September is here. I never thought I would see another autumn
in New York again. It’s such a gorgeous experience. And another gorgeous experience,
for us period drama fans, is the cavalcade of historical fiction that will hit our television screen and our nearby theaters,
on this very fall.
Let us start with TV. September 10, in Starz, marks our get-together
with “Outlander”. It is also a time of
meetings in our favorite time-travel tale, when after twenty years of loveless
marriage, now widowed Dr. Claire Randall comes across her eighteen-century husband,
Jamie Fraser.
To those who have not read Voyager, the novel of which the third season is based, just know
that Claire will travel to the past on Halloween. She will reunite with Jamie
in Edinburgh, but twenty years have also gone by in Old Scotland. Claire will
be less than happy after learning there have been other women and other children
in Jamie’s life. The couple will reconcile and travel together to France and
finally to the West Indies.
For those of us in the USA, who don’t stream, early autumn
would give us the chance to catch up with old favorites and new period pieces.
Ovation is bringing us the second season of “Versailles” (September 30th) and
the debut in American TV of ”The Halcyon,” (October 2th).
After Minette’s death, Philippe D`Orleans, is forced by his sovereign- brother to marry again.
How will sweet, down-to-earth, Liselotte of Palatinate put up with a gay husband
and his meddlesome lover? That is a question “Versailles” will have to answer.
Courtiers are once again rebellious. Royal torturer Fabien Marechal will have
his hands full, as he grows closer to girl-doctor Claudine, while spying and
being intrigued by devious Madame de Clermont. Meanwhile, his liaison with
scheming Madame de Montespan has clouded the King Sun’s intellect. History
buffs know that this will lead to black masses, black magic, and black poison
in Versailles.
They keep on trying to sell “The Halcyon” as the new
“Downton Abbey,” but critics and clips tell me that is hardly the case. Yet as
a WWII buff, I can’t stand missing a story about a ritzy London hotel during
The Blitz.
On October 1th, PBS
brings us “ Poldark” in his third season. Captain Poldark and devoted Demelza
will expand their family in different ways, but jealousy will take a toll on
their marriage as Mrs. Poldark gets suspicious of Elizabeth’s premature baby.
Dr. Enys will get married, but he’ll spend his honeymoon in a French jail. Ross
will have to go to Revolutionary France to rescue his pal. New characters will
join this Cornish romance as Elizabeth’s cousins and Demelza’s brothers join
their lives.
October the 15th is when we go back to the Greek
islands with “The Durrels.” I haven’t
even seen the first season yet, but I saw and loved “My Family and Other Animals”
so I know all about zoologist Gerald Durrell’s extravagant yet loving family.
To make ends meet, Louisa Durrell takes her children to live in Corfu in the
mid Thirties. There, young Gerry grows up unschooled, but learning a lot from
the local fauna he collects, and that includes some fascinating humans.
November 23 will face us with the new “Anne of Green Gables.”
Since I have decided that the original Anne grew up to become Catherine de
Medici, I have no qualms with Ella Ballentine replacing Megan Fellows, in this
new version of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s children classic. Oh, and to launch winter
and to celebrate Christmas, we’ll get to see the annual special of “Call the Midwife, ”on
December 25th.
Cullen is also playing Guy Fawkes in the BBC baroque drama “Gunpowder.” The new Targaryen in residence,
Kit Harington, will be playing conspirator Robert Catesby who also happens to
be the actor’s ancestor. Although it will be a while before we see it in
America, BBC is hoping to have it ready
by November for British consumption.
And for us lucky bilinguals, Antena 3 is presenting
(hopefully to American audiences too) a new miniseries this fall. “Tiempos de
Guerra” (War Times). It takes place in an exotic locale and period, the Rif War, in 1921. It chronicles the adventures of a bunch of aristocratic nurses sent to
Morocco by order of Queen Victoria Eugenia, to tend the wounded soldiers. So,
it’s going to be a sort of Iberian “Crimson Field.”
This autumn, TNT will air “The Alienist.” Based on Caleb
Starr’s bestseller, it’s a detective story set in turn-of-the-century New York.
After the police is unable to solve a series of murders that target “boy-whores,”
Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt sets up a secret and unusual team. It is
composed by journalist John Moore (Luke Evans), secretary Sara Howard (Dakota
Fanning) and Viennese Dr. Lazlo Kreisler (Daniel Bruhl). Dr. Kreisler is a sort
of Sherlock Holmes who will bring into detective work his psychiatric
knowledge.
