The Crimson Petal and the White (TV miniseries)
Encyclopedia
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.
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.
Enraged by the betrayal, Sugar gathers Sophie's belongings and runs away with her. While running away, Sugar loses her manuscript and buys a new notebook to start a new story and a new life with Sophie. Meanwhile, William discovers what Sugar has done and tries to catch up with them, but after being mocked by Sugar's old friends he realises he has lost everything.
, Tom Sutcliffe
described the opening scenes as a "bad laudanum dream" and said "it looks fabulous". Writing for the Daily Telegraph, Michael Deacon compared the miniseries negatively to its source material. He found that the "limitations of television" had had a detrimental effect on the story, criticising the "demure" sex scenes, faster pace and the inability of television as a medium to get into the characters' minds.
Also writing for the Daily Telegraph, John Preston gave the series a mixed review. He was critical of the production as chaotic and unfocused, and noted "a certain flabbiness" and lack of character development. However, he praised the actors, particularly Chris O'Dowd, and Gillian Anderson.
In another article for the Daily Telegraph, Benji Wilson gave the series a positive review, saying "it was certainly bold, experimental and it worked". He was particularly complimentary about the "look" created by director Marc Munden and cinematographer Lol Crawley. He described Cristobal Tapia de Veer's soundtrack as "bizarre and contrary" and went on to say "[de Veer] set out to subvert – he welded the squelchings and rumblings of modern electronica to a tableau from the 1870s in the way that Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood did in his score for There Will Be Blood." Writing for The Observer
, Andrew Anthony was enthusiastic about the miniseries, calling the acting "richly subtle" and the cinematography "intoxicatingly woozy". He praised Romola Garai and said that Chris O'Dowd's performance was "a revelation". The Guardian
s Sarah Dempster described the atomsphere as "woozy, gauzy [and] brilliantly claustrophobic"; a result, she said, of Munden's "exceptional, stylish, unselfconscious direction" and de Veer's score. Rachel Cooke of the New Statesman
called the series "a compelling thing: vivid, nasty and rank with the stench of hypocrisy". She praised the director and actors, especially Gillian Anderson ("so sly, so convincing").
In a blog post for The Guardian, novelist Michel Faber
described the experience of watching the adaptation of his story. He was pleased with the result and credited screenwriter Lucinda Coxon
for placing "parental nurture or the lack of it" at the centre of the story. in an interview for The List, he said "They’ve been very clever. I think they’ve done an extraordinary job with it."
Miniseries
A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
, adapted from Michel Faber
Michel Faber
Michel Faber is a Dutch-born writer of fiction. He writes in English.Faber was born in The Hague, Netherlands. He and his parents emigrated to Australia in 1967...
's 2002 novel The Crimson Petal and the White
The Crimson Petal and the White
The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber is a 2002 novel set in Victorian-era England.The title is from a 1847 poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson entitled "Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal", the opening line of which is "Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white".-Publication history:Canongate...
. Starring Romola Garai
Romola Garai
Romola Sadie Garai is an English actress. She is known for appearing in the movies Amazing Grace, Atonement, and Glorious 39, and for appearing in the BBC adaptation of Emma.-Early life:...
as Sugar and Chris O'Dowd
Chris O'Dowd
Chris O'Dowd is an Irish comedian and actor. He is best known for playing Roy Trenneman in British sitcom The IT Crowd...
as William Rackham, the miniseries aired in the UK during April 2011 on BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
. The supporting cast includes Shirley Henderson
Shirley Henderson
Shirley Henderson is a Scottish actress. She is perhaps best known for her role as Moaning Myrtle in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire .-Early life:...
, Richard E. Grant
Richard E. Grant
Richard E. Grant is a Swaziland-born British actor, screenwriter and director. His most notable role came in the film Withnail and I. He holds dual British and Swazi citizenship.-Early life:...
and Gillian Anderson
Gillian Anderson
Gillian Leigh Anderson is an American actress.After beginning her career in theatre, Anderson achieved international recognition for her role as Special Agent Dana Scully on the American television series The X-Files. During the show's nine seasons, Anderson won Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen...
. Critical reviews of the miniseries were mixed but generally positive.
Plot
In Victorian London, William Rackham is the heir to a perfume business and has a mentally ill wife, Agnes, 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, 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, the daughter Agnes has never known 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.
Enraged by the betrayal, Sugar gathers Sophie's belongings and runs away with her. While running away, Sugar loses her manuscript and buys a new notebook to start a new story and a new life with Sophie. Meanwhile, William discovers what Sugar has done and tries to catch up with them, but after being mocked by Sugar's old friends he realises he has lost everything.
