Love Bridgerton? ITVX’s New Miniseries Will Give You Your Period Drama Fix
Period dramas never go out of fashion: from the cultural phenomenon of Bridgerton to last year’s Persuasion and The Wonder, we can’t get enough of the fancy frilly clothes and aristocratic accents. It’s a good thing then that PBS in partnership with ITV is bringing a new, four-part miniseries to our screens this spring that adapts Henry Fielding’s 1749 novel The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling.
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Set to star Solly McLeod (House of Dragon), Sophie Wilde (You Don’t Know Me) and Ted Lasso’s Hannah Waddingham, the drama titled Tom Jones, arrives in the UK on 11th May.
The History of Tom Jones is a comedic novel and a Bildungsroman, telling the story of the life of the titular Tom (McLeod) and his journey as a person. Tom himself is a roguish but still good-natured person, and a bastard child who has a fractious relationship with his adopted father Squire Allworthy (James Fleet) and has a rivalry with the manipulative Bilfil. The object of Tom’s affections meanwhile is the beautiful Sophia Western (Wilde) , daughter of the brash and violent Squire Western. She’s devoted to treating all classes of people with the highest respects, and falls for Tom- despite their love not always running quite smoothly. Waddingham meanwhile plays Lady Bellaston, described as “lusty and seductive” and entirely self-centred. She’s vengeful toward both Tom and Sophia, and so hatches a plan to get one over on them to achieve her own ends.
The official trailer, released by PBS gives a straight to the point summary of what the show is about: “Once upon a time, there lived a boy from nowhere, and a girl from the other side of the world.” It promises a more light-hearted version of the courting and scheming seen in Bridgerton, with no less historical eye candy. The series can probably be best described as a “period romcom”, follows the previous 1963 film adaptation that won four Oscars including Best Picture.
Behind the new miniseries is production company Mammoth Screen, who’ve produced shows like Poldark, Victoria and The Serpent. The rest of the cast, meanwhile, includes Doctor Who’s Pearl Mackie, Shirley Henderson (See How They Run, Happy Valley), Alun Armstrong (Sherwood), Tamzin Merchant (Salem) and Susannah Fielding (This Time With Alan Partridge).
The four-parter will debut on 11th May on ITVX