0:00:06 > 0:00:09It's one of the greatest love stories of our times.
0:00:09 > 0:00:11Make my happiness.
0:00:11 > 0:00:14I will make yours.
0:00:14 > 0:00:16Passionate,
0:00:16 > 0:00:17thrilling,
0:00:17 > 0:00:18obsessive.
0:00:18 > 0:00:22- Miss Cathy! Come back!- Heathcliff! - Come inside!
0:00:22 > 0:00:24When the BBC discovered the Brontes,
0:00:24 > 0:00:28it was a marriage made for the small screen.
0:00:28 > 0:00:30Will you stay? As my wife?
0:00:31 > 0:00:34An enduring love affair that has captivated
0:00:34 > 0:00:36audiences all over the world...
0:00:37 > 0:00:39And since that moment...
0:00:41 > 0:00:43..I have never wanted to leave the place that you were.
0:00:43 > 0:00:47..decade after decade, through good times and bad.
0:00:47 > 0:00:50And even when things got rocky...
0:00:50 > 0:00:55God confound you, Lockwood! Who showed you into this room?
0:00:55 > 0:00:57..and the relationship looked set to end...
0:00:57 > 0:00:59HEATHCLIFF SIGHS
0:00:59 > 0:01:03..there's always been something new to love and to relate to.
0:01:03 > 0:01:06How was it Dr Johnson described a second marriage?
0:01:08 > 0:01:10"The triumph of hope over experience."
0:01:12 > 0:01:16We are revisiting the BBC archive to explore an infatuation.
0:01:18 > 0:01:22To see how this ill-fated literary dynasty has been
0:01:22 > 0:01:26reinvented for and embraced by each new generation.
0:01:34 > 0:01:37# Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba
0:01:37 > 0:01:40# Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba... #
0:01:40 > 0:01:44It's the mid-'50s, and Britain is in the midst of a marriage boom.
0:01:45 > 0:01:48# I've never wanted wealth... #
0:01:48 > 0:01:51After the difficult war years,
0:01:51 > 0:01:54people were looking for some stability and security.
0:01:55 > 0:01:58To banish all the hardship and austerity,
0:01:58 > 0:02:00they wanted a bit of romance.
0:02:02 > 0:02:05And the BBC were no different.
0:02:05 > 0:02:09They were also in the market for a meaningful relationship
0:02:09 > 0:02:12to perk up their television schedule.
0:02:12 > 0:02:14So, in February 1956,
0:02:14 > 0:02:18they tested the waters with a new adaptation of a classic love story.
0:02:24 > 0:02:26Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre was widely considered to be
0:02:26 > 0:02:29one of the greatest romances of all time.
0:02:29 > 0:02:32And in many ways, it was made for the post-war years.
0:02:34 > 0:02:39The epic tale of a grand passion that survives against all the odds.
0:02:39 > 0:02:42You must forgive me, that I'm not beautiful.
0:02:42 > 0:02:44And I feel I'm unworthy of you.
0:02:45 > 0:02:48You deserve someone so much grander and more lovely.
0:02:48 > 0:02:50I'm just ordinary.
0:02:50 > 0:02:52That's not true.
0:02:52 > 0:02:54And I love you, Jane.
0:02:54 > 0:02:57And to me, no-one in the whole world can look as beautiful...
0:02:58 > 0:03:02This peak-time Friday night series starred Shakespearean actor
0:03:02 > 0:03:09Daphne Slater as Jane and matinee idol Stanley Baker as a slightly creepy Rochester.
0:03:12 > 0:03:16Filmed as live within the confines of a studio, it might look
0:03:16 > 0:03:21a tad clunky today, but this counted as a lavish production at the time.
0:03:21 > 0:03:23A new moon!
0:03:23 > 0:03:24Come here, child.
0:03:26 > 0:03:28Your name is Jane Eyre?
0:03:28 > 0:03:31- Yes, sir. - And are you a good girl, Jane?- Yes.
0:03:32 > 0:03:34A liar, too.
0:03:34 > 0:03:37Do you know, Jane Eyre, where the wicked go after death?
0:03:37 > 0:03:41- They go to hell, sir.- And do you want to go to hell?- No, sir.
0:03:41 > 0:03:43Then what must you do to avoid it?
0:03:43 > 0:03:45I must keep in good health and not die.
0:03:45 > 0:03:49The '50s audience were drawn to the story of the plucky orphan
0:03:49 > 0:03:52who survives a harsh childhood and then meets
0:03:52 > 0:03:55the dark and brooding Mr Rochester,
0:03:55 > 0:03:59when he appears to fall off his horse for apparently no reason.
0:04:00 > 0:04:02They fall in love.
0:04:02 > 0:04:04# You ask me why...#
0:04:04 > 0:04:06Will you stay? As my wife?
0:04:08 > 0:04:11I need you, Jane.
0:04:11 > 0:04:13Love me.
0:04:13 > 0:04:17# ..why I love him, whoa-whoa, dum-de-da-de dum-de-da-de... #
0:04:17 > 0:04:21The production portrays Jane as perfect '50s housewife material.
0:04:21 > 0:04:25Gentle, resilient and appeasing in the face of her husband-to-be's
0:04:25 > 0:04:27frequent moody outbursts.
0:04:27 > 0:04:30# He takes time to notice I'm around... #
0:04:30 > 0:04:33The story, however, takes an unusual turn
0:04:33 > 0:04:36from your average romance when on their wedding day,
0:04:36 > 0:04:40Jane discovers that her beloved Mr Rochester is already married
0:04:40 > 0:04:43and has been keeping his first wife, a lunatic,
0:04:43 > 0:04:45locked in the attic all this time.
0:04:45 > 0:04:49Well? Don't you wish to see my wife?
0:04:49 > 0:04:52SCREAMING
0:04:52 > 0:04:54Keep away, keep away! My God!
0:04:54 > 0:04:59Jane leaves, and while she's away, a terrible fire engulfs Thornfield Hall...
0:04:59 > 0:05:00SCREAMING
0:05:00 > 0:05:03..conveniently killing the mad woman in the attic
0:05:03 > 0:05:06but also leaving Rochester blind and maimed.
0:05:11 > 0:05:16Jane hears his ghostly voice calling her and rushes back into his arms.
0:05:16 > 0:05:18- WAILING:- Jane!
0:05:18 > 0:05:20I'm coming!
0:05:25 > 0:05:29- Jane, where are you!- What is the matter, why are you frightened? I'm here.
0:05:29 > 0:05:33Oh, Jane, my darling. I thought you'd gone,
0:05:33 > 0:05:35that my brain had played a trick on me,
0:05:35 > 0:05:38that what I thought was you was only a vision, a dream.
0:05:38 > 0:05:40Jane...
0:05:40 > 0:05:43Let me hold you. Let me hold you close.
0:05:43 > 0:05:47# Only you... #
0:05:47 > 0:05:51This classic story of love conquering all the obstacles thrown
0:05:51 > 0:05:57in its way was a potent one for a generation who'd experienced war.
0:05:57 > 0:05:58# Only you... #
0:05:58 > 0:06:01And when many men were still living with mental and physical scars from it.
0:06:03 > 0:06:07# ..can make the darkness bright... #
0:06:07 > 0:06:09Look at me.
0:06:09 > 0:06:12Look at me well before you make up your mind.
0:06:12 > 0:06:15Do you want a blind man you will have to lead about by the hand?
0:06:15 > 0:06:18# My one and only... #
0:06:18 > 0:06:22Let me... Let me take you by the hand.
0:06:30 > 0:06:34Jane Eyre had resonated with the British public.
