Loved

In the late 19th century, Tess Durbeyfield is sent off to visit a rich cousin, Alec D'Urberville, when her parents learn that they are distantly related. Tess takes a disliking to the man and his attempts at seduction are rebuffed. Returning from a village party he forces himself on the innocent girl who eventually makes her way back to her parents' home. Ashamed and pregnant she seems destined to forever being marked a certain kind of woman. After the death of her child, she makes her way to a prosperous farm where, working as a milkmaid, she meets and eventually marries the handsome Angel Clare. On learning of her past however, he abandons her and with little choice and facing a life of extreme hardship, again falls into Alec's clutches and becomes a kept woman.

Widow Dashwood and her three unmarried daughters, Elinor, Marianne and Margaret, inherit only a tiny allowance. So they move out of their grand Sussex home to a more modest cottage in Devonshire. There, the prevailing ambition is to find suitable husbands for the girls. With help from wealthy neighbor Sir John Middleton, suitors for Elinor and Marianne are soon found, but not landed. They include dashing Willoughby, future vicar Edward Ferrars and retired colonial gentleman Colonel Brandon.

This Masterpiece Theatre production, set at the cusp of the Industrial Revolution, chronicles the life, loves, foibles, and politics of the fictional English town of Middlemarch. Adapted from the George Eliot classic of the same name, the plot centers on the socially conscious, but naive Dorothea Brooke (Juliet Aubrey), whose disastrous match to the pedantic Reverend Edward Casaubon (Patrick Malahide) sets in motion a chain of events that will change the face of Middlemarch forever. The efforts of the dashing young physician, Tertius Lydgate (Douglas Hodge), to modernize the medical practices at the new hospital causes quite a stir, both in the political power structure, headed by the evil Mr. Nicholas Bulstrode (Peter Jeffrey), and the heart of sweet Rosamund Vincy (Trevyn McDowell), the town beauty. Smaller plots interweave the action and lead to reconciliation, resignation, remuneration, and resolution.

Set in the 1930s, Britain is in depression and still scarred by the effects of World War I. Young and passionate Sarah Burton (Anna Maxwell Martin) returns to her conservative home county, bursting with modern ideas. As the new headmistress in South Riding, she inspires her girls, including Lydia Holly (Charlie May-Clark), a scholarship student from the slums, to think for themselves. But not everyone sees eye-to-eye with Miss Burton. She finds a few allies, Joe Astell (Douglas Henshall) being one; but the sparks really start to fly when she crosses paths with Robert Carne (David Morrissey), a haughty landlord whom she despises.

The Barchester Chronicles, a BBC miniseries, is adapted from two mid-19th century novels by Anthony Trollope. When a crusade against the Church of England's practice of self-enrichment misfires, scandal taints the cozy community of Barchester when their local church becomes the object of a scathing report about the use of church funds. Consequently, an honorable middle-aged clergyman (Donald Pleasence) is forced into moral crisis and a conflict with his son-in-law, a pompous archdeacon (Nigel Hawthorne) and his youngest daughter's beloved (David Gwillim). The arrival of a new bishop (Clive Swift), his domineering wife (Geraldine McEwan), and a devious chaplain (Alan Rickman) - who may be hiding secrets - add to the dramatic scheming and complex power struggles among a colorful cast of characters.

Follows the novels of Anthony Trollope. Beginning with the forced marriage of Glencora (Susan Hampshire), the lives of the friends and children of this couple are the subject of study. The backdrop is the House of Commons in England as we watch the comings and goings and loves and tragedies of the powerful and not-so-powerful.

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Ruth has everything. A large, warty body, a standard house in the suburbs, two whiney children, a dog, a cat and a guinea pig. She also has Bobo, her unfaithful accountant husband who resents her very existence. Bobo wants, and is wanted by, Mary Fisher. Mary Fisher lives in a lighthouse by the sea and writes about love. When Bobo leaves Ruth for the novelist, she decides that Mary Fisher doesn't know the first thing about love. Ruth intends to teach her.

