North & South

This article first appeared in the Age on May 14, 2005

Elizabeth Gaskell is not one of the better known writers of Victorian times, though she was given a decent sideswipe in an Age article on Charlotte Bronte the other week, where she was described as the author of several unheard of and not very good novels. Coincidentally the ABC began showing a four-part series based on her novel, North and South (Sunday, 8.30 p.m., ABC), last week. Those who have begun watching it will see how unfair that dismissal is.

Margaret Hale (Daniela Denby-Ashe) who enjoyed a privileged upbringing in rural southern England is taken to live in the industrial northern town of Milton (based on Manchester), because her father (Tim Piggott Smith), has left the church on a matter of conscience. Down south, in Margaret's imagination anyway, it was all soft green lawns and roses, while up in the industrial north the air is full of soot and cotton flutters down like snow and settles in workers lungs, thus condemning them to a slow death. Margaret, quaintly, sets about visiting the poor with baskets, only to find that kind of toff behavior can hurt the pride of people who maybe impoverished, but are also proud members of a burgeoning class: the working class. It is this analysis of class that makes North and South so original. Much time is given in the series to the formation of unions, an ensuing strike, and the suffering caused to worker and master alike. While there is much in the series that seems old-fashioned, such as long worthy sermons about how the working man must be well behaved at all times, such patronizing carry on is the stuff of many a newspaper an article today, let alone 160 years ago.

Where the series (and novel) is less original is the love story, which has more than a whiff of Pride and Prejudice about it as Margaret Hale is too proud, and too snobbish to acknowledge the animal magnetism of John Thornton (Richard Armitage). Thornton is a mill owner who Margaret first spies beating up one of his workers for smoking. Thornton's explanation that a single spark in a cotton fire can kill hundreds in minutes, is of no import to Margaret, though it seems his violence has also ignited a spark between them.

As with many novels by woman at this time, there is much emphasis on the heroine not giving into men through thoughtless dependence and a plot twist that allows financial independence marrying for passion not money. Though historical drama often unfold in this way, it is rare for a series to focus on English Industrial life during a time of such massive upheaval and change. Also beguiling is the way the camera finds to make the scenery - dark, grey, wild and polluted - beautiful. The long shots of the inside of the Mill are quite extraordinary. Even better, there is not a grand or historic house to be seen for the whole series. What North and South offers is the conventional comfort and romance of historic drama, with a story of class war at its unusual heart. It’s highly rewarding, if occasionally dour, viewing.

And, in the interests of historical accuracy let me point out that this week’s episode of Without a Trace (Wednesday, 9.30 p.m., Channel 9) , entitled 'Revelations', is being advertised as a 'Season Final'. It's not. It's a repeat from the second season and we are only 10 episodes into 22 episodes of the third season.

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