0:06:34 > 0:06:37The BBC decided that the audience would want to find out
0:06:37 > 0:06:39more about the genius behind the book,
0:06:39 > 0:06:43so they dispatched a documentary team up to the wilds of Yorkshire.
0:06:49 > 0:06:53- ARCHIVE:- 100 years ago, Charlotte Bronte died at Haworth,
0:06:53 > 0:06:56a Yorkshire village on the edge of the Moors.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59Whichever way you enter Haworth, you have to climb uphill.
0:06:59 > 0:07:03It's a grey stone village with very little beauty about it,
0:07:03 > 0:07:07and its people seem to keep themselves very much to themselves.
0:07:07 > 0:07:12The main street is quiet, and even the shops show few signs of life.
0:07:12 > 0:07:16But Charlotte and her brother and sisters are still remembered here.
0:07:17 > 0:07:20From the moment the sisters' work was published
0:07:20 > 0:07:23its autobiographical nature had fascinated readers.
0:07:28 > 0:07:32The family moved to Thornton near Bradford to a grey little house
0:07:32 > 0:07:33that hasn't changed very much,
0:07:33 > 0:07:36and Charlotte was born here in 1816,
0:07:36 > 0:07:38the year after Waterloo.
0:07:38 > 0:07:41Branwell, Emily and Anne were born here too -
0:07:41 > 0:07:43six children in the space of six years.
0:07:45 > 0:07:49Film-makers were much taken with Charlotte, the eldest sibling,
0:07:49 > 0:07:52who'd had to assume the role of matriarch to the large family
0:07:52 > 0:07:54after her mother's and aunt's deaths.
0:07:56 > 0:08:00But she wasn't the only sister who'd caught their eye.
0:08:06 > 0:08:08As the '50s moved into the '60s,
0:08:08 > 0:08:11there was something simmering under the surface.
0:08:11 > 0:08:14A new spirit of possibility was in the air
0:08:14 > 0:08:17and the romance boom looked set to continue.
0:08:20 > 0:08:24The search for a soulmate dominated the pop charts.
0:08:24 > 0:08:27And in 1962 the BBC chimed in with an adaptation
0:08:27 > 0:08:30of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights...
0:08:32 > 0:08:35..and its tale of star-crossed lovers Cathy and Heathcliff.
0:08:35 > 0:08:38It starred Claire Bloom and Keith Michell.
0:08:42 > 0:08:44Oh!
0:08:46 > 0:08:49Oh, Heathcliff, I'm happy now.
0:08:49 > 0:08:52This is where we belong, Cathy.
0:08:52 > 0:08:56Leave Wuthering Heights to your brother, this is our inheritance.
0:08:56 > 0:09:01Emily Bronte's book was one of the most complex masterpieces in English literature,
0:09:01 > 0:09:05so reducing it to a running length of just 120 minutes was no mean task.
0:09:07 > 0:09:11So the BBC turned to the man responsible for the recent success
0:09:11 > 0:09:16of The Quatermass Experiment, writer Nigel Kneale.
0:09:18 > 0:09:22He took his inspiration from the Hollywood film of 1939,
0:09:22 > 0:09:24which depicted the novel as a straightforward
0:09:24 > 0:09:28but intense love story set on the Yorkshire moors.
0:09:29 > 0:09:34This moorland scene of the elementally attracted lovers became instantly iconic.
0:09:34 > 0:09:37So much so that it would be forever associated
0:09:37 > 0:09:41with the novel, even though Emily Bronte never described it.
0:09:43 > 0:09:47Heathcliff, make the world stop right here.
0:09:47 > 0:09:50Make everything stop and stand still and never move again.
0:09:50 > 0:09:54Make the moors never change and you and I never change.
0:09:54 > 0:09:57The moors and I will never change.
0:09:57 > 0:10:01Director William Wyler's distinctive framing shots on a Californian ranch
0:10:01 > 0:10:05were repeated almost shot-for-shot in the BBC version.
0:10:08 > 0:10:12But this time they were cleverly recreated in a studio
0:10:12 > 0:10:15in the slightly less glamorous Shepherd's Bush.
0:10:19 > 0:10:21Just like the Hollywood film, the BBC adaptation
0:10:21 > 0:10:26focuses on the passionate connection between Cathy and Heathcliff.
0:10:29 > 0:10:34In my whole life I shall never know anyone or anything
0:10:34 > 0:10:36the way I do you, Heathcliff.
0:10:38 > 0:10:40Two people destined to be together,
0:10:40 > 0:10:43but torn apart by differences of social position.
0:10:45 > 0:10:48Well, if I married Heathcliff we'd be beggars.
0:10:48 > 0:10:51It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now.
0:10:51 > 0:10:55Michell's Heathcliff was a rebel WITH a cause.
0:10:55 > 0:10:57When he wrongly believes that his love for Catherine
0:10:57 > 0:11:01is not reciprocated he leaves Wuthering Heights.
0:11:01 > 0:11:03Heathcliff!
0:11:03 > 0:11:05Take me with you!
0:11:05 > 0:11:07Heathcliff!
0:11:07 > 0:11:09Heathcliff!
0:11:09 > 0:11:11Heathcliff!
0:11:14 > 0:11:17Some years later he returns, now a wealthy man,
0:11:17 > 0:11:20but Catherine is married to someone else.
0:11:28 > 0:11:29Oh, my darling.
0:11:29 > 0:11:30I knew.
0:11:30 > 0:11:32I must have known.
0:11:33 > 0:11:36Oh, why did you go away?
0:11:37 > 0:11:39Catherine?
0:11:39 > 0:11:40Edgar.
0:11:40 > 0:11:42Edgar, darling, see..?
0:11:43 > 0:11:45He's come back!
0:11:45 > 0:11:46So Ellen tells me.
0:11:46 > 0:11:49However, theirs is a love so powerful...
0:11:49 > 0:11:50We can't stay out here.
0:11:50 > 0:11:52..that it will survive even beyond the grave.
0:11:53 > 0:11:57Heathcliff, if I dare you now will you venture?
0:11:59 > 0:12:03If you do, I'll keep...
0:12:04 > 0:12:05..you.
0:12:06 > 0:12:09Catherine, my own.
0:12:12 > 0:12:15Catherine Earnshaw, may you never rest as long as I am living.
0:12:15 > 0:12:17Be with me always.
0:12:17 > 0:12:19Take any form, drive me mad.
0:12:19 > 0:12:21Only do not leave me where
0:12:21 > 0:12:23I cannot find you.
0:12:23 > 0:12:26I cannot live without my life.
0:12:26 > 0:12:29This was a romanticised adaptation
0:12:29 > 0:12:32which avoided the original novel's Gothic elements
0:12:32 > 0:12:38and came across as somewhat prim with its RP accents.
0:12:38 > 0:12:41But as novelist Muriel Spark pointed out
0:12:41 > 0:12:45when she braved the TV camera and the Yorkshire weather,
0:12:45 > 0:12:48the ill-fated Emily's work was much more wild
0:12:48 > 0:12:51and less buttoned-up than that.
0:12:51 > 0:12:54I didn't fully realise until I came to Haworth Parsonage
0:12:54 > 0:12:58that Emily Bronte, more than any other novelist of her time,
0:12:58 > 0:13:01fed her genius on the chilly surroundings
0:13:01 > 0:13:04of the house where she lived and died.
0:13:05 > 0:13:09And as she hints at in a rather stumbling piece to camera,
0:13:09 > 0:13:12the novel is full of sexual tension and desire.
0:13:14 > 0:13:18I don't think that Emily herself ever had a love affair
0:13:18 > 0:13:20or thought of marriage...
0:13:22 > 0:13:24..none of the Bronte records suggest it
0:13:24 > 0:13:26and there aren't any legends,
0:13:26 > 0:13:29but she was a passionate woman.
