Masterpiece BBC period drama based on beloved book is | UK News

A 1994 BBC adaptation of George Eliot’s basic 1971 novel Middlemarch has been branded “perfection”. Consisting of six prolonged episodes on BBC iPlayer, it stars a stellar forged of Juliet Aubrey, Rufus Sewell, Douglas Hodge and Patrick Malahide.

The plot follows lives of a group of residents residing in a quiet but scandalous Midlands city. Dorothea Brooke’s ill-fated marriage is the main focus of the novel, while the love lives of Fred Vincy and Mary Garth, and struggles of Dr Tertius Lydgate are also highlighted.

IMDb describes it as “a story of provincial life on the brink of momentous change and a deeply moving saga about a group of people striving to give meaning and value to their lives during the Industrial Revolution.” One fan gave it a 10/10 on the score web site, calling it “perfection”. They added: “Just loved this series. As a lover of British period drama this is one of my favourites. Some fabulous acting to boot.”

Another agreed it did justice to the novel as they “highly recommended it”. They said: “Middlemarch is one of my favourite novels and the serialization is one of the best that I have seen. All the actors enliven the saga of this, George Eliot’s masterpiece with an impressive panache. Juliet Aubrey as Dorothea, the heroine, needs a little bit of getting used to, but she portrays the character convincingly. Rufus Sewell was made for this role.”

A 3rd called it a “brilliant adaptation of George Eliot’s masterpiece”, saying “Middlemarch gets my vote for personal favourite of George Eliot’s novels. It’s an incredibly rich story in detail and emotion and the characters are human and complex, though some like Casaubon are purposefully not very likable. And what a brilliant adaptation this is, even better than 2002’s Daniel Deronda and that was fabulous as well.”

A fourth branded it a “masterpiece,” writing: “Middlemarch is widely considered one of the greatest English-language novels, the equal of Moby Dick and Ulysses. It is not plot and characters that make masterpieces; those essentials ultimately matter less than use of language and the quality of the thought, two things that cannot be fully equalled on screen. But this Middlemarch is about as good as it ever gets.”

The collection was given an spectacular 7.5/10 on the web site, actually making it look like a must watch for those who like period dramas.

Middlemarch is accessible to watch on BBC iPlayer.