North and South (2004 TV serial)

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North and South is a BBC television serial which first aired in 2004. It starred Richard Armitage as John Thornton, and Daniela Denby-Ashe as Margaret Hale. It is based on the 1855 Victorian novel of the same title by Elizabeth Gaskell.

The serial also starred Tim Pigott-Smith as Mr Hale, and Sinead Cusack as Mrs Thornton. Anna Maxwell Martin played Bessie Higgins, and Pauline Quirke was the Hale's maid, Dixon.

[edit] Plot

The serial, adapted from the novel by Elizabeth Gaskell, stays close to the original in terms of plot, but takes certain liberties with the settings and characters.

Image:Margaret Hale.jpg

Daniela Denby-Ashe as Margaret

Margaret Hale and her parents move to the industrial north of England because her father, an Anglican clergyman, decides to become a Nonconformist. Thanks to his friend, Mr Bell, he is able to find a house and gains employment as a private tutor. One of his pupils is local mill-owner, John Thornton, who gets off to a bad start with Margaret when she witnesses him beating up a worker whom he has caught smoking in the mill. Gradually, Margaret gets used to Thornton, but his mother and sister disapprove of her, believing her southern ways haughty and alien to the customs of the North. In the meantime, Margaret attempts to do charitable work among the working classes, and thus comes into contact with Nicholas Higgins and his daughter, Bessie, whose health has suffered from the effects of working in the mills. (Thornton is presented as an enlightened mill-owner, compared with his fellow industrialists.)

Margaret has another suitor, Henry, a solicitor, whose sophistication compares unfavourably with Thornton's honesty when Margaret sees them together.

In the midst of an industrial dispute, Margaret is trapped while visiting the Thornton's on a call. When the angry mob threatens John's safety as he attempts to calm them down, Margaret defends Thornton from the rioting workers and she is injured as a result. One of the most tender parts of the movie is when John catches her as she falls onto the porch, and gently lays her aside while he addresses the crowd in her name.

Image:Emma Ferguson.jpg

Edith writes to her cousin, Margaret

Margaret does recover from her injury, and returns home, never telling anyone about what had happened at the Mill. When Thornton proposes to her the next day, she scorns him; thinking he believes himself superior because of the difference in their financial circumstances. In reality, he is a charismatic, gentle man who has been hardened by his childhood circumstances, and he cannot bring himself to admit his need for her love in his somewhat empty life.

Margaret's brother, Fred, who was in the navy, became involved in a mutiny, and is unable to set foot in Britain for fear of arrest. However, as Margaret's mother's health fails, Fred risks discovery to visit her death-bed. He and Margaret are seen together at the railway station by Thornton, who draws the wrong conclusion. Thornton gives employment to Higgins after Bessie's death, but his business is in trouble, and he is forced to close the mill.

Margaret's father dies and she leaves the north to stay with relatives in London, but her godfather, Mr Bell, makes over his fortune to her when he decides to retire, and she becomes the owner of Thornton's factory. Thornton, having discovered the truth about Fred from Mr Higgins, goes south to see Margaret's home town, and on the way back meets her returning from a visit to the north. She proposes a business deal by which the factory can be reopened, and their final love scene takes place on the railway station platform.