The social and class divisions in early 20th century England through the intersection of three families - the wealthy Wilcoxes, the gentle and idealistic Schlegels and the lower-middle class Basts.

An epic tale of love, betrayal, deception, and revenge set in the Irish countryside in 1885.

It is across the roulette table that Gwendolen Harleth first locks eyes with the enigmatic Daniel Deronda. Gwendolen is beautiful, vivacious, and a gambler, but desperate for financial security; something that possessive Henleigh Grandcourt would be able to provide for her. Daniel is the adopted son of an aristocratic, but doubtful of his own identity. He pours his energy into selflessly helping his friends, including poor Jewish singer Mirah Lapidoth. As Gwendolen's situation becomes dire, and Daniel seeks to uncover the mystery surrounding his own birth, their lives become intertwined...

Set in the UK during the tumultuous summer of 1958, Summer Of Rockets follows Samuel Petrukhin, a Russian-born Jewish inventor and businessman, who specialises in manufacturing hearing aids. Following the Soviet's launch the first intercontinental ballistic missile, and the start of the Space Race, fear permeates the lives of all.

Set in 1870s London, a young prostitute finds potential power and status after becoming the mistress of a powerful patriarch.

Gormenghast is an ancient city-state which primarily consists of a rambling and crumbling castle. The narrative, based on the first two of the three Gormenghast novels by Mervyn Peake, begins with the birth of a son, Titus, to the 76th Earl, Sepulchrave Groan, and Countess Gertrude. This mismatched pair (he'd prefer the melancholy privacy of his library; she'd prefer the company of her menagerie of cats and birds) also have a teenaged daughter, Fuchsia, who resents her new brother but comes to love him dearly. Simultaneously, a young kitchen apprentice, Steerpike, takes advantage of an altercation between head cook Swelter and the Earl's manservant, Mr. Flay, and escapes from the kitchens. Gormenghast is rigidly feudal in structure, but Steerpike has ambitions. He befriends the imaginative, yearning Fuchsia, and through her becomes apprenticed to the castle physician, Dr. Prunesquallor, who lives with his man-hunting sister Irma. This position allows Steerpike to work his way into the favour of the Earl's discontented twin sisters, Cora and Clarice, who feel displaced by Gertrude. The Earl's library mysteriously burns during a family gathering there, and subsequently the Earl goes fatally mad, and Steerpike gains a position with the castle's Master of Ritual. As Titus grows into childhood then adolescence, he chafes at the restrictions of Gormenghast's ritual-bound way of life and seeks ways of escape. He grows to resent and despise the ever-more ambitious Steerpike, who is gradually pursuing Titus's beloved sister Fuchsia. When Steerpike becomes Master of Ritual himself (although he's scarred for life in the fire that kills his predecessor), Titus decides he's had enough. But significant acts of treachery, which he discovers with the help of faithful Mr. Flay and the doctor (whose sister meanwhile has snagged the Gormenghast schoolmaster), force Titus's hand, and Steerpike must run, and fight, for his life, over the rooftops of a Gormenghast flooded by torrential rains.

At the center of the story is Augustus Melmotte, a European-born city financier, whose origins are as mysterious as his business dealings. Trollope describes him as 'something in the city', but the "something" part is not always clear. Within weeks of arriving in London, he announces a new company and promises instant fortune to those who join him in this scheme. Melmotte is surrounded by a circle of decadent aristos, scheming widows and nouveau riche businessmen, all trying to get a piece of the financial pie. His disobedient daughter, Marie, is played by Shirley Henderson, while Cheryl Campbell, Matthew Macfadyen and Paloma Baeza bring to life the aristocratic but impoverished Carbury family.

The story of an ambitious but impoverished young man who seduces women of social class in order to improve his own prospects in 19th century France.

The orphan Pip becomes a gentleman when his life is transformed by a mystery benefactor.

An adaption of John Braine's novel.