the camera never leaves the village. births, deaths, love and betrayal, great political events,
upheavals in national identity, ways of working, rules kept and rebellions made, sex, religion, class,
the shaping of modern memory
extending from 1912 to 1916 (with a final episode set in 1920), the first series of the bbc's the
village stars john simm and maxine peake as impoverished, alcoholic peak district farmer john
middleton and his wife, grace, and juliet stevenson as the lady of the local manor.
this first -- it is hoped -- of many series covers roughly the same timespan as the opening series
of downton abbey, but there the similarities end. this is working-class history, although
aristocrats are necessarily involved (john's oldest son works in the local big house), but without
the anachronistic downton-style fraternisation with the servants. instead, these domestics are
expected to face the walls when the master of the house passes by.
one man, bert middleton lives across the entire hundred years and his life story from boyhood to
extreme old age provides the narrative backbone. his last great act of remembering is our way in
to an examination of our recent past.