What about incoming projects? This past spring saw the
shooting of the third season of “Versailles,” and Poldark and the Durrels have
green light for future seasons. Orlando Bloom will head the cast of a Victorian
fantasy called “Carnival Cross”; the filming of the new version of Thackeray’s Vanity Fair will begin this September;
and a new version of Pride and Prejudice
has been announced. Are we game for more Darcy and Lizzie? The answer is always
a positive one.
For those who like
more modern times, Channel Four has announced the production of “Jerusalem,” a
Cold War thriller set in England in 1945.
The Cold War has become part of period drama repertoire. Guillermo del
Toro has also set his newest fantasy “The Shape of Water” on that milieu. By the way, "The Shape of Water"has just won the Golden Lion at the Venice Festival, so it's a must see film.
And now we go to moving pictures.
Period Drama on the
Silver Screen
Our first exciting news
is the release of pictures of “Mary , Queen of Scots,” Michael Hirst’s
follow- up to his Tudors and Elizabeths. In the latest contribution to the immortal
Tudormania, “Vikings’ writer tackles the unhappy story of that mischievous
Queen of Scots, and on the rebound, we get to see Cousin Bess. Saoirse Ronan is
a strawberry blonde Mary Stuart, and Australian Margot Robbie is brick-topped Elizabeth
Tudor.
Knowing how deprived us poor Downties are, Julian Fellowes has finally announced that
yes, he is bringing us the “Downton Abbey” movie. Lord Fellowes has apparently
shelved his project (“The Gilded Age”) to do an American Downton Abbey. But
he’s been busy. He recently adapted Agatha Christie’s Crooked House that introduces the audience to one of the writer’s lesser
known detectives Charles Hayward, played by Max Irons, who is becoming an item
in period pieces. The cast that encompasses big names from Glenn Close to
Christina Kendrick, will be working on the first adaptation of one of Dame
Agatha’s favorite works.
Fellowes has also adapted The Chaperone, based on Laura Moriarty’s bestseller, and
chronicling the travel from her native Kansas to New York of the soon-to-be-legend,
Louise Brooks. But the future Lulu is
saddled with a complete stranger as a chaperone. Haley Lou Richardson will play
unconventional fifteen-year-old Brooks and Elizabeth McGovern—Lady Cora
herself—will play her chaperone, the mysterious Cora Carlisle.
Talking about bestsellers, Tom Holland will play real-life
hero Pino Lella in a film adaptation of Mark Sullivan’s Beneath a Scarlet Sky. In this Second World War thriller, Holland
will reenact Pino’s struggles in German-invaded Italy. First rescuing Jewish children, then driving for
a German general and finally working for the resistance.
Historical fantasies will be well represented with the
aforementioned “Carnival Cross” and del Toro’s “The Shape of Water,” but cinema is also
planning to pay homage to the greatest master of epic fantasy. A biopic is in
development about the life of J. R. R. Tolkien.
Little is known about the project, aside from the fact that Jennifer Lawrence
playing Edith Bratt, Tolkien’s wife and muse.
While we wait for all these wonders, let’s check what we
could see this fall on a theater near us. September has finally brought to
America “The Viceroy’s House.” Gillian Anderson and Hugh Bonneville portray
Lady Edwina and Lord Louis Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India. Alicia Vikander is a demure
housewife in Seventeenth Century Holland, who gets caught up in adultery and the “Tulip Fever.” September also marks the debuts of “Savage in
the Rye,” the biopic of J. D. Salinger; and Dame Judi Dench recreates her Queen
Victoria role in “Victoria and Abdul.”
We also get the
unusual treat of a Norwegian film. “The King’s Choice” covers the days in 1940
that took King Haakon to decide whether to stay and surrender Norway to the
Nazis, or flee to England to continue his fight against Germany.
October offers us another biopic, “Marshall” based on
Thurgood Marshall’s experiences as the first African-American Supreme Court
Justice. Chadwick “Black Panther” Boseman
will play the judge. Kenneth Branagh’s much expected “Murder in the Orient Express”
will be seen in November. Branagh is Hercule Poirot and his cast of suspects includes
Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz.
November also brings us another tale of Churchill and World
War Two. In “The Darkest Hour” Gary Oldman stands unrecognizable as the
formidable Prime Minister. Dame Kristin Scott-Thomas is his devoted wife, and
Lily James (who won’t miss a good period piece ) is his secretary. The year will end with a historical musical. Based on Barnum,
the Broadway classic, “The Greatest Showman” will have Hugh Jackman playing
P.T. Barnum, Michelle Williams will be his wife, and Rebeca Ferguson (The White
Queen) will be the renowned Swedish soprano, Jenny Lind.
So much variety! Have I skipped anything? Are there still
period pieces on the making out there? Which one of those in my list are you
looking forward to?