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It would be easy to overlook just how good the opening episode of South Riding is. Just because the BBC have such an excellent track record with period dramas, people have come to expect a certain level of quality from them. When that’s reached, and it’s made to look as effortless as this, the talent and dedication required are often not given the credit they deserve.
The first episode of South Riding was a master class in story opening, quickly establishing the world we’re in, the characters that drive it and the relationships between them. Now, I loved Downton Abbey more than life itself (call me, Hugh Bonneville), but the first half-hour was a prime example of how not to do plot exposition. Here, apart from a couple of dodgy flashbacks, the fact that Sarah was returning to South Riding allowed character histories to be explained organically: it felt natural that Mrs Beddows would tell Sarah about the Carne family history, and Sarah’s revelation to Joe about her lost fiancé didn’t feel forced. Of course, that’s mostly down to the genius of screenwriter Andrew Davies. He truly is the master of TV adaptation, in no small part because he’s not afraid to change things from the books. There’s never a sense that he treats them without respect, but he inherently understands the things that do and don’t work on screen.
The whole thing looks gorgeous, and even if people living in the slum area do seem a little bit too clean to be believable, that’s made up for by the creepy Carne home and the dilapidated girls’ school. And the costumes are divine. Putting Sarah in bold colours may be a fairly obvious visual trick, but it’s more subtly carried through by having her supporters in the first meeting wear red too. Her modern look works better in contrast to Robert Carne, who looks every bit the out-of-date landowner.
All of this would be lost if the acting didn’t live up to it. The pious-but-secretly-having-sex-with-prostitutes character seems a little one note so far, but John Henshaw brings enough to the role to make it work. Penelope Wilton and Peter Firth are as wonderful as you would imagine, even if his blonde hair is shockingly awful. And I was pleasantly surprised by Douglas Henshall as Joe Astell: he brought real screen presence and sympathy to the role, making the most of his small scenes.
But, really, it’s all about Anna Maxwell Martin and David Morrissey. Martin again manages to pull of that most difficult of tricks, one that she completely nailed in Bleak House: being an inherently good, optimistic character that isn’t irritating or, even worse, deathly dull. Her intelligence allows Sarah’s warmth to shine through without seeming trite, especially her admission that she would have lost out on the life she now has had he lived. As for David Morrissey, glorious David Morrissey: he certainly lived up to my expectations, and my expectations were high. He can brood with the best of them, and the role of a troubled landowner, plagued by guilt about his presumably mad wife and facing an uncertain future seems to be tailor made for him. Their chemistry is palpable: without us ever being allowed to forget that they believe in completely different things, they’re also both humans who can bond over the usual things like, well, birthing a cow together.
Ultimately, South Riding could fall completely flat in the next two episodes, but the first episode certainly worked as a nigh-on perfect start. Somehow, I think we're in safe hands.
South Riding continues this Sunday on BBC1 at 9pm.
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