''Wuthering Heights'' is a 2009 two-part British
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
television series adaptation of the 1847 novel ''
Wuthering Heights
''Wuthering Heights'' is an 1847 novel by Emily Brontë, initially published under her pen name Ellis Bell. It concerns two families of the landed gentry living on the West Yorkshire moorland, moors, the Earnshaws and the Lintons, and their tur ...
'' by
Emily Brontë
Emily Jane Brontë (, commonly ; 30 July 1818 – 19 December 1848) was an English novelist and poet who is best known for her only novel, ''Wuthering Heights'', now considered a classic of English literature. She also published a book of poet ...
. The episodes were adapted for the screen by
Peter Bowker
Peter Bowker (born 5 January 1959) is a British playwright and screenwriter. He is best known for the television serials ''Blackpool'' (2004), a musical drama about a shady casino owner; ''Occupation'' (2009), which follows three military servic ...
and directed by
Coky Giedroyc
Mary Rose Helen "Coky" Giedroyc (; born 6 February 1963) is an English director known for her work on ''Women Talking Dirty'', '' The Virgin Queen'', ''The Nativity'', and ''Penny Dreadful''.
Early life
Giedroyc was born in Kowloon on 6 Februar ...
. The programme stars
Tom Hardy and
Charlotte Riley
Charlotte Frances Riley (born 29 December 1981) is an English actress. She is known for her roles as Sarah Hurst in '' Easy Virtue'' (2008) and as Catherine Earnshaw in ITV's adaptation of ''Wuthering Heights'' (2009).
Early life and education ...
in the roles of the famous lovers
Heathcliff and
Catherine or 'Cathy' Earnshaw.
The series was first broadcast in January 2009 in the US, as part of
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
's
Masterpiece
A masterpiece, ''magnum opus'' (), or ''chef-d’œuvre'' (; ; ) in modern use is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, ...
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
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
and
UTV, and in early 2010 on
STV in Scotland.
Plot synopsis
''For an in-depth account of the plot, See Main Article:
Wuthering Heights
''Wuthering Heights'' is an 1847 novel by Emily Brontë, initially published under her pen name Ellis Bell. It concerns two families of the landed gentry living on the West Yorkshire moorland, moors, the Earnshaws and the Lintons, and their tur ...
''
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.
Cast and characters
Primary characters
*
Tom Hardy as
Heathcliff – Heathcliff, an orphan, is brought to
Wuthering Heights
''Wuthering Heights'' is an 1847 novel by Emily Brontë, initially published under her pen name Ellis Bell. It concerns two families of the landed gentry living on the West Yorkshire moorland, moors, the Earnshaws and the Lintons, and their tur ...
as a child after Mr Earnshaw finds him living rough on the streets of Liverpool. At first he is resented by his foster siblings, Catherine and Hindley Earnshaw. Eventually Cathy comes to love him, whereas Hindley always sees him as an interloper. Heathcliff is eventually consumed by jealousy and hate when Cathy marries Edgar Linton.
*
Charlotte Riley
Charlotte Frances Riley (born 29 December 1981) is an English actress. She is known for her roles as Sarah Hurst in '' Easy Virtue'' (2008) and as Catherine Earnshaw in ITV's adaptation of ''Wuthering Heights'' (2009).
Early life and education ...
as
Catherine Earnshaw
Catherine Earnshaw is a fictional character and the female protagonist of the 1847 novel ''Wuthering Heights'' written by Emily Brontë. Catherine is one of two children to Mr. and Mrs. Earnshaw, the original tenants of the Wuthering Heights est ...
– Daughter of Mr Earnshaw, Cathy at first resents Heathcliff's presence in her home but soon starts to bond with him. They eventually fall in love but their obsessive relationship is doomed from the outset. Her desire for social recognition leads her to marry Edgar Linton. From childhood to adulthood, Cathy and Heathcliff are inseparable; until she meets Edgar.
*
Andrew Lincoln
Andrew James Clutterbuck (born 14 September 1973), known professionally as Andrew Lincoln, is an English actor. His first major role was as the character Egg in the BBC drama ''This Life'' (1996–1997). Lincoln later portrayed Simon Casey in ...
as
Edgar Linton
Edgar Linton is a fictional character in Emily Brontë's 1847 novel ''Wuthering Heights''. His role in the story is that of Catherine Earnshaw's husband. He resides at Thrushcross Grange and falls prey to Heathcliff's schemes for revenge again ...
– Edgar is well-educated, refined and wealthy, everything that Heathcliff isn't. The two men eventually come to blows over their love-rival status in a bid to win Cathy's heart.
*
Kevin McNally
Kevin Robert McNally (born 27 April 1956) is an English actor and writer. He is known for portraying Joshamee Gibbs in the ''Pirates of the Caribbean'' film series.
Early life
Born in Bristol, McNally spent his early years in Birmingham, att ...
as Mr. Earnshaw – Kindly father of Catherine and Hindley, Mr Earnshaw brings home the orphan Heathcliff to Wuthering Heights, little realising the full ramifications of his good-hearted actions will plague both the boy and his daughter.
