7.8 /10 1 Votes
Original language(s) English | 7.7/10 IMDb Country of origin United Kingdom First episode date January 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Written by Peter BowkerEmily Brontë (novel) Starring Tom HardyCharlotte RileyAndrew LincolnSarah LancashireRebecca Night Executive producer(s) Michele BuckDamien TimmerHugo HeppellRebecca Eaton Cast | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wuthering Heights is a two-part ITV television series adaptation of the novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. The episodes were adapted for the screen by Peter Bowker and directed by Coky Giedroyc. The programme stars Tom Hardy and Charlotte Riley in the roles of the famous lovers Heathcliff and Catherine or 'Cathy' Earnshaw.
Contents
The series was first broadcast in January 2009 in the US, as part of PBS's Masterpiece Classic programming. It eventually aired in the UK in two separate 90-minute instalments on consecutive nights, on 30 and 31 August 2009. It was broadcast on the terrestrial networks ITV & UTV, and in early 2010 on STV in Scotland.
Plot synopsis
For an in-depth account of the plot, See Main Article: Wuthering Heights
Based on the classic novel by Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights is a story of love, obsession, hate and revenge. The protagonists, Cathy and Heathcliff, form a love that is dark and destructive and affects the lives of everyone around them.
Primary characters
Secondary characters
Writing
In approaching the novel as a 180-minute, adaptation writer Peter Bowker observed: "How do you go about adapting the greatest love story in literature? Well, firstly by acknowledging that it isn't a love story. Or at least, it is many things as well as a love story. It's a story about hate, class, revenge, sibling rivalry, loss, grief, family, violence, land and money..."
He noted that the book had previously proved "stubbornly unadaptable", the most successful version being the Hollywood picture starring Laurence Olivier, which succeeded because "with classic Hollywood ruthlessness they filleted out the Cathy/Heathcliff story and ditched the rest of the plot. It's a great film but it does the novel a disservice."
Bowker hoped to "open up some of the other themes, not least the story of how damage is passed down through generations, how revenge poisons the innocent and the guilty, how the destructive nature of hate always threatens to overwhelm the redemptive power of love" but acknowledged that "structurally, the novel is notoriously difficult"
Faced with this "complex and sometimes frustrating structure" Bowker decided to reassemble the plot of the novel in chronological order and read it again. He credits the "exercise in literary vandalism" as "a breakthrough moment in pointing to the book's adaptability". In his version, Bowker "decided to drop [the original narrator] Lockwood altogether and absorb Nelly's [partial narration] into the main drama".
Bowker also shuffled with the original organisation of the flashback episodes, instead beginning his drama "at the moment when Linton is delivered by the dying Edgar to the old Heathcliff at the Heights", rather than through the visitor Lockwood's arrival at the estate. He suggested this reshuffle would increase audience interest; as the story begins "two men hate each other and we don't know why. The Kind Man is giving his ailing nephew to the Monster and we don't know why. Start with a mystery". Bowker also found this introduction gave "the story of the younger generation the room it deserves".
Reception
The serial received a generally mixed response from critics. Metacritic denotes the average US rating as 54/100, which represents "mixed or average reviews".
In the UK, Kathryn Flett of The Observer began by asserting that "Wuthering Heights is a nightmare for a film-maker", with "too many characters to make a streamlined narrative" and "annoying" protagonists. Nevertheless she found herself "[enjoying] this edited-highlights version of the Heights, directed with flair by Coky Giedroyc". She also praised Tom Hardy in the role of Heathcliff, how he managed to convincingly make the character "thoroughly dangerous to know in all the right ways, entirely capable of making even careworn middle-aged women rend their garments, tear their hair and head for the moors". She did, however, note a dip in quality in the concluding episode, noting that "even the young Tom Hardy couldn't quite stop the second half from being a bit, like, Wuthever".