''The Essex Serpent'' is a 2022 British

gothic romance Gothic fiction, sometimes called Gothic horror in the 20th century, is a loose literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The name is a reference to Gothic architecture of the European Middle Ages, which was characteristic of the settings of ea ...

period drama A historical drama (also period drama, costume drama, and period piece) is a work set in a past time period, usually used in the context of film and television. Historical drama includes historical fiction and romances, adventure films, and swas ...

miniseries based on the novel of the same name by

Sarah Perry Sarah Grace Perry (born 28 November 1979) is an English author. She has had three novels published, all by Serpent's Tail: ''After Me Comes the Flood'' (2014), ''The Essex Serpent'' (2016) and ''Melmoth'' (2018). Her work has been translated ...

. The series is written by Anna Symon, directed by

Clio Barnard Clio Barnard (1 January 1965) is a British director of documentary and feature films. She won widespread critical acclaim and multiple awards for her debut, '' The Arbor'', an experimental documentary about Bradford playwright Andrea Dunbar. ...

, and stars

Claire Danes Claire Catherine Danes (born April 12, 1979) is an American actress. She is the recipient of three Primetime Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. In 2012, ''Time'' named her one of the 100 most influenti ...

and

Tom Hiddleston Thomas William Hiddleston (born 9 February 1981) is an English actor. He gained international fame portraying Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), starting with ''Thor'' in 2011 and most recently in the Disney+ series ''Loki'' in 2021 ...

in lead roles. It premiered on

Apple TV+ Apple TV is a digital media player and microconsole developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is a small network appliance hardware that plays received media data such as video and audio to a television set or external display. Since its secon ...

on 13 May 2022.

Premise

''The Essex Serpent'' follows London widow Cora Seaborne (Claire Danes) who moves to Essex to investigate reports of a mythical serpent. She forms a surprising bond of science and skepticism with the local pastor (Tom Hiddleston), but when tragedy strikes, locals accuse her of attracting the creature.

Cast and characters

as Cora Seaborne *

as Will Ransome *

Frank Dillane Frank Stephenson Dillane (born 21 April 1991) is an English actor and musician. He is known for his roles as Nick Clark on '' Fear the Walking Dead'' (2015–2018) and 16-year-old Tom Riddle in the film ''Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ...

as Luke Garrett *

Clémence Poésy Clémence Guichard (born 30 October 1982), known professionally as Clémence Poésy (), is a French actress and fashion model. After starting on the stage as a child, Poésy studied drama and has been active in both film and television since 19 ...

as Stella Ransome *

Hayley Squires Hayley Squires (born 16 April 1988) is an English actress and playwright, best known for her work in the Ken Loach film ''I, Daniel Blake''. Squires has also appeared in ''Call the Midwife'' (2012), '' Southcliffe'' (2013), ''Complicit'' (2013), ...

as Martha *

Jamael Westman Jamael Anwar Hermitt-Westman (born December 1991) is a British actor. He is best known for starring as the titular role in the West End production of Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical ''Hamilton (musical), Hamilton'', which earned him a Laurence Oli ...

as Dr. George Spencer * Lily-Rose Aslandogdu as Naomi Banks *

Gerard Kearns Gerard Kearns (born 4 October 1984) is an English actor. He is best known as Ian Gallagher in '' Shameless''. Career Kearns starred in the film '' The Mark of Cain'', for Film4 Productions, based on British soldiers' abuse of Iraqi prisoner ...

as Henry Banks *

Michael Jibson Michael Jibson (born 16 December 1980) is an English actor, director, writer and voice over artist. Jibson started his career in the theatre. He has been nominated for an Olivier Award twice, once when he was only 22 in 2003, for his work on ...

as Matthew Evansford * Caspar Griffiths as Frankie Seaborne * Dixie Egerickx as Jo Ransome * Ryan Reffell as John Ransome *

Nitin Ganatra Nitin Chandra Ganatra (born 30 June 1967) is a Kenyan-born British actor. He is known for portraying Masood Ahmed in the BBC soap opera, ''EastEnders''. Early and personal life Ganatra was born on 30 June 1967 in Kenya. Both sides of Ganatra' ...

as Sir Charles Ambrose *

Christopher Fairbank Christopher Fairbank (born 4 October 1953) is an English film, stage and television actor. Career In 2010, he appeared as a detective in ''Five Daughters ''Five Daughters'' is a British television drama miniseries starring Ian Hart, Sar ...

as Cracknell * Deepica Stephen as Sali * Yaamin Chowdhury as Nev *

Greta Bellamacina Greta Rosanna Bellamacina (born ) is a British actress, poet and model. Early life Bellamacina was born in Hampstead, London, England, and raised in Camden. She discovered an interest in performing at an early age. She attended Royal Academ ...

as surgeon

Episodes

Production

Development

In August 2020, it was reported that

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...

gave a straight-to-series order for ''The Essex Serpent'' to

See-Saw Films See-Saw Films is a British-Australian film and television production company founded in 2008 by Iain Canning and Emile Sherman, with offices in London and Sydney. Their productions include ''The King's Speech'', '' Top Of The Lake'', ''Lion'', ...

Casting

When ''The Essex Serpent'' was announced in August 2020,

Keira Knightley Keira Christina Righton (; née Knightley, born 26 March 1985) is an English actress. Known for her work in both independent films and blockbusters, particularly period dramas, she has received several accolades, including nominations for ...

was set to play the leading role of Cora as well as executive produce, however in October 2020, she chose to leave the project due to "family reasons". In February 2021,

signed on to play Cora to replace Knightley.

joined the cast the following month. In April,

and

would be added to the main cast.

Filming

Filming was previously set to begin in late November 2020 before Knightley exited the series. Filming for ''The Essex Serpent'' began in February 2021, in a number of

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

locations, including Alresford, Brightlingsea, North Fambridge and

Maldon Maldon (, locally ) is a town and civil parish on the Blackwater estuary in Essex, England. It is the seat of the Maldon District and starting point of the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation. It is known for Maldon Sea Salt which is produced ...

, as well as across London, including

Gordon Square Gordon Square is a public park square in Bloomsbury, London, England. It is part of the Bedford Estate and was designed as one of a pair with the nearby Tavistock Square. It is owned by the University of London. History and buildings The ...

in Bloomsbury. Filming for the series concluded on the week of 27 June 2021.

Reception

The

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reported a 76% approval rating with an average rating of 7.1/10, based on 41 critic reviews. The website's critics' consensus reads, "Distinguished by biting performances and coiling ambience, ''The Essex Serpent'' is a highly accomplished Gothic romance."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which uses a weighted average, has a score of 69 out of 100 based on 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". The miniseries was nominated for two

Royal Television Society Craft & Design Awards The Royal Television Academy Craft & Design Awards, often referred to as RTS Craft & Design Awards, are given annually by the Royal Television Society to recognize the "huge variety of skills and processes involved in programme production". The aw ...

, for outstanding achievement in Design - Titles, and Production Management.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Essex Serpent (Tv Series), The 2022 British television series debuts 2022 British television series endings 2020s British drama television series 2020s British television miniseries English-language television shows Apple TV+ original programming Television shows based on British novels Television shows filmed in England Television shows set in Essex