The Crimson Petal and the White (miniseries)
| The Crimson Petal and the White | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Drama |
| Based on |
The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber |
| Screenplay by | Lucinda Coxon |
| Directed by | Marc Munden |
| Starring |
Romola Garai Chris O'Dowd |
| Theme music composer | Cristobal Tapia de Veer |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom/ Canada |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of episodes | 4 |
| Cinematography | Lol Crawley |
| Editor(s) | Luke Dunkley |
| Production company(s) | Origin Pictures Cité-Amérique |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC Two |
| Original release | 6 April – 27 April 2011 |
The Crimson Petal and the White is a 2011 four part television miniseries, adapted from Michel Faber's 2002 novel The Crimson Petal and the White. Starring Romola Garai as Sugar and Chris O'Dowd as William Rackham, the miniseries aired in the UK during April 2011 on BBC Two. The supporting cast includes Shirley Henderson, Richard E. Grant and Gillian Anderson. Critical reviews of the miniseries were mixed but generally positive.
In Victorian London, William Rackham (Chris O'Dowd) is the heir to a perfume business and has a mentally ill wife, Agnes (Amanda Hale), who is confined to her home. Despite his dreams to become a renowned writer, he has no talent and his father decides to cut his allowance until William starts working seriously in the company. William meets and becomes infatuated with a young and intelligent prostitute named Sugar (Romola Garai), who is writing a novel of her own, filled with hatred and revenge against all the men who abused her and her colleagues. William moves Sugar into a flat of her own on the condition that she sees him exclusively, while she helps him emotionally and financially by giving good advice on how to handle the company. Sugar becomes more and more attached to William and, as she comments to one of her old friends, "the world that comes with him". Eventually he moves her into the Rackham household under the pretence to work as a governess to his young daughter Sophie (Isla Watt), the daughter Agnes has never acknowledged the existence of due to her madness. Agnes becomes increasingly unstable and desperate and, having caught glimpses of Sugar, believes her to be her own guardian angel who will bring her to the imaginary Convent of Health.
With time Sugar grows close to Sophie, becoming the mother she never had, and Agnes, by reading her journals and helping her. Agnes' irrational behaviour risks her being incarcerated in an asylum and the night before she is taken and William is away, Sugar helps Agnes to escape. Later on a body is found that William identifies as Agnes (he recognises only her hair, not knowing that Agnes had cut her hair before escaping). William and Sugar's relationship grows distant, with William treating Sugar more and more like a servant and adviser rather than a lover. Sugar becomes pregnant, but realising that William no longer wants her, aborts her baby. William begins to court another woman, despite telling Sugar things would get better, and when he discovers Sugar's pregnancy (not knowing about the abortion), he coldly tells her to leave.
...
Wikipedia