Wives and Daughters

Jane Austin may have had more popularity as an author, but Elizabeth Gaskell should be up there with her. Victorian settings, characters and events all build up in this magnificent saga and it is a pity that Gaskell isn’t as well known as she should be. D.H. Lawrence, another Victorian author, has different opinions on the Victorian era. He is disgusted by the Victorian traditions and his lead character Yvette is very free spirited. Similarly, Gaskell’s character Molly “tells us what it feels like to be alive.� (Screenwriter Andrew Davies) The Victorian era has been captured in both texts and later on screen in books and films such as Mansfield Park by Jane Austin and series such as Pride and Prejudice but Wives and Daughters goes beyond the quality of these astounding series, and captures superbly rich characters, beautiful costumes and picturesque scenery in a Victorian setting.

The first episode is used as a springboard to launch the viewer into the lives of the characters within Gaskell’s text and to gain a better understanding of the complications of the relationships within the world created. This is the basis for the series, and fills in details about the characters and their distinct personalities. Molly, played by a beautiful Justine Waddell, is the daughter of a Dr. Gibson (Bill Patterson), a widower, who after many years has decided to remarry. From the first episode, it can be seen clearly that Molly and her new step mother Hyacinth Kirkpatrick (Francesca Annis) are very different and that Molly is drowning underneath the rich, strong Victorian traditions within Hyacinth. The arrival of Cynthia, Hyacinth’s daughter, in the second episode brings Molly and Cynthia together, who then become good friends. But to Molly’s dismay, this friendship also brings to Roger, Squire Hamley’s (Michael Gambon) son, who falls for Cynthia. Roger nervously and quickly proposes to her before setting off to Africa for a scientific expedition. This hurts Molly as she secretly has feelings for Roger but cannot let them out as she doesn’t want to hurt anyone, especially her half-sister Cynthia. Mr. Preston (Iain Glenn), a land agent, is hanging about and has a clasp on Cynthia and Molly gets stuck in the middle of all of this. But through a series of events, Molly’s reputation is destroyed by a secret held by Mr. Preston. The fourth episode ties all of these events together. But what happens is for you to watch and find out.

The aspect ratio for the mini series is 1.78:1, or the 16x9 aspect for European television channels, as this series was made for. As we have come to expect from Village Roadshow, this title is 16x9 enhanced as well.

The detail of the image is superb, appearing very close to the detail captured using digital stock instead of traditional methods used for this series. The colours are captured nicely, but appear slightly under-saturated, leading to a lack of vibrancy within the colours. The range of colours is superb, with many shades of greens and browner pastels being mastered magnificently with no bleeding or MPEG artefacts.

There are barely any film artefacts, however the transfer does suffer heavily from grain. The bright outdoor scenes are very nice to watch with nice colours, and fairly free from grain. It is the dark indoor or night scenes that suffer from grain. The detail in these scenes is reduced and the grain is incredibly distracting. An example of this can be seen very early on in the first episode, occurring 10 minutes into the episode during the dinner scene. Grain is also very apparent in the dimly lit scenes where the camera moves with a character. An example can be seen at 17:06 in episode 1 where the camera moves with Molly as she turns in the mirror. The image looses all clarity and detail and looks atrocious with severe grain visible. These effects can be seen throughout the series over both discs.

The layer changes are fairly neat on both discs, with disc 1 occurring 4:54 into the second episode and disc 2 occurring in between the episodes. Whilst both are neat, the first disc’s layer change is distracting as it hangs at the scene change, rather than a quick layer change that can be seen in other DVDs such as Innocence or Go for example.

There is only one audio track for all four episodes, and that is a Dolby Digital 2.0 English track. This does seem strange as one of the special features is in 5.1, but that’s just one of the mysteries of our world. The 2.0 soundtrack is superb with no distortion or peaking of any of the sounds or dialogue. Dialogue is audible throughout the series, but some of the Victorian phrases and sentence structure may take a small amount of time to become accustomed to.

Being a stereo track, there is no surround or subwoofer action. The front left and right speakers are used primarily to carry sound effects with dialogue being centralised to the front centre speaker.

The orchestral score is superb, and fits in with the theme, mood and texture of the mini series. It is great to see this remixed in 5.1 as a special feature.

The menus are 16x9 enhanced with a still background image and background audio in the form of the orchestral score.

The Music Of… is the 5.1 remix of the orchestral score from the series. It runs for just over 30 minutes, and plays with a still image of Molly on the screen. This is 16x9 enhanced, as it acts as a menu. This is located on disc 2. Who The Dickens is Mrs Gaskell? is a 26 minute behind-the-scenes featurette of the mini series and also looks at the life of author Elizabeth Gaskell. This is located on disc 2. More BBC Classic Drama contains four trailers for other BBC series including Pride and Prejudice, David Copperfield, Middlemarch and Our Mutual Friend. These are located on both discs and run for 2:17.

The story is enough to keep you glued to the screen, and the crisp audio transfer draws in your ears. Unfortunately your eyes miss out on such an experience, with a grainy transfer in places, but the extra features should be enough to treat your eyes for this superb BBC series.