0:13:29 > 0:13:32All her passion and all the intensity of emotion that was
0:13:32 > 0:13:38in her nature went into her writings and all her imaginative work.
0:13:40 > 0:13:43In 1962 the nation hadn't been ready for the unrestrained
0:13:43 > 0:13:48nature of Emily's work, but attitudes were changing.
0:13:51 > 0:13:55Towards the end of the '60s things were starting to loosen up.
0:13:55 > 0:13:58A sexual revolution was taking place.
0:13:58 > 0:14:01Well, in some parts of London, anyway.
0:14:01 > 0:14:05- You just go where it's going and flow with it.- What does that mean?
0:14:05 > 0:14:08We're just so free and so loving.
0:14:08 > 0:14:11Beautiful, absolutely free-loving children.
0:14:13 > 0:14:17Soon even the BBC was ready to let their hair down a little.
0:14:20 > 0:14:24In October 1967, as the country still basked in the warm glow
0:14:24 > 0:14:26of its first summer of love...
0:14:27 > 0:14:30The corporation's latest offspring, BBC Two,
0:14:30 > 0:14:33broadcast a new adaptation of Wuthering Heights.
0:14:35 > 0:14:39They wanted to make this one daring, different and modern.
0:14:42 > 0:14:44So, for the first time they upped sticks
0:14:44 > 0:14:49and headed north to the landscape that had so inspired Emily.
0:14:53 > 0:14:58Screenwriter Hugh Leonard promised his version would be less sentimental
0:14:58 > 0:15:00and concentrate on the passion.
0:15:01 > 0:15:04The era of free love had reached the Yorkshire moors.
0:15:14 > 0:15:17Angela Scoular plays Cathy as a wild free spirit.
0:15:20 > 0:15:22Catherine.
0:15:22 > 0:15:24Heathcliff.
0:15:25 > 0:15:29She and Ian McShane's antihero Heathcliff
0:15:29 > 0:15:32connect on a mystical as well as a physical level.
0:15:32 > 0:15:36- Cath... Oh! - CATHERINE LAUGHS
0:15:36 > 0:15:39Whatever our souls are made of, Heathcliff's and mine are the same.
0:15:39 > 0:15:43And Linton's is as different as a moonbeam from lightning
0:15:43 > 0:15:44or frost from fire.
0:15:44 > 0:15:47Then how can you bear to be separated from him,
0:15:47 > 0:15:49to leave him deserted in the world?
0:15:49 > 0:15:50Who is to separate us,
0:15:50 > 0:15:52to say that I will desert him?
0:15:52 > 0:15:55No, every Linton on the face of the earth might perish
0:15:55 > 0:15:57before I forsake Heathcliff.
0:15:57 > 0:16:02When I marry Edgar he'll be as much to me as he's been all his lifetime.
0:16:02 > 0:16:04Nelly, I am Heathcliff.
0:16:04 > 0:16:09He's always in my mind, not as a pleasure, but as my own being.
0:16:09 > 0:16:11He IS me.
0:16:20 > 0:16:24Cathy and Heathcliff are equals, who refuse to conform
0:16:24 > 0:16:25to the rules of society.
0:16:26 > 0:16:30This wasn't a matinee-idol style of love viewers were used to
0:16:30 > 0:16:31from earlier adaptations.
0:16:34 > 0:16:36It has a sense of realism and earthiness to it,
0:16:36 > 0:16:39more in keeping with the original book.
0:16:42 > 0:16:45And gone at last were the RP accents.
0:16:45 > 0:16:47I want to go there...
0:16:47 > 0:16:49where the light is.
0:16:49 > 0:16:51That's Thrushcross Grange.
0:16:51 > 0:16:53I want to see the Lintons.
0:16:53 > 0:16:55See THEM?
0:16:55 > 0:16:57Watch how they spend their evenings.
0:17:01 > 0:17:02For viewers who had never read the book
0:17:02 > 0:17:04but only seen other adaptations
0:17:04 > 0:17:07there was a shock in store too.
0:17:07 > 0:17:10Catherine Earnshaw dies around midway through,
0:17:10 > 0:17:11not right at the end.
0:17:17 > 0:17:19- She...- She's dead.
0:17:20 > 0:17:23I don't need you to tell me that.
0:17:23 > 0:17:25A few minutes ago.
0:17:25 > 0:17:27Did she mention me?
0:17:27 > 0:17:28No-one.
0:17:33 > 0:17:35A liar to the end.
0:17:45 > 0:17:47Wuthering Heights is a love story,
0:17:47 > 0:17:49but also a kind of revenge tale.
0:17:51 > 0:17:55Heathcliff is fixated on destroying everything linked to his
0:17:55 > 0:17:58tragic love affair with Cathy.
0:17:58 > 0:18:00Run!
0:18:00 > 0:18:02- No!- Let go of her!
0:18:03 > 0:18:06And your mother was a wicked slut to keep you
0:18:06 > 0:18:08in ignorance of the sort of father you possessed.
0:18:09 > 0:18:15This version ends with Catherine's ghost returning to Wuthering Heights.
0:18:15 > 0:18:16Let me in.
0:18:16 > 0:18:18Cathy?!
0:18:26 > 0:18:30Heathcliff, unable to bear the separation any more,
0:18:30 > 0:18:33kills himself so they can be together.
0:18:52 > 0:18:55The idea that such dark, violent themes
0:18:55 > 0:18:57could emanate from the mind of the young daughter of a curate
0:18:57 > 0:19:02from Yorkshire blew the collective male minds of the BBC,
0:19:02 > 0:19:05just as it had done generations of readers before.
0:19:12 > 0:19:15It was Emily, the young virginal Emily,
0:19:15 > 0:19:18who wrote about life and death and love,
0:19:18 > 0:19:22not superficially, but with deep and real understanding.
0:19:22 > 0:19:25At that time they were suffering from an industrial upheaval
0:19:25 > 0:19:27that they couldn't control,
0:19:27 > 0:19:29and diseases that couldn't be cured.
0:19:30 > 0:19:33A place where one in ten of the children survived
0:19:33 > 0:19:34and 30 was a ripe old age.
0:19:35 > 0:19:38To get more of an insight into how bad Haworth had been
0:19:38 > 0:19:43they enlisted the help of a local gravedigger.
0:19:43 > 0:19:46Have you seen kids in graveyard, on t'stones?
0:19:46 > 0:19:49There's many a thousand of them.
0:19:49 > 0:19:52Dead like flies in them days.
0:19:52 > 0:19:54TB or something.
0:19:54 > 0:20:00Anybody who's been on a hillside might have run into it.
0:20:00 > 0:20:07Anyway, they tell me it were that it were next unhealthiest spot to Whitechapel in London.
0:20:14 > 0:20:18The view from their nursery window was a constant reminder.
0:20:18 > 0:20:21Emily absorbed and accepted it,
0:20:21 > 0:20:23like everything else around her.
0:20:25 > 0:20:30These miserable conditions acted as an important motivation for the sisters.
0:20:30 > 0:20:33As the daughters of a country parson, the Bronte sisters
0:20:33 > 0:20:36were naturally confined within narrow limits.
0:20:36 > 0:20:39All three longed to break out,
0:20:39 > 0:20:40even the shy, retiring Anne.
0:20:42 > 0:20:44They found an escape through their work.
0:20:44 > 0:20:47Anne, in particular, used it to address the injustices
0:20:47 > 0:20:49women of their era faced.
0:20:50 > 0:20:52She was the youngest of the family,
0:20:52 > 0:20:54and often overlooked.
0:20:54 > 0:20:58In fact, the BBC had barely even mentioned her name before this documentary.
