The Woodlanders

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 893, 14 September 1956, Page 22

The Woodlanders

ANY of the admirers of Thomas Hardy may not be aware that the writer who has been called an exasperating pessimist, was distinguished in his youth as an architect of great promise. Hardy worked at this profession in Lon; don, but he began to write and in his

early thirties he finally abandoned architecture for literature and London for Dorset. That was a decision that West Country men and all other Hardy enthusiasts will always be grateful for. Between the years 1871 and 1896 he published some _ sixteen novels; The Woodlanders is the third of these to become a BBC serial. (The others were The Mayor of Casterbridge and Far From the Madding Crowd.) Desmond Hawkins has drawn freely on imagination and background knowledge for his adaptation of Hardy’s novel. Produced in the West England studios of the BBC, this serial has something more than its local setting to recommend it. For the cast includes West Country performers whose interest in the material adds emphasis to their portrayal of Hardy’s characters. In this recreation of The Woodlanders in sound, Tony Britton plays Giles Winterborne and Renée Asherson, Grace Melbury. Hedley Goodall (who was the Mayor in The Mayor of Casterbridge) takes the part of Grace’s doting father, and Edred Fitzpiers and Marty South are played by Andrew Faulds and Beatrice Bevan. The music was composed and conducted by Bruce Montgomery, and the production was by Owen Reed. This ten-episode BBC serial will start from 2YC, 9.41 p.m. on Monday, ‘September 17, and from other YC stations on Saturday, 22nd (1YC at 7.25 p-m., 3YC and 4YC, 7.30). |