*
Burn Gorman
Burn Hugh Winchester Gorman (born 1 September 1974) is an English actor and musician. He is known for his roles as Owen Harper in the BBC series ''Torchwood'' (2006–2008), Phillip Stryver in ''The Dark Knight Rises'' (2012), Karl Tanner in the ...
as
Hindley Earnshaw
Hindley Earnshaw is a fictional character in Emily Brontë's 1847 novel ''Wuthering Heights''. Hindley is the brother of Catherine Earnshaw, father of Hareton Earnshaw, and the foster brother and sworn enemy of Heathcliff. He descends into a li ...
– Hindley is Catherine's brother and resents Heathcliff from the start, seeing him as a rival for their father's affections. Despite Heathcliff being an outsider, Mr Earnshaw comes to love him more than Hindley and Catherine, which breeds jealousy and vengeance in the young man's heart.
*
Sarah Lancashire
Sarah-Jane Abigail Lancashire (born 10 October 1964) is an English actress from Oldham, England. She graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1986 and began her career in local theatre, whilst teaching drama classes at the Sal ...
as
Nelly Dean
Ellen "Nelly" Dean is a female character in Emily Brontë's 1847 novel ''Wuthering Heights.'' She is the main narrator in the book, and she provides eyewitness accounts of many of the story's central events to Mr Lockwood.
Ellen Dean is called ...
– Partial narrator in Emily Brontë's novel, Nelly (or Ellen) is the housekeeper at Wuthering Heights and is witness to Catherine and Heathcliff's story as it unfolds.
*
Rosalind Halstead
Rosalind Halstead (born 18 July 1984 in Islington, London) is an English actress, model, and dancer.
Early life
Halstead trained for five years at the Central School of Ballet, and danced at Sadler's Wells Theatre (Earl's Court and Her Majesty ...
as
Isabella Linton
Isabella Linton is a fictional character in Emily Brontë's 1847 novel ''Wuthering Heights''. She is the sister of Edgar Linton and the wife of Heathcliff.
Story
Isabella Linton was raised in the safe, elegant environment of Thrushcross Gran ...
– Isabella is Edgar's naive sister who becomes close friends with Catherine when the latter is injured at Thrushcross Grange and stays with the Lintons. But when Cathy and Edgar marry, Heathcliff seduces Isabella as a way of getting his revenge.
Secondary characters
*
Tom Payne as Linton Heathcliff
*
Rebecca Night
Rebecca Night (born Rebecca Hardwick; 13 July 1985) is an English actress who starred in the title role of James Hawes's BBC Four adaptation ''Fanny Hill''. Night and Stockard Channing co-starred as Jessie and Thelma in Marsha Norman's Pulitze ...
as
Catherine Linton
Catherine Linton (also known as "Young Catherine" or Cathy Linton and later as Catherine Heathcliff then as Catherine Earnshaw) is a character in Emily Brontë's 1847 novel ''Wuthering Heights''. She is the daughter of Edgar Linton and Catheri ...
*
Sia Berkeley
Sia Berkeley (born 24 April 1985) is an English actress. She is best known for her television work, perhaps most for playing Scarlett (Skins Character)#Michelle, Scarlett in the television series ''Skins (UK TV series), Skins''.
Career
Berkeley ...
as Frances Earnshaw
* Andrew Hawley as
Hareton Earnshaw
Hareton Earnshaw is a character in Emily Brontë's 1847 novel ''Wuthering Heights''. He is the son of Hindley Earnshaw and Hindley's wife, Frances. At the end of the novel, he makes plans to wed Catherine Linton, with whom he falls in love.
S ...
* Des McAleer as Joseph
* Declan Wheeldon as Young Heathcliff
* Alexandra Pearson as Young Cathy
* Shaughan Seymour as Dr Kenneth
* Joseph Taylor as Young Hindley
Production
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
he original narrator
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
Lockwood altogether and absorb Nelly's
artial narrationinto 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".
Location
The
Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...
manor house
A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...
Oakwell Hall
Oakwell Hall is an Elizabethan manor house in Birstall, West Yorkshire, Birstall, West Yorkshire, England. The Grade I Listed building, listed hall is set in period gardens surrounded by of country park.
The house was built for John Batt. A r ...
served as Wuthering Heights for the production.
Episodes
Reception
The serial received a generally mixed response from critics.
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, 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 arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
denotes the average US rating as 54/100, which represents "mixed or average reviews".
In the UK, Kathryn Flett of ''
The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...
'' 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 "
njoyingthis 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".
References
External links
*
*
''Wuthering Heights''at the
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
website
''Wuthering Heights''at the
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
website
''Wuthering Heights''at the
Masterpiece
A masterpiece, ''magnum opus'' (), or ''chef-d’œuvre'' (; ; ) in modern use is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, ...
website
Review, ''Leicester Mercury''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wuthering Heights (2009 Television Serial)
2009 British television series debuts
2009 British television series endings
2000s British drama television series
2000s British television miniseries
Costume drama television series
ITV television dramas
Television series by Mammoth Screen
Films based on Wuthering Heights
Television series by WGBH