0:21:00 > 0:21:05Her novel The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall was published in 1848,
0:21:05 > 0:21:09and focused on the plight of a woman trapped in an unhappy marriage.
0:21:10 > 0:21:13It was highly controversial when it came out,
0:21:13 > 0:21:15and then quickly disappeared.
0:21:20 > 0:21:25Over 100 years later, and it would speak to a new generation.
0:21:25 > 0:21:28# You don't own me
0:21:28 > 0:21:31# Don't tie me down
0:21:31 > 0:21:33# Cos I'll never stay... #
0:21:34 > 0:21:35In the late '60s,
0:21:35 > 0:21:39women were starting to fight for greater equality.
0:21:41 > 0:21:44And it was in this climate that Anne Bronte's
0:21:44 > 0:21:47long-forgotten work was rediscovered.
0:21:49 > 0:21:52In 1968 it was adapted for BBC Two.
0:22:03 > 0:22:07And for the first time the audience got to see a Bronte work in colour.
0:22:11 > 0:22:14The subject matter was still shocking, even in the late '60s.
0:22:16 > 0:22:21Anne's work addresses themes of violence, adultery and drunkenness.
0:22:22 > 0:22:24Why should I pity you?
0:22:24 > 0:22:25What is the matter with you?
0:22:25 > 0:22:28Well, that passes everything.
0:22:28 > 0:22:31I come home sick and weary, longing for comfort,
0:22:31 > 0:22:34expecting to find attention and kindness, at least from my wife,
0:22:34 > 0:22:38and she calmly asks me what is the matter with me?
0:22:38 > 0:22:41There is nothing the matter with you which couldn't have been avoided.
0:22:41 > 0:22:44You've been drinking all day and eaten nothing. How do you expect...?
0:22:44 > 0:22:46If you say another damn word I'll ring the bell
0:22:46 > 0:22:48and order six bottles of wine!
0:22:48 > 0:22:51And by heaven I won't stir until I've drunk them dry.
0:22:52 > 0:22:57It was a cautionary tale of the horrors of a bad marriage.
0:22:57 > 0:22:59Oh, no. No, that's mine.
0:22:59 > 0:23:01You shall not have...
0:23:03 > 0:23:07Helen attempts to be the perfect Victorian wife...
0:23:07 > 0:23:09- Oh, no.- You thought you'd rob me of my son too...
0:23:09 > 0:23:13..but her husband's behaviour quickly spirals out of control.
0:23:14 > 0:23:16At a time when wives
0:23:16 > 0:23:20and children were legally classed as a man's property, she's trapped.
0:23:20 > 0:23:25Will you let me take our son and what remains of my fortune and go?
0:23:25 > 0:23:26Go where?
0:23:26 > 0:23:28Anywhere.
0:23:29 > 0:23:32Where he might be free of your influence,
0:23:32 > 0:23:35and I shall be safe from your presence, and you of mine.
0:23:35 > 0:23:37No.
0:23:38 > 0:23:41Will you let me take the child without the money?
0:23:41 > 0:23:43No, nor yourself without the child.
0:23:43 > 0:23:48Do you think I'm going to be made the talk of the county because of your pious whims?
0:23:48 > 0:23:50I must stay here...
0:23:50 > 0:23:52to be hated and despised.
0:23:54 > 0:24:01But henceforth, we are husband and wife only in the name.
0:24:01 > 0:24:06I am the mother of your child and your housekeeper,
0:24:06 > 0:24:07nothing more.
0:24:11 > 0:24:15In the end, Anne's heroine flees her husband with her son.
0:24:16 > 0:24:18We've seen the last of him, please God.
0:24:19 > 0:24:21Not only is she breaking the law,
0:24:21 > 0:24:24but every social convention of her time.
0:24:29 > 0:24:30Drive on, John.
0:24:33 > 0:24:35It was a revolutionary book,
0:24:35 > 0:24:38and Anne was finally getting some of the attention she deserved.
0:24:38 > 0:24:41This production brought it to a new audience.
0:24:49 > 0:24:51And the timing was perfect.
0:24:51 > 0:24:55In the late '60s, marriage was under the spotlight.
0:24:55 > 0:24:58The divorce laws were being re-examined with a view to
0:24:58 > 0:25:02making it easier for people to escape unhappy unions.
0:25:04 > 0:25:07Basically we just know it's a question of time before
0:25:07 > 0:25:09we do eventually break up.
0:25:09 > 0:25:13Cos, really, neither of us are very good at married life.
0:25:13 > 0:25:16I would have thought that I do put my own point of view
0:25:16 > 0:25:19pretty solidly on most things.
0:25:19 > 0:25:22Let me put it like this - I'd love more children.
0:25:22 > 0:25:24Eddie won't even consider the idea. And obviously...
0:25:24 > 0:25:29Only because we are not basically happy enough to really
0:25:29 > 0:25:33endanger another child into the same atmosphere.
0:25:38 > 0:25:41While many British marriages were on the rocks,
0:25:41 > 0:25:44there was one relationship that was about to flourish.
0:25:46 > 0:25:49In the 1970s, media and public interest in the Brontes
0:25:49 > 0:25:53would get a whole lot more obsessive and intrusive.
0:25:56 > 0:25:59Opening positions, please. Very quiet.
0:26:01 > 0:26:05It began in 1970 when the BBC adapted another lesser-known
0:26:05 > 0:26:10Bronte novel - Villette, by Charlotte.
0:26:10 > 0:26:13Sadly it hasn't survived in the archives.
0:26:16 > 0:26:18The eldest sister's last book has been described as
0:26:18 > 0:26:21the most autobiographical of all their work.
0:26:23 > 0:26:26In it she elaborates on the true life story of
0:26:26 > 0:26:30her unrequited love for a Belgian schoolmaster.
0:26:32 > 0:26:35The BBC was so intrigued by Charlotte's private life
0:26:35 > 0:26:40that they conscripted novelist Margaret Drabble to reveal more.
0:26:41 > 0:26:44This is the trunk that she had in Brussels.
0:26:44 > 0:26:47It's like the one that her heroine in Villette
0:26:47 > 0:26:49loses on that long and lonely journey.
0:26:49 > 0:26:53Charlotte writes, "And my portmanteau, with my few clothes
0:26:53 > 0:26:57"and the remnants of my £15 enclosed in my pocket book,
0:26:57 > 0:26:59"where was that?
0:26:59 > 0:27:02"I had tied on a green ribbon, that I might know it at a glance."
0:27:04 > 0:27:09And so off she went to Brussels to cope with the big Belgian girls
0:27:09 > 0:27:12and to fall in love with her Monsieur Heger.
0:27:14 > 0:27:17And then she was summoned home again by family troubles.
0:27:17 > 0:27:21And back she came to eat her heart out in silence,
0:27:21 > 0:27:23waiting for letters that never came.
0:27:26 > 0:27:29The connection between the Brontes' personal life
0:27:29 > 0:27:32and their work had always fascinated the public,
0:27:32 > 0:27:35but the interest was about to reach fever pitch.
0:27:38 > 0:27:40Here's Mr Feather coming with the post.
0:27:40 > 0:27:44In 1973, ITV started to screen a biographical drama
0:27:44 > 0:27:48about the trials and tribulations of this literary dynasty.
0:27:50 > 0:27:53The series was filmed on location in Howarth
0:27:53 > 0:27:56and used all the attributes of the period drama to document
0:27:56 > 0:28:01the family's lives from childhood to their untimely deaths.
0:28:01 > 0:28:06It turned out to be one of the most-watched series of the decade.
0:28:07 > 0:28:12Look, they've written two pages discussing it in such
0:28:12 > 0:28:16a considerate way, and they say that a work in three volumes would
0:28:16 > 0:28:19meet with careful attention.