Cast
- Romola GaraiRomola GaraiRomola Sadie Garai is an English actress. She is known for appearing in the movies Amazing Grace, Atonement, and Glorious 39, and for appearing in the BBC adaptation of Emma.-Early life:...
as Sugar - Chris O'DowdChris O'DowdChris O'Dowd is an Irish comedian and actor. He is best known for playing Roy Trenneman in British sitcom The IT Crowd...
as William Rackham - Amanda HaleAmanda HaleAmanda Hale is a British actress. She won positive reviews for her performance in The Glass Menagerie at the Apollo Shaftesbury in the West End.-Career:...
as Mrs. Agnes Rackham - Shirley HendersonShirley HendersonShirley Henderson is a Scottish actress. She is perhaps best known for her role as Moaning Myrtle in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire .-Early life:...
as Mrs. Emmeline Fox - Katie LyonsKatie LyonsKatie Lyons is a British actress, most noted for her performance as Naughty Rachel in the Channel 4 sitcom Green Wing...
as Clara - Eleanor Yates as Letty
- Elizabeth Berrington as Lady Constance Bridgelow
- Richard E. GrantRichard E. GrantRichard E. Grant is a Swaziland-born British actor, screenwriter and director. His most notable role came in the film Withnail and I. He holds dual British and Swazi citizenship.-Early life:...
as Doctor Curlew - Clare Louise Connolly as Janey
- Isla Watt as Sophie Rackham
- Tom GeorgesonTom GeorgesonTom Georgeson is a British actor, known for his television and film work. His most notable credits have been supporting parts in Between The Lines and in three dramas by Alan Bleasdale; Boys from the Blackstuff Scully and G.B.H....
as Henry Rackham Senior - Liz WhiteLiz White (actress)Liz White is an English actress, best known for her regular role as WPC/WDC Annie Cartwright in the BBC time travel drama Life on Mars, which began in January 2006...
as Caroline - Branwell Donaghey as Cheesman
- Blake RitsonBlake Ritson-Early life:Blake attended the Dolphin School in Reading, Berkshire until 1993, before going to St Paul's School, an independent school for boys in Barnes in West London on an academic scholarship. He then attended the University of Cambridge, where he studied English and Medieval Italian, Dante...
as Bodley - Bertie CarvelBertie CarvelBertie Carvel is a British actor.He received a first from Sussex University in English, and graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 2003.-Theatre:...
as Ashwell - Sarah Jane O'Neill as Factory worker
- Gillian AndersonGillian AndersonGillian Leigh Anderson is an American actress.After beginning her career in theatre, Anderson achieved international recognition for her role as Special Agent Dana Scully on the American television series The X-Files. During the show's nine seasons, Anderson won Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen...
as Mrs. Castaway
Reception
In a review of the first episode for The IndependentThe Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, Tom Sutcliffe
Tom Sutcliffe (broadcaster)
Thomas Sutcliffe is a British journalist and arts broadcaster.Sutcliffe studied English at Emmanuel College, Cambridge...
described the opening scenes as a "bad laudanum dream" and said "it looks fabulous". Writing for the Daily Telegraph, Michael Deacon compared the miniseries negatively to its source material. He found that the "limitations of television" had had a detrimental effect on the story, criticising the "demure" sex scenes, faster pace and the inability of television as a medium to get into the characters' minds.
Also writing for the Daily Telegraph, John Preston gave the series a mixed review. He was critical of the production as chaotic and unfocused, and noted "a certain flabbiness" and lack of character development. However, he praised the actors, particularly Chris O'Dowd, and Gillian Anderson.
In another article for the Daily Telegraph, Benji Wilson gave the series a positive review, saying "it was certainly bold, experimental and it worked". He was particularly complimentary about the "look" created by director Marc Munden and cinematographer Lol Crawley. He described Cristobal Tapia de Veer's soundtrack as "bizarre and contrary" and went on to say "[de Veer] set out to subvert – he welded the squelchings and rumblings of modern electronica to a tableau from the 1870s in the way that Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood did in his score for There Will Be Blood." Writing for The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
, Andrew Anthony was enthusiastic about the miniseries, calling the acting "richly subtle" and the cinematography "intoxicatingly woozy". He praised Romola Garai and said that Chris O'Dowd's performance was "a revelation". The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
s Sarah Dempster described the atomsphere as "woozy, gauzy [and] brilliantly claustrophobic"; a result, she said, of Munden's "exceptional, stylish, unselfconscious direction" and de Veer's score. Rachel Cooke of the New Statesman
New Statesman
New Statesman is a British centre-left political and cultural magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....
called the series "a compelling thing: vivid, nasty and rank with the stench of hypocrisy". She praised the director and actors, especially Gillian Anderson ("so sly, so convincing").
In a blog post for The Guardian, novelist Michel Faber
Michel Faber
Michel Faber is a Dutch-born writer of fiction. He writes in English.Faber was born in The Hague, Netherlands. He and his parents emigrated to Australia in 1967...
described the experience of watching the adaptation of his story. He was pleased with the result and credited screenwriter Lucinda Coxon
Lucinda Coxon
-Plays:Coxon's plays include Nostalgia and Vesuvius at South Coast Repertory, California; Improbabilities at Soho Poly; Wishbones and Waiting at the Water's Edge at the Bush Theatre, London; Three Graces at Lakeside Theatre, Colchester and the Haymarket Theatre, Leicester...
for placing "parental nurture or the lack of it" at the centre of the story. in an interview for The List, he said "They’ve been very clever. I think they’ve done an extraordinary job with it."