Having just put on a show to celebrate the centenary of Christopher Fry's birth, I was delighted to obtain the DVD of his 5-hour TV series shown on Yorkshire TV in 1975. In comparison with the verbal exuberance of his verse plays in the 1940s and '50s the adaptation (from Mrs Gaskell's life of Charlotte) is restrained to the point of under-statement. More enlightenment about how, despite the constraints of their strict upbringing, the sisters wrote their turbulent novels would have been welcome - today the ubiquitous Andrew Davies would perhaps somehow have turned their lives into a bonk-fest; but the series, modestly produced yet lovely to look at, with well-chosen exterior locations, gives a deal of quiet pleasure and satisfaction. The sisters suffer somewhat from having similar '70s hair-styles, but Vickery Turner as a gutsy Charlotte, Rosemary McHale as troubled Emily and Ann Penfold as the more placid Ann are more than adequate, Michael Kitchen as poor Branwell and Alfred Burke as the benign tyrant, their father are excellent and it's good to have Barbara Leigh-Hunt as Mrs Gaskell and a very young-looking Benjamin Whitrow as Charlotte's husband, Mr Nicholls.