0:28:19 > 0:28:20And you have one almost ready.
0:28:20 > 0:28:23- So very nearly ready! - You're trembling.
0:28:25 > 0:28:29The very same week in September that The Brontes Of Haworth started
0:28:29 > 0:28:34the BBC launched a brand-new adaptation of Charlotte's classic, Jane Eyre.
0:28:36 > 0:28:39This one starred Sorcha Cusack and Michael Jayston.
0:28:40 > 0:28:42You're cold.
0:28:42 > 0:28:44Go, then.
0:28:44 > 0:28:48I will, sir, when you release my hand.
0:28:50 > 0:28:51Your hand.
0:28:53 > 0:28:55Goodnight, sir.
0:28:55 > 0:28:57Yes.
0:28:57 > 0:28:59Goodnight.
0:29:03 > 0:29:06The drama revelled in the more autobiographical
0:29:06 > 0:29:07elements of her book...
0:29:09 > 0:29:14..particularly Jane's terrible experience at the grim Lowood school.
0:29:17 > 0:29:21I learned later that Miss Temple, on returning at dawn, had found me,
0:29:21 > 0:29:25my face against Helen Burns' shoulder, my arms around her neck.
0:29:27 > 0:29:29I was asleep,
0:29:29 > 0:29:30but Helen was dead.
0:29:32 > 0:29:35Jane grows up into a very different character from the one
0:29:35 > 0:29:38viewers had identified with back in 1956.
0:29:41 > 0:29:44Sorcha Cusack's Jane is a thoroughly modern women.
0:29:45 > 0:29:48By the expedient of placing an advertisement in
0:29:48 > 0:29:52the county newspaper I had secured a competency as a governess.
0:29:52 > 0:29:56My pupil was to be one little girl of nine years,
0:29:56 > 0:29:59and my salary - £30 per annum.
0:29:59 > 0:30:03I considered myself independent, at last.
0:30:05 > 0:30:09This screenplay sticks closely to Charlotte's original dialogue,
0:30:09 > 0:30:13with a heroine who is looking for equality in her relationship with Mr Rochester.
0:30:16 > 0:30:18Do you think I can stay to become nothing to you?
0:30:18 > 0:30:22Do you think I'm an automaton, a machine without feelings?
0:30:22 > 0:30:27Or do you think because I'm poor, obscure, plain and little
0:30:27 > 0:30:28I'm soulless and heartless?
0:30:30 > 0:30:34You think wrong. I have as much soul as you and full as much heart.
0:30:35 > 0:30:39Well, if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth I would
0:30:39 > 0:30:42make it as hard for you to leave me as it is for me to leave you.
0:30:42 > 0:30:44- Jane.- No!
0:30:45 > 0:30:48I'm not talking to you now through the medium of custom,
0:30:48 > 0:30:52conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh,
0:30:52 > 0:30:54it is my spirit that addresses your spirit,
0:30:54 > 0:30:57just as if both had passed through the grave
0:30:57 > 0:31:01and stood at God's feet, equal, as we are.
0:31:01 > 0:31:02As we are.
0:31:10 > 0:31:16The early '70s fuelled the conditions for an outbreak of Bronte-mania.
0:31:16 > 0:31:18Not only were their stories pertinent,
0:31:18 > 0:31:21but the family provided a welcome distraction from what was
0:31:21 > 0:31:24shaping up to be a rather grim decade.
0:31:25 > 0:31:27And not just when it came to fashion.
0:31:29 > 0:31:31The country was in recession,
0:31:31 > 0:31:34there was spiralling inflation
0:31:34 > 0:31:36and industrial unrest.
0:31:36 > 0:31:40All major brand areas are short.
0:31:40 > 0:31:43Specifics at the moment - toilet rolls, paper goods,
0:31:43 > 0:31:45very short indeed.
0:31:45 > 0:31:48That is influenced by the three-day working week.
0:31:48 > 0:31:50As the present became more depressing,
0:31:50 > 0:31:53the past became more enticing...
0:31:53 > 0:31:57with historical dramas offering escapist entertainment.
0:31:59 > 0:32:03In turn, they spurred many to seek out the full Bronte experience.
0:32:06 > 0:32:09Those quiet and isolated streets that had so captivated
0:32:09 > 0:32:13documentary makers back in the '50s were being transformed.
0:32:22 > 0:32:25Presenter Joan Bakewell made the journey north
0:32:25 > 0:32:27to try to understand the pull.
0:32:31 > 0:32:34I have come here as a Bronte enthusiast myself
0:32:34 > 0:32:36to find out why so many feel as I do.
0:32:36 > 0:32:39For Haworth is second only to Stratford in the number
0:32:39 > 0:32:41of tourists it attracts.
0:32:42 > 0:32:46People wanted to walk the same streets as the Brontes...
0:32:46 > 0:32:48and traipse the same moors.
0:32:54 > 0:32:57Fame of the little hill village has spread far and wide
0:32:57 > 0:33:01and brought the tourists, trade and traffic.
0:33:01 > 0:33:05What would those three reticent young women make of this?
0:33:05 > 0:33:08Their lives had been private, their home remote,
0:33:08 > 0:33:10and they liked it like that.
0:33:10 > 0:33:14Today, souvenirs, knick-knacks, Bronte tweed, antiques,
0:33:14 > 0:33:17useful bits and pieces, useless junk,
0:33:17 > 0:33:20clutter the streets every summer weekend.
0:33:22 > 0:33:25And among the bric-a-brac the occasional memento
0:33:25 > 0:33:26of Haworth's past.
0:33:26 > 0:33:29Weaving shuttles, reminiscent of the hand looms
0:33:29 > 0:33:33which provided the living in so many of the cottages.
0:33:36 > 0:33:38Well, I'm a tourist, I came from Greece.
0:33:38 > 0:33:41Well, I have read the novels years ago and thought it was a good
0:33:41 > 0:33:45opportunity to visit the museum now, as I'm in England for three weeks.
0:33:45 > 0:33:48Yes, I've read nearly all the books and I've read the biographies.
0:33:48 > 0:33:50I found it really fascinating.
0:33:50 > 0:33:51Do you know a lot about them?
0:33:51 > 0:33:54- Just that they're writers, that's all.- Do you?
0:33:54 > 0:33:58I know they're historic and that, you know? Enjoy yourselves.
0:33:58 > 0:34:01We just had a look to see the clothes and what they wore
0:34:01 > 0:34:03and things like that. I've been before, actually.
0:34:03 > 0:34:05This is the third time.
0:34:05 > 0:34:09All these houses they can see up the village, all the shops were houses.
0:34:09 > 0:34:13- And now it's like Blackpool... - Golden Mile.- ..Golden Mile.
0:34:13 > 0:34:15Everybody who takes a house now,
0:34:15 > 0:34:17they come from Bradford and Leeds and London
0:34:17 > 0:34:20and all over, they've taken these houses over at ridiculous prices,
0:34:20 > 0:34:24and converted them to shops where everything's sold from Hong Kong.
0:34:27 > 0:34:31Television drama had fuelled the public's interest,
0:34:31 > 0:34:35and now documentary makers were fascinated by the public's fascination.
0:34:38 > 0:34:41Such is the compelling fascination of the Bronte sisters
0:34:41 > 0:34:45that people travel from all over the world just to pay homage.
0:34:45 > 0:34:49Last year, 114,000 visitors passed through the museum.
0:34:49 > 0:34:51In fact, there are so many of them that the
0:34:51 > 0:34:54building has had to be strengthened with steel girders.
0:34:54 > 0:34:57Film crews jostled for space alongside tourists
0:34:57 > 0:35:01in the parsonage where the sisters wrote their masterpieces.
