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New BBC Drama: South Riding by Winifred Holtby
Posted by Donna Coonan in Book News, News, TV, Film & Radio News
South Riding
Award-winning screenwriter Andrew Davies (Brideshead Revisited, Affinity, Tipping the Velvet) is adapting Winifred Holtby's classic novel South Riding for the BBC. It stars David Morrissey and Anna Maxwell Martin, and is due to be screened later this year.Andrew Davies has said of South Riding, which is set in Yorkshire:
'What appealed to me most about South Riding is how fresh and relevant it feels, even though it was written and set in the Thirties. It's a terrific love story but it's also a portrait of a whole community in turmoil, with the country in recession, and bitter struggles between the advocates of change, like our heroine Sarah the new forward-thinking headmistress, and the forces of conservatism embodied in Robert Carne. It's also full of rich comedy, with some wonderful minor characters, splendidly cast. I feel as if we've rediscovered a forgotten masterpiece.'
See the BBC Press Release
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Yessss! I have been raving about this novel all summer, and telling folks that I simply couldn't believe it had not been made into a BBC production. Wonderful news for all Holtby fans.
FANTASTIC NEWS I WROTE TO THE BBC YEARS AGO AND GOT A GAURDED REPLY I WONDER WHY.
MY FAVOURITE BOOK. WARM,COMPASSIONATE AND FUNNY.
PITY RUDSTON PEOPLE DO NOT VALUE WINIFRED WHO DIED BEFORE SHE COULD GAIN MORE AWARDS.
I'm looking forward to it but there has been a previous adaptation a long time ago – in 1974 – which is available on DVD.
I read this book in the run up to the BBC adaptation and thought it contained some of the best, most rounded characters in modern literature. I got to know and to care what happened to each individual and to the whole community. How disappointing the Andrew Davies dramatisation is, focusing only on Sarah Burton and Robert Carne with almost a walk-on part for the wonderful Alderman Mrs Beddows and mere glimpses of the rest of the characters that Winifred Holtby drew so richly.
I wish the BBC had re-run the 1974 dramatisation with Dorothy Tutin as Sarah instead, I hear it was excellent.