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Wives and Daughters (1999 miniseries)

Wives and Daughters
Wives and Daughters (1999 miniseries) dvdcover.jpg
DVD cover
Genre Drama
Based on Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell
Written by Andrew Davies
Elizabeth Gaskell
Directed by Nicholas Renton
Starring Justine Waddell
Bill Paterson
Francesca Annis
Keeley Hawes
Tom Hollander
Anthony Howell
Michael Gambon
Composer(s) John E. Keane
Country of origin United Kingdom
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 1
No. of episodes 4
Production
Executive producer(s) Rebecca Eaton
Jane Tranter
Producer(s) Sue Birtwistle
Cinematography Fred Tammes
Editor(s) Kevin Lester
Running time 301 minutes
Production company(s) BBC
WGBH Boston
Distributor BBC Worldwide
Release
Original network BBC One
Original release 28 November 1999 – 19 December 1999


Wives and Daughters is a 1999 four-part BBC serial adapted from the novel Wives and Daughters: An Everyday Story by Victorian author Elizabeth Gaskell.

The series was a joint production of the BBC and WGBH Boston, an American public broadcast station and 'won high audience ratings' when it first screened in the UK in 1999. Its audience rivalry with an adaptation of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, screened on ITV at the same time, was dubbed 'the battle of the bonnets'. It appeared in the US on BBC America in August 2000 and was later shown on PBS.

It focuses on Molly Gibson (Justine Waddell), the daughter of the town doctor, and the changes that occur in her life after her widowed father chooses to remarry. The union brings into her once-quiet life an ever-proper stepmother (Francesca Annis) who is 'too vain and shallow to care for anything beyond her improved social status'. Also a flirtatious stepsister, Cynthia (Keeley Hawes), while a friendship with the local squire brings about an unexpected romance. A New York Times review of the series in 2001 said 'The entire cast gets the characters right.'

Written by Andrew Davies, produced by Sue Birtwistle and directed by Nicholas Renton, the programme also features Michael Gambon, Penelope Wilton, Bill Paterson and Rosamund Pike.

Davies and Birtwistle collaborated on the BBC's television popular adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice in 1995. Following that success the BBC 'effectively told the duo they could adapt any book they wished' leading to Wives and Daughters. Birtwhistle described Gaskell's novel as 'strong, direct and passionate' and this offered 'the necessary elements for a popular classic TV drama'.


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