North & South Location in honour of Elizabeth Gaskell's 200th Birthday!

If there are any fans of the 2005 BBC adaptation of North and South, and I know you are out there, you will recognize this location as the park where Margaret meets Bessie and Nicholas Higgins and there is also a scene with Mr. Thornton walking through this park.  They added some grave stones in the adaptation which were just props.
If you are ever in Edinburgh, Scotland, you will be able to walk through this park (Calton Hill) as I did with my husband, AKA the Squire, in the summer of 2009.  It looks very bleak in this photo, much as it was for the moody shots portraying the gloom of Milton/Manchester for North & South.  The structure which makes this location so recognizable is the Dugald Stewart Memorial.
If anyone knows the street that they used in Edinburgh for the Hale's house or the one used for the Higgins house, please leave a comment and let us know.  Then maybe we can find someone in or near Edinburgh to photograph it for us so we can see what it looks like without all of the Victorian props.  It probably looks quite different, unlike this view which only required a little CGI for the skyline and a few Victorian looking gravestones.

Well, Happy 200th Birthday to Mrs. Gaskell and if you haven't seen this or read the book, you must do so now.  Trust me.



Addendum: I have just had a comment from Phoebe (see below) which is directing me to the site of RichardArmitageOnline.com for their assistance, as the locations for North and South have been well researched by fans.  Yay!  Thanks for your help Phoebe.  Here is the link for those interested in the locations for North and South, including the ones in Edinburgh.
Now, any volunteers in the UK to take photos of these locations?

Cranford DVD Trailer

Cranford cat & lace scene

Cranford

This is English period drama at it’s affectionate best.  I think this one is a demonstration that the BBC is getting better and better at the adaptation of classic literature and we are the winners.  This is not truly an adaptation of a single novel, but the compilation of Mrs. Gaskell’s Cranford, along with two of her novellas, My Lady Ludlow and Mr. Harrison’s Confessions.  These three stories form a fond homage to Elizabeth Gaskell’s childhood experiences of growing up in the small village of Knutsford, Cheshire.  

Cranford is a world of women in the 1840's, Amazon women as Mrs. Gaskell described them, not in physical strength but in strength of character and in the power to run their village the way they like it. Look out men!  All classes are represented in this film, from the aristocratic Lady Ludlow, down to Harry Gregson, the little poacher from a family of squatters.  Mainly though, it is the fairly genteel ladies of the middle class who populate these stories.  They have not much money with which to uphold their position in the town, but frugality is a virtue with these ladies.  The men are here to move plotlines, but the ladies are the stars, with the possible exception of Phillip Glenister as the fascinating Mr. Carter and the hunky Simon Woods as the socially clueless new doctor in town (and most eligible bachelor), Mr. Harrison.

This adaptation is a veritable who’s who of British actresses. Notable among them are Dame Judi Dench and Dame Eileen Atkins as the unmarried Jenkyns sisters and Lisa Dillon as their younger savvier relative Miss Smith, regularly upstaged by Imelda Staunton as the hilarious Miss Pole.  The rest are too numerous to name but you can more easily state who is NOT in this production.  This is a mini soap opera of lovely vignettes with little dollops of humor and a few heartbreaks as well.  Love lost, love found, misunderstandings and realizations, and a few cute little anecdotes, like the cat who swallowed the lace collar  (and how it was retrieved), make this a lovely visit to a different time and place.

The acting is unsurpassed and each of the actors seems to help and support the others whenever their story is not the main plot.  A true collaborative affair, this one will get into your bones and make all but the hardest hearts alternately laugh and cry.  We also now have the second installment, done as a Christmas/New Year’s special in 2009, Return to Cranford.  We get to revisit Miss Matty and her friends, and the opening shot of Miss Pole’s feather bobbing down the street starts us out on exactly the right foot.

The BBC can now rightfully take credit for a revival of Mrs. Gaskell’s novels, from Wives and Daughters to North and South, and now Cranford. Thank goodness she has been rediscovered.  And there are a few left to do, like Mary Barton and Ruth and Sylvia’s Lovers, although they mostly cover her slightly darker topics. This one is just lovely and yet has a bit of depth as well.  Nice job, BBC. Now anyone for Cranford III?