0:35:01 > 0:35:04What do you think it is about the Brontes which has somehow
0:35:04 > 0:35:09managed to maintain this great hold on people, even today?
0:35:10 > 0:35:14They're imaginary stories, down-to-earth stories,
0:35:14 > 0:35:16with all the passion
0:35:16 > 0:35:20and love stories that there always will be,
0:35:20 > 0:35:25But there isn't the filth and the sex that's being thrown at us today
0:35:25 > 0:35:26in the Bronte stories.
0:35:26 > 0:35:29They're down-to-earth, imaginary, love,
0:35:29 > 0:35:33passionate, good, clean stories.
0:35:34 > 0:35:39In 1978, the Brontes became even more enshrined in popular culture.
0:35:39 > 0:35:43..the exquisite Kate Bush, with her new single, Wuthering Heights.
0:35:43 > 0:35:47# Bad dreams in the night
0:35:47 > 0:35:51# They told me I was going to lose the fight
0:35:51 > 0:35:54# Leave behind my wuthering wuthering
0:35:54 > 0:35:56# Wuthering Heights
0:35:56 > 0:35:58# Heathcliff
0:35:58 > 0:36:01# It's me, Cathy come home
0:36:01 > 0:36:04# I'm so cold
0:36:04 > 0:36:07# Let me in-a-your window
0:36:07 > 0:36:09# Heathcliff... #
0:36:09 > 0:36:13The song stayed at number one for over four weeks.
0:36:13 > 0:36:18Coincidentally, or not, later in the year the BBC decided
0:36:18 > 0:36:21to screen another adaptation of Wuthering Heights.
0:36:23 > 0:36:26It was the most accurate the BBC had ever attempted,
0:36:26 > 0:36:29and stuck to Emily's text closely.
0:36:31 > 0:36:37Cathy's "I am Heathcliff" scene goes on for around ten minutes.
0:36:37 > 0:36:40I've now more business to marry Edgar Linton
0:36:40 > 0:36:41than I have to be in heaven.
0:36:44 > 0:36:46And if Hindley had not brought...
0:36:46 > 0:36:50Heathcliff so low I shouldn't have thought of it.
0:36:54 > 0:36:56But...
0:36:56 > 0:36:59it would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now.
0:37:02 > 0:37:05This version was Gothic and dark...
0:37:05 > 0:37:08the prog rock equivalent of period drama.
0:37:10 > 0:37:13Experimental and pretty demanding of the viewer.
0:37:15 > 0:37:17Who are you?!
0:37:19 > 0:37:21HE WHIMPERS
0:37:21 > 0:37:25God confound you, Lockwood!
0:37:25 > 0:37:28Who showed you into this room?
0:37:28 > 0:37:30HE WHIMPERS
0:37:33 > 0:37:36Your servant, Zillah, sir.
0:37:38 > 0:37:42No doubt she wanted to prove the place was haunted, at my expense.
0:37:42 > 0:37:44Well, it is, yes!
0:37:44 > 0:37:48It's swarming with ghosts and goblins.
0:37:48 > 0:37:50You have reason in shutting it up, I assure you.
0:37:52 > 0:37:56Alas, some of its authenticity is a little undermined by the fact
0:37:56 > 0:38:00that all the characters sport fashionable perms.
0:38:03 > 0:38:06Hairstyles aside, this adaptation revels
0:38:06 > 0:38:10in the more perverse side of Emily's book.
0:38:10 > 0:38:12Villain! Villain, villain!
0:38:12 > 0:38:13Villain!
0:38:13 > 0:38:15Now...
0:38:15 > 0:38:18I tried to...
0:38:19 > 0:38:23Ken Hutchison isn't the pretty Heathcliff of earlier depictions.
0:38:23 > 0:38:26He's ruthless and violent...
0:38:26 > 0:38:29closer to the character described by Emily.
0:38:29 > 0:38:33I don't allow anybody to inconvenience me.
0:38:33 > 0:38:36Gone are the romantic scenes of the two lovers on the moors
0:38:36 > 0:38:39that had become so ubiquitous.
0:38:39 > 0:38:43Instead we see Heathcliff being creepy with Catherine's corpse.
0:38:53 > 0:38:55It's her face yet.
0:38:55 > 0:38:59Aye, but that'll spoil if air gets to it.
0:39:04 > 0:39:07Since the day that you were buried...
0:39:10 > 0:39:12..you've haunted me.
0:39:15 > 0:39:18You made me think that you were not there,
0:39:18 > 0:39:20you were on the earth.
0:39:35 > 0:39:38This wasn't exactly the Brontes viewers were used to.
0:39:42 > 0:39:45Thankfully, the following year, the BBC produced something that
0:39:45 > 0:39:50was reassuringly familiar and far more family friendly.
0:39:58 > 0:40:01The Brontes were given the honour of their own one-hour
0:40:01 > 0:40:03Blue Peter special.
0:40:05 > 0:40:09The Brontes had arrived to take possession of their kingdom.
0:40:11 > 0:40:16Who were these studious children who came here that February day
0:40:16 > 0:40:20and turned a quiet Yorkshire village into a major tourist centre?
0:40:20 > 0:40:23The place is still pretty much as they found it, even though
0:40:23 > 0:40:27a museum's been added and trees soften the bleak outline.
0:40:27 > 0:40:32The house stands up awash with the rising tide of gravestones.
0:40:32 > 0:40:35On the day they came here to the little village, which in those days
0:40:35 > 0:40:40seemed so remote, the family was keeping an appointment with destiny.
0:40:40 > 0:40:44In 35 years' time, all those six children would be dead.
0:40:44 > 0:40:47But between them they would have written some of the most
0:40:47 > 0:40:50famous novels and poems in the English language.
0:40:54 > 0:40:56The Bronte cult was still going strong,
0:40:56 > 0:40:59especially in the nation's educational institutions.
0:40:59 > 0:41:02Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre
0:41:02 > 0:41:05were on every school curriculum in the country.
0:41:05 > 0:41:07And the sisters' work was at the centre of the
0:41:07 > 0:41:12rapidly expanding field of literary criticism in universities.
0:41:12 > 0:41:14# When I'm with you baby
0:41:14 > 0:41:16# I go out of my head
0:41:16 > 0:41:18# I just can't get enough
0:41:18 > 0:41:20# I just can't get enough... #
0:41:20 > 0:41:23Perhaps wanting to capitalise on this, in 1983 the BBC
0:41:23 > 0:41:29set about making something approaching a definitive version of Jane Eyre.
0:41:29 > 0:41:30# We slip and slide as we fall in love
0:41:30 > 0:41:34# And I just can't seem to get enough... #
0:41:37 > 0:41:40It was aimed squarely at a family audience,
0:41:40 > 0:41:44in the classic serial slot on Sunday evenings.
0:41:48 > 0:41:53It began on the 9th October, and for the next 11 weeks - yes, 11 -
0:41:53 > 0:41:56the nation was presented with an almost word-for-word
0:41:56 > 0:41:59and scene-for-scene telling of the book.
0:42:00 > 0:42:04It's been described as the most faithful adaptation ever attempted.
0:42:08 > 0:42:13In spite of my blessings, I was restless at my tranquillity.
0:42:13 > 0:42:14I could not help it.
0:42:14 > 0:42:16The restlessness was in my nature.
0:42:17 > 0:42:21"There must be millions like me," I thought, "who must have action."
0:42:21 > 0:42:24Women especially, who wish for more than their narrow lot.
0:42:26 > 0:42:28It certainly featured a far more convincing horse fall
0:42:28 > 0:42:31than the 1956 version.
0:42:36 > 0:42:38Damnation.
