Deep-Dive into the Darker Aspects of Human Nature

 Today on BBC Four:

Margaret Drabble visits Haworth Parsonage and the Yorkshire Moors where the Brontës shared a legendary childhood. While touring the locations, she investigates how much the sisters' environment affected their work. First broadcast 12 July 1973

The Brontës Lived Here: Writers' Houses airs on BBC Four HD at 3:05 AM, Monday 6 January. (Subtitles.)

And yesterday, also on BBC Four, Wuthering Heights: The Read with Vinette Robinson

Bradford-born actor Vinette Robinson gives a spellbinding performance as the narrator of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights.
Emily Brontë’s much loved novel stands out as a timeless classic. Set against the haunting backdrop of the Yorkshire moors and narrated by Wuthering Heights' housekeeper Nelly Dean, the story takes shape around the intense and destructive love between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, whose passionate connection underpins a dark and tumultuous tale of revenge, obsession and the brutal forces of nature.
The novel’s setting, the desolate moors, mirrors the wild and uncontrollable emotions of its characters, creating an atmospheric and Gothic backdrop for the drama. Emily Brontë’s deep-dive into the darker aspects of human nature and the complexities of love deviates from the societal norms of her time, making Wuthering Heights a groundbreaking work of 19th-century literature.
Wuthering Heights: The Read with Vinette Robinson is broadcast as Bradford begins its tenure as host of this year’s UK City of Culture.
The Read is a series of outstanding performance readings of iconic British novels.
A Rural Studios production for BBC Four and BBC iPlayer. Filmed on location in the Yorkshire moors and Herefordshire, it is directed by Rachel Lambert. The Series Producer is Julie Colman, the Executive Producer is Grant Black. Commissioned by Stephen James-Yeoman for BBC Arts.

WTop News returns to Taylor Swift's literary connections:

On her later album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” her view on growing older has changed. In the song “Peter” (2024), (...) she seems to callback to an earlier “Jane Eyre” allusion on the song “invisible string” (2020) on the album “Folklore” — a reference to a comment made in the novel by the character Edward Rochester, who uses the analogy of an invisible string to describe his connection with Jane. (Jessica Kronzer)

The Denver Post has things to do in Denver when you're alive in January:

 Buntport Theater Name-Your-Price

“JANE/EYRE,” a queer adaptation of the classic novel, with original music by Teacup Gorilla and Dameon Merkl, is the latest original show from Grapefruit Lab. The show opens Jan. 17 at the Buntport Theater (717 Lipan St.) in Denver and runs for three weekends with performances on Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. Plus, there’s one Sunday matinee at 2 p.m. on Jan. 26. To make the production accessible to all theater lovers regardless of their ability to pay, all tickets are name-your-price. Denver actress Lindsey Pierce, plays Jane, with Joan Bruemmer-Holden providing all the additional characters, from Rochester to several women “friends” who Jane also considers living with in the novel. grapefruitlab.com/shows/jane-eyre-2025 (Laura Daily and Brian K. Chavez)

China Daily reports about the shooting of a documentary about the Chinese writer Ba Jin:

 At the age of 102, Yang Yi, a distinguished translator known for her work on English author Emily Brontë's classic Wuthering Heights, reminisces about the beginning of her 80-year friendship with the late literary giant Ba Jin.

This touching moment is part of an eight-episode documentary Ba Jin, which was shot to commemorate the 120th anniversary of the birth of one of the most influential and well-respected writers of 20th-century China. (Xu Fan)

The BBC talks about the English Teacher band:

One of the UK's most promising new guitar bands, English Teacher, have kicked off the countdown of the top five on the BBC's annual list of music's rising stars.
The Leeds quartet have been voted in fifth place in BBC Radio 1's Sound of 2025 poll – with a panel of 180 music industry experts choosing them as one of the acts with "the best chance of mainstream success" in the next 12 months. (...)

Like many of their songs, it draws inspiration from Fontaine's hometown of Colne in Lancashire, where the titular paving stone resides outside the town hall.

The lyrics reference a host of local heroes – from Life On Mars actor John Simm to novelist Charlotte Bronte – juxtaposing the colour and vigour of the town's history against the social problems it faces in the current day. (Mark Savage)

We don't understand this reference in BuzzFeed about restrictive laws about sex in Medieval times. Probably not the author either:

So at some point, if you were unable to conceive, you'd be expected to just be abstinent forever — which doesn't really seem like it'd be particularly helpful. But at least that meant a woman wouldn't be "put away," which is giving Edward Rochester in Jane Eyre vibes (Kelley Greene). 

AnneBrontë.org discusses Anne Brontë's fatal tuberculosis diagnosis in January 1849, including a moving doctor's visit description from Ellen Nussey, paired with details about an upcoming 2025 celebration of her life at St. James' Church in Bradford featuring piano music and prose readings.