Middlemarch (TV serial)


Middlemarch is a 1994 television adaptation of the 1871 novel of the same name by George Eliot. Produced by the BBC on BBC2 in six episodes, it is the second such adaptation for television of the novel. It was directed by Anthony Page from a screenplay by Andrew Davies, and starred Juliet Aubrey, Rufus Sewell, Douglas Hodge and Patrick Malahide.

Plot

Dorothea Brooke attempts to satisfy her underdeveloped intellect through marriage to the Reverend Edward Casaubon, a man twice her age. The marriage proves unsatisfying and ends with Casaubon's unexpected death. Dorothea eventually meets Will Ladislaw, an event which leads to further complications.
For a full-length summary see: Middlemarch plot summary.

Cast

In a 28 March 1994 review for The New York Times, Elizabeth Kolbert said the mini-series was a hit in Britain as it "mesmerized millions of viewers here, setting off a mini-craze for Victorian fiction. In its wake there were Middlemarch lectures, Middlemarch comics, even a wave of Middlemarch debates. Authors and columnists argued in the London papers over whether Dorothea would, in fact, live happily ever after, whether Casaubon, if left alone, would have finished his great work and finally whether Will Ladislaw entered his marriage bed a virgin." In an 11 April 1994 review in Time magazine, John Elson also noted this fact, further stating that the series, "was a recent critical and popular success in Britain, leading to lectures and even debates on the novel. As a result of the show, a Penguin paperback of the novel topped best-seller lists for five weeks, and is still doing well. The town of Stamford, Lincolnshire, where exteriors were filmed, is preparing for a summertime influx of tourists."