0:42:38 > 0:42:40It even went as far as to include the scene where the handsome
0:42:40 > 0:42:45Mr Rochester dresses up as a old gypsy woman to trick Jane
0:42:45 > 0:42:47into divulging her feelings for him.
0:42:47 > 0:42:50Chance has offered you a measure of happiness.
0:42:51 > 0:42:55It depends on yourself to stretch out your hand and pick it up.
0:42:56 > 0:43:00Other adaptations had wisely chosen to leave this out.
0:43:01 > 0:43:03Well, Jane, do you know me now?
0:43:05 > 0:43:07HE LAUGHS
0:43:08 > 0:43:10It was well carried out, don't you think?
0:43:10 > 0:43:13This was no party game, you have been trying to draw me out.
0:43:13 > 0:43:15Oh, Jane, do you forgive me?
0:43:18 > 0:43:20By the end of nearly three months,
0:43:20 > 0:43:22the audience knew the book back to front.
0:43:23 > 0:43:25Arguably too well.
0:43:26 > 0:43:29Sadly, as with a lot of relationships,
0:43:29 > 0:43:33this level of familiarity started to breed contempt.
0:43:43 > 0:43:46Good evening. Well, let's not waste a second.
0:43:46 > 0:43:48Anger and abuse is the order of the day.
0:43:48 > 0:43:50AC Alnutt of Bournemouth refers to:
0:43:52 > 0:43:54And Ms A Wyatt, writing from...
0:43:56 > 0:43:57..says, in part:
0:44:00 > 0:44:04# I want to break free... #
0:44:04 > 0:44:07The audience's passion had started to cool.
0:44:07 > 0:44:10The BBC decided it might be best to give it a rest.
0:44:10 > 0:44:12# I want to break free from your lies
0:44:12 > 0:44:14# You're so self-satisfied
0:44:14 > 0:44:17# I don't need you... #
0:44:19 > 0:44:23But what was intended to be a little break from the Brontes
0:44:23 > 0:44:26turned into a long separation.
0:44:26 > 0:44:30# God knows I want to break free... #
0:44:41 > 0:44:46The economy was looking up, people wanted to look forward and not back.
0:44:46 > 0:44:48It was the beginning of a new technological era,
0:44:48 > 0:44:51and in the shiny black and chrome world of
0:44:51 > 0:44:55the late '80s there was less and less appetite for costume drama.
0:44:56 > 0:45:00Ratings plummeted, and by the early '90s the BBC head of drama
0:45:00 > 0:45:04made the difficult decision to scrap the classic serial slot.
0:45:11 > 0:45:15But in 1995, all that changed in an instant,
0:45:15 > 0:45:19thanks to a scene that sent the nation's temperatures soaring.
0:45:21 > 0:45:24When Colin Firth emerged from a lake with his shirt dripping,
0:45:24 > 0:45:27in Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice,
0:45:27 > 0:45:31women all over the country took a sharp intake of breath.
0:45:31 > 0:45:35Not least Jennifer Ehle, who played Elizabeth Bennet.
0:45:35 > 0:45:39# I just wanna make love to you
0:45:39 > 0:45:43# Love to you... #
0:45:43 > 0:45:44Mr Darcy.
0:45:46 > 0:45:48Miss Bennett.
0:45:48 > 0:45:52In that one moment the historical drama was reborn.
0:45:52 > 0:45:55And it was much sexier than its predecessors...
0:46:02 > 0:46:05..a deliberate attempt by screenwriter Andrew Davies
0:46:05 > 0:46:08to bring a younger vibe to it.
0:46:08 > 0:46:11There had been an old way of doing costume dramas,
0:46:11 > 0:46:17and they were mostly done at tea-time, a semi-children's thing,
0:46:17 > 0:46:21so you couldn't be bold or daring with them.
0:46:23 > 0:46:27The literary adaptation's educational benefits were forgotten
0:46:27 > 0:46:30in a flutter of Colin Firth's eyelashes.
0:46:32 > 0:46:36Audiences wanted something more entertaining, more brooding
0:46:36 > 0:46:39and better looking.
0:46:39 > 0:46:43# Your love is my only desire
0:46:43 > 0:46:45# Relight my fire... #
0:46:45 > 0:46:49Period drama was suddenly hot again.
0:46:49 > 0:46:52But elsewhere in the mid-'90s things had gone off the boil.
0:46:57 > 0:47:01In 1996, the headlines were full of relationship breakdowns.
0:47:02 > 0:47:07The Prince of Wales and Diana got divorced...
0:47:07 > 0:47:10as did the Duke and Duchess of York.
0:47:10 > 0:47:14And Take That announced they were splitting up.
0:47:14 > 0:47:16Unfortunately, the rumours are true,
0:47:16 > 0:47:20and from today...it's no more.
0:47:20 > 0:47:22It wasn't all bad news, though.
0:47:25 > 0:47:29BBC Two decided to reconnect with an old acquaintance.
0:47:31 > 0:47:33It was over 25 years since they'd last adapted
0:47:33 > 0:47:36Anne Bronte's The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall.
0:47:42 > 0:47:44This production had all the hallmarks of this
0:47:44 > 0:47:47new breed of costume drama -
0:47:47 > 0:47:53superb cinematography, beautiful locations and outfits,
0:47:53 > 0:47:56plus good-looking stars.
0:47:56 > 0:48:00You are excessively impertinent.
0:48:00 > 0:48:02Do you want me to go?
0:48:02 > 0:48:04There's also the familiar storyline of the heroine
0:48:04 > 0:48:09who falls for the charming but flawed hero.
0:48:09 > 0:48:12Do you want me to tell you a secret, Helen?
0:48:12 > 0:48:15Shall I tell you that, compared to you, Annabella Wilmot
0:48:15 > 0:48:17is a flaunting peony,
0:48:17 > 0:48:21compared to a wild, sweet rosebud?
0:48:21 > 0:48:24Shall I tell you that I love you to distraction?
0:48:26 > 0:48:30This one, though, does differ in one major respect.
0:48:30 > 0:48:34Perhaps if you took a little less wine you might...?
0:48:34 > 0:48:37By Jove, if you start on that again I shall order six bottles
0:48:37 > 0:48:39and drink them before bed.
0:48:43 > 0:48:48What a shame it is for a strong man like you to reduce yourself to such a state.
0:48:48 > 0:48:51Rather than being nostalgic about the past,
0:48:51 > 0:48:54like other period dramas, this Bafta-winning production
0:48:54 > 0:48:58drew attention to the brutal side of Victorian marriage...
0:48:59 > 0:49:03..with an unflinching depiction of domestic violence.
0:49:07 > 0:49:11Arthur Huntingdon is cruel and abusive...
0:49:11 > 0:49:13SHE CRIES OUT IN PAIN
0:49:19 > 0:49:22..and despite his wife's best efforts turns out to be
0:49:22 > 0:49:24a man beyond redemption.
0:49:31 > 0:49:35"With my body I thee worship."
0:49:35 > 0:49:37Remember, Helen?
0:49:37 > 0:49:39You promised.
0:49:42 > 0:49:44Helen refuses to be broken.
0:49:45 > 0:49:49She leaves and finds the happy ending she deserves...
0:49:49 > 0:49:51Summer, then.
0:49:51 > 0:49:55Well, at the close of summer, then I'll be satisfied.
0:49:56 > 0:50:00..this time with a man who loves her for all the qualities that
0:50:00 > 0:50:03make her the strong, empowered woman she is.
0:50:04 > 0:50:07You could say here was a bit of girl power in action.
0:50:10 > 0:50:13Towards the end of the '90s, the tabloids seized on
0:50:13 > 0:50:15this new cultural phenomenon.
