REVIEW: South Riding (BBC One)

[feather_ghyll]

South Riding (BBC ONE Spring 2001)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00y5gm3

I watched the adaptation of South Riding without having read the book, which was freeing as it's hard to judge an adaptation on its own merits without thinking of the shadow presence of its progenitor. You may well know intellectually that they had to cut your favourite bit for the flow or the tone or the plot, but...they cut your favourite bit. However, having seen all three episodes, two in iPlayer, one live, I don't feel like rushing out to get the book. At best, I might pick it up and read it for comparison if a copy came my way, by which I probably mean, I picked it up for 99p or less in a shop/stall and I hadn't found many other books that I wanted to read more. Um, that was specific.

It felt very much like an Andrew Davies work – the juxtapositions, for example, were hardly subtle, and as the last AD thing that I saw was Sense and Sensibility, and I didn’t love it, that was perhaps not a good thing. I did like Sarah Burton, the bright spark headteacher; I loved that her ideas and enthusiasm were backed up with experience, that she could bring discipline and other judicious methods of handling, making her a Good Headmistress. But not perfect.

As the countless scenery shots reminded us, it was about an area rather than a school, and lots and lots of men (being idiots). This made Penelope Wilton’s character, Mrs Beddows, the voice of womanly Northern Good Sense especially fascinating (I loved her on Downton Abbey; it would be great to see her play a main character in something). We never got an answer to how she was on the council and thus a governor etc? Why wasn't her husband (well, the glimpses of him showed that he had less drive than her)? When did her relationship with Carne start?

But oh, it was melodramatic. If it hadn't been just three episodes, I would have given up. We had pathetic fallacy, the equivalent of mad wives in the attic and marital rape - how very lovely! (The author's rape fantasy? There were plenty of warning signs that he was rushing into marrying a flighty/unstable woman, even if she wasn't clearly mentally ill. Besides, that doesn't take away from the fact that he raped his wife. And let's not get into the context of men being selfish about sex and it being another means of their excercising power.) I had some sympathy for Sarah, who thought that he was a widower and had got in too deep before she discovered he wasn't, but I hadn't been that sympathetic towards Carne the character before, anyway, so the love story left me cold. I would have chosen the Scottish communist who probably paid his bills. Oh, and while both Peter Firth's accent and hairpiece were ridiculous, Edgar the cat was droll.

I was more interested in the girls, although they were painted with very broad strokes. Midge became increasingly interesting, as it was obvious that the discipline of school and finding a mother figure were a help. The ending where she was all dressed up and sitting so unnaturally (destined to the same fate as her mother?) was sad. I wished there were more of her and Lydia - I'm so used to reading literature where the fourth formers are the focus, not the headmistress, stories where the scholarship girl and the little snob become fest friends. I suppose there's something to be said for seeing them from a different point of view (even though I don’t think that the dancing that we saw in the first episode would be allowed in most girls own schools, or am I being stuffily naive?)

Comments

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

When I re-read the book i found I wanted more about Midge and Lydia. Midge was much nastier in the book than she appeared on television. Axtell, the Communist, has TB in the book and there is no relationship but friendship between him and Sarah, so that was all made up.
I thought Mrs Beddows was the most accurately reproduced character (Penelope Wilton very good, even if she didn't look seventy two) and I think the jealousy between her and Sarah over Carne did come out. Her telling Sarah what's what at the end was very like the book although the railway scene was just put in for dramatic effect. My problem with both the book and the TV version is that I just can't see the attraction of Carne.

[feather-ghyll.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry - I didn't get the notification for this comment. I wondered how much of the girls were in the book as seeing schoolgirls in the context of an adult book is fascinating. I presume that modern attitudes towards mental illness coloured how Midge was portrayed.

Mrs Beddows was 72!? How flattering for Wilton! But if she was such an active character in the book, that's quite impressive.

I thought the TV version was hoping for Morrisey's charm to carry it, because when you look at the character, being good with horses doesn't balance out some really unattractive traits. He reminded me of dodgy fantasy characters in bad bodice rippers.

[antonianell.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen the film but read and enjoyed the book. I'm not a great fan of classic novels but did like this one so look out for a 99 p version and give it a go!

[feather-ghyll.livejournal.com]

Hello :)

I might pick it up out of curiosity - I hadn't heard of South Riding before. callmemamadam said above that she wasn't satisfied by how much Midge and Lydia was in the book, and reading about them and their realtionship with Sarah would interest me more than the other strands.