Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Jessie Buckley, Ben Hardy, Olivia Vinall, Art Malik, Ricardo Scamarcio, Sonya Cassidy, Joanna Scanlan, Ivan Kaye, Ruth Sheen, Dougray Scott, Charles Dance, Nicholas Jones, Vicki Pepperdine, Kerry Fox, Christopher Fairbank, Clare McMahon, James Flynn, Cathy Belton, Jesse Magee, Matthew Lawson, Frankie McCafferty, Cole Currin, James Flynn, Carla Bryson, Frankie McCafferty.
There is so much to be said for the abundance of literature that has not been given its rightful place on the stage or the mediums of television and film, that for too long it could be argued that the executives of these intruding boons to our world have long insisted that only their deemed classics, the god-send of money making appeal, were worthy of such efforts to entertain the audiences at home. They have a point of course, but for every distinguished and sometimes ordinary version of Wuthering Heights that gets the applause, an author such as Wilkie Collins is ignored and relegated to a point of obscurity.
To see the challenge and opportunity in filming an epic such as The Woman In White is proof that British literature is still very much alive, that it gives hope to any author coming through today that their work quite possibly might find an audience, even long after they have perhaps left their imagination behind and the tapping on the keyboard has forever gone quiet.
It is a challenge met with honour, a rare and sporadic achievement in today’s world and one that really does capture the essence of Mr. Wilkie’s work and one that much to wipe away the memory of the few previous attempts to preserve the writer’s name in amber and one that impresses in much the same way as the Sarah Walter’s reimagining of the book in her 2002 novel Fingersmith.
This Victorian epic has long deserved a proper treatment and with actors such as Charles Dance, the incredible Jessie Buckley, Art Malik and Ricardo Scamarcio especially, giving such a terrifically menacing performance as the Count Isidor Fosco, Kerry Fox as the near damned Mrs Catherick and Dougray Scott going very much against type as the despicable, yet deeply troubled Sir Percival Glyde, this particular adaption under the directing of Carl Tibbetts and writer Fiona Seres is both captivating and deeply respectful to the ideas laid out by Wilkie Collins
The Woman In White, a great display of what television can achieve when given the scope to realise the potential, when it has a cast truly endorsing the idea of just how far a desperate and callow man will go when pushed into a corner and the honour of the women he has treated with contempt, get their true justice; an enjoyable Victorian novel given polish and style.
Ian D. Hall