North and South 2005

Ok, two words here.  Mr. Thornton.  He is sexy on the page, and he is very sexy in this 2005 adaptation. Two more words.  Richard Armitage. His Mr. Thornton could replace Mr. Darcy for you

Now that I have got your attention, I will tell you a bit more about this brilliant book/adaptation.  This is not Jane Austen, nor is it the 1985 civil war mini-series with Patrick Swayze, but was written by Elizabeth Gaskell, Mrs. Gaskell as she is commonly known.  


Mrs. Gaskell was the wife of a Manchester clergyman and wrote this in 1855 in Victorian England. In North and South, she explores the relationship between Margaret Hale, a cultured woman in “reduced circumstances” from the pastoral South of England and a slightly less refined man, Mr. Thornton, from the industrial North of England who has worked his way up to owning his own cotton mill. He has money, but is “in trade”, and not a real gentleman in her eyes.  Oh, she has a lot to learn. He certainly is a real man Margaret...

A few of Mrs. Gaskell’s other works have been recently adapted also (Wives and Daughters, Cranford).  This one is my favourite of the three, and only by a hair as the other two are amazing as well.  It may have something to do with Richard Armitage’s portrayal of Mr. Thornton. His silky voice and the way he carries himself in those suits and collars.....  Whew, it just got really warm in this room.

Mr. Thornton and Miss Margaret Hale at Thornton Mills

Be warned however, that this comes off a bit dark on the first viewing.  Mrs. Gaskell was well acquainted with the working class struggles in Manchester and wrote them into this story.  So you get a romance blossoming and an amazing social commentary which is fascinating to watch, but not always pretty.  So don’t just watch this one once and put it away.  First of all, you will have to watch the ending at least three times as once is not enough. Thankfully, the ending has been posted on You Tube, so if you need a fix and can’t watch the whole film, you can have a little moment with Mr. Thornton anytime you like.  This one grows on you slowly to become a favourite, so watch it at least twice.  And please don’t judge Mr. Thornton too harshly from the opening of the miniseries.  My only quibble with Sandy Welch, the screenwriter, is that she made him rather violent to his workers, in order to justify Margaret’s initial dislike, but he is not so callous in the book.

Daniela Denby-Ashe as Miss Margaret Hale

Daniela Denby-Ashe does a great job of playing Margaret Hale, the daughter of a clergyman from Southern England, who feels obliged to give up his parish because of some religious doubts and finds himself forced to be a teacher in the industrial North of England.  Miss Hale and Mr. Thornton don’t quite hit it off at first, not a big surprise for a romance.  The whole story is very rich, and I am glad they gave it the length of a miniseries to develop. The entire cast is solid, with Tim Pigott-Smith as Margaret’s slightly befuddled father, Sinead Cusack as the steely matron Mrs. Thornton, the always amazing Anna Maxwell Martin as Margaret’s new friend Bessy, and Brendan Coyle as Bessy’s father. There isn’t a weak actor in the entire production.

Sandy Welch was the screenwriter for this one, and she now commands some real respect after doing a great job with this, with Our Mutual Friend, a fabulous version of Jane Eyre and with the most recent Emma.  She is my new hero!

"Look back. Look back at me!"....Swoon!

This is also one of these adaptations which really sends you to the book after watching it.  The book is very similar but of course gives a more complete view of the story, as well as a slightly different but just as satisfying ending.

North and South has a special place in my DVD library and from looking at the postings on the Internet, I am not alone.  So enjoy this one........

"It is you who would be doing me the service."...Indeed!

By the way, 2010 is the bicentenary of Mrs. Gaskell’s birth and The Gaskell Society is planning a year full of events.  There is also a current restoration of the Elizabeth Gaskell House at 84 Plymouth Grove in Manchester which had previously fallen into disrepair and is now going to be reopened partly as a museum and partly to be used for community events and gatherings, which would probably have pleased Mrs. Gaskell.