0:50:15 > 0:50:17- # Colours of the world - Spice up your life
0:50:17 > 0:50:19- # Every boy and every girl - Spice up your life
0:50:19 > 0:50:22- # People of the world - Spice up your life... #
0:50:22 > 0:50:25Young women were embracing a new, self-reliant attitude -
0:50:25 > 0:50:28they were ambitious and assertive.
0:50:28 > 0:50:31This was the era of the ladette,
0:50:31 > 0:50:34as old ideas of femininity were being overturned.
0:50:38 > 0:50:42This was something screenwriter Sally Wainwright explored in 2001
0:50:42 > 0:50:48in her thrilling and thoroughly modern retelling of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights.
0:50:54 > 0:50:57In Sparkhouse, the gender roles are reversed.
0:51:03 > 0:51:05The Heathcliff character is a feisty young woman from
0:51:05 > 0:51:08the wrong side of the tracks called Carol.
0:51:08 > 0:51:11- Where is it?- I've eaten it!
0:51:11 > 0:51:14- You are so...- Gorgeous!- ..annoying!
0:51:14 > 0:51:18She's obsessively in love with her more affluent neighbour, Andrew.
0:51:22 > 0:51:23What is it?
0:51:23 > 0:51:27It's my reading list for first term.
0:51:27 > 0:51:31- Have you read all these? - Most of them, yeah.
0:51:31 > 0:51:34I wish I was off to university.
0:51:35 > 0:51:38You could have done. Easily.
0:51:38 > 0:51:41You should have stayed at school.
0:51:41 > 0:51:43Yeah, well...
0:51:43 > 0:51:46- HE BLOWS A RASPBERRY - Ah!- Touched you last!
0:51:46 > 0:51:49His family doesn't approve of the relationship,
0:51:49 > 0:51:53and here Sally Wainwright takes Cathy Earnshaw's pivotal scene
0:51:53 > 0:51:56from the novel and gives it to the male character.
0:51:57 > 0:51:59Why can't you understand?
0:51:59 > 0:52:02Why can't you be happy for me?
0:52:02 > 0:52:05She's part of me, I can't breathe without her.
0:52:05 > 0:52:08I'd die, I'd shrivel up, I'd...
0:52:09 > 0:52:11I'd become like you.
0:52:14 > 0:52:17I'm nothing without her.
0:52:17 > 0:52:20Going to university, everything, it means nothing without her.
0:52:22 > 0:52:25And if you knew, if you understood for a second how
0:52:25 > 0:52:29I feel about her, you'd be ashamed of the way you carry on.
0:52:29 > 0:52:30Andrew...
0:52:30 > 0:52:32You don't even know what she's like.
0:52:32 > 0:52:34- You think you do, but you don't. - Don't I?
0:52:34 > 0:52:36She is me.
0:52:36 > 0:52:38You can't change that.
0:52:39 > 0:52:40Nobody can.
0:52:44 > 0:52:46Paul!
0:52:46 > 0:52:48When Andrew's parents try to stop the affair,
0:52:48 > 0:52:51just like her literary inspiration Heathcliff,
0:52:51 > 0:52:55Carol is mad, bad and dangerous to know.
0:53:01 > 0:53:03Get away from my car.
0:53:03 > 0:53:05I'm going to call the police.
0:53:05 > 0:53:07- Good!- Don't.- Why?
0:53:07 > 0:53:10You know why. She could get me struck off.
0:53:12 > 0:53:15You coward! You coward!
0:53:17 > 0:53:20And in true Emily Bronte style,
0:53:20 > 0:53:22it all ends in tragedy.
0:53:31 > 0:53:35These modern reimaginings of the Brontes' work had reignited
0:53:35 > 0:53:38the spark that had drawn the BBC to them in the first place.
0:53:40 > 0:53:43The themes of love, sexuality and gender
0:53:43 > 0:53:47were uncannily relevant in the 21st century.
0:53:50 > 0:53:55So, in 2006, the corporation returned to its first love -
0:53:55 > 0:53:56Jane Eyre.
0:53:59 > 0:54:03Except, half a century on, she was more glamorous, more polished
0:54:03 > 0:54:05and infinitely sexier.
0:54:13 > 0:54:16I must leave Thornfield, Mr Rochester.
0:54:22 > 0:54:25Jane is still the strong, independent woman
0:54:25 > 0:54:27viewers had grown to love...
0:54:27 > 0:54:29but this time when she arrives at Thornfield Hall
0:54:29 > 0:54:32she encounters a very different Mr Rochester.
0:54:35 > 0:54:37Dammit!
0:54:37 > 0:54:38Christ.
0:54:38 > 0:54:40He's still bad-tempered...
0:54:40 > 0:54:42DOG BARKS
0:54:42 > 0:54:44Quiet, Pilot.
0:54:44 > 0:54:46Oh, dammit.
0:54:46 > 0:54:50..but their first scenes make it instantly clear that here is
0:54:50 > 0:54:54a man who's completely on board with the idea of equality.
0:54:54 > 0:54:56He wants a 21st-century woman.
0:54:58 > 0:54:59I beg your pardon, sir.
0:54:59 > 0:55:03- I did not ask your permission to read the books.- Permission?
0:55:03 > 0:55:05To read the books?
0:55:05 > 0:55:07You're a thinking, intelligent woman, aren't you?
0:55:07 > 0:55:10Why ever would you need to ask permission?
0:55:11 > 0:55:13Who else is to read them?
0:55:13 > 0:55:15Adele? The venerable Fairfax?
0:55:15 > 0:55:18I'd more likely find Pilot poring over the flora and fauna
0:55:18 > 0:55:22of the South American flatlands.
0:55:24 > 0:55:26Through flashback we learn more about his past.
0:55:26 > 0:55:30And Bertha, his first wife, becomes more than simply the mad woman
0:55:30 > 0:55:32he's had locked in the attic.
0:55:33 > 0:55:38I was tricked by Mason and his father into pursuing his sister, Bertha...
0:55:39 > 0:55:44..who was as beautiful as the glittering stars and just as tantalising.
0:55:44 > 0:55:47We can see how deeply he's been hurt.
0:55:48 > 0:55:50I was married before I knew her.
0:55:50 > 0:55:55Before I had met the mother, who was, I found out later,
0:55:55 > 0:55:57at that time and had been...
0:55:58 > 0:56:01..for many years incarcerated in a mental asylum.
0:56:01 > 0:56:05And that insanity ran through the family like a black river of disease.
0:56:06 > 0:56:09It was but a few weeks before the full extent of her illness
0:56:09 > 0:56:10was made clear to me.
0:56:10 > 0:56:11No!
0:56:11 > 0:56:14- Bertha, calm down. - BERTHA SCREAMS
0:56:14 > 0:56:16An illness which has grown
0:56:16 > 0:56:20in violence and foulness at an ever increasing pace.
0:56:22 > 0:56:26It was the most sympathetic portrayal of Mr Rochester to date.
0:56:26 > 0:56:31Here was a hero worthy of a modern, emancipated woman.
0:56:31 > 0:56:33Jane, I want a wife.
0:56:37 > 0:56:38I want a wife.
0:56:40 > 0:56:42Not a nursemaid to look after me.
0:56:46 > 0:56:49I want a wife...
0:56:49 > 0:56:52to share my bed every night.
0:56:52 > 0:56:55All day, if we wish.
0:56:55 > 0:56:57If I can't have that I'd rather die.
0:56:59 > 0:57:02We're not the platonic sort, Jane.
0:57:07 > 0:57:09Can you see me?
0:57:11 > 0:57:13Then hear this, Edward.
0:57:14 > 0:57:17Your life is not yours to give up.
0:57:17 > 0:57:19It is mine.
0:57:19 > 0:57