North And South
Set against the backdrop of Victorian England's industrial North,
Daniela Denby-Ashe and Richard Armitage
head the cast in this adaptation by Sandy Welch of Elizabeth Gaskell's
passionate love story.
Margaret (Denby-Ashe) is a privileged, middle-class southerner, who
is forced to settle in the northern town of Milton.
Her distaste for the town and its people extends to handsome and charismatic
cotton mill owner John Thornton (Armitage), whom she believes epitomises
everything she dislikes about the North.
Over time, however, Margaret begins to settle in Milton: her social
conscience awakens, and she befriends some of the local mill workers,
learning about their poverty and workplace struggles.
As events conspire to throw Margaret and Thornton together, the two
spirited characters' repressed physical attraction for one another grows
- but they must conquer prejudices of class and circumstance.
A strong supporting cast includes Sinead Cusack, Lesley
Manville,Tim Pigott-Smith, Pauline
Quirke, Brendan Coyle, Jo Joyner
and Rupert Evans.