then, confession time. I've never read Wuthering Heights. I've tried to get through it about eight times at the last count, but (heresy, I know) for me it leaves a lot to be desired.
Don't get me wrong, the story is truly magnificent, but I find the writing a little turgid. Like I say, however, the story is wonderful. Although the novel still occupies the "will get round to reading when I have the time" pile at home, I have seen several versions of the story. (...)
Earlier this week, I was treated to a preview of the new ITV1 two-part adaptation, which airs this Sunday and Monday.
Made by Mammoth Screen, with a screenplay from BAFTA-winning writer Peter Bowker, it is a fantastic piece of film-making. The premiere screening took place in Bradford at the National Media Museum, the first big "film event" since the announcement last month that Bradford had won the bid to become UNESCO's first City of Film. (...)
This latest Wuthering Heights, with a brilliant turn from Tom Hardy as the haunted Heathcliff, was filmed in all sorts of locations, including Oakwell Hall in Birstall, East Riddlesden Hall, near Keighley and Bramham Park, near Leeds. I was filled with great pride when I heard Londoner Michele Buck, producer on the film, say that Yorkshire was the most "straightforward" place to film she has found in the UK.
The buzz in Bradford on Tuesday made me wonder. With productions as high quality as this allied to the city's new status, perhaps Bradford can build a new industry around film – and if this new Wuthering Heights is anything to go by, it's in with a good chance. It's so good I'm about to give the book another go.

The journalist also interviews Peter Bowker. You can listen to the interview here. The blog of the National Media Museum in Bradford completes this information with pictures of the event and even a podcast.

The Manchester Evening News publishes an article about Andrew Lincoln. The complete interview was published before here.

Each local newspaper highlights its presence in the production. The Barnsley Chronicle's claim to fame is the young Edgar Linton, Baz Bradshaw:

A YOUNG Barnsley actor will appear in a TV adaptation of the Bronte classic 'Wuthering Heights" this weekend.
Baz Bradshaw, 12, plays the young Edgar Linton who later goes on to marry Cathy Earnshaw in the play which is screened on ITV on Sunday.
Baz of Harold Avenue, Lundwood, initially went to audition as an extra through his links with agency Tykes 2000 but producers liked him so much they picked him out to play one of the central characters.
Mum Rachel said: "It was a bit of a long shot but he was absolutely over the moon because he had his own caravan with his name on it instead of being on a bus with the other extras. (Emma Spencer)

Categories: In the News, Movies-DVD-TV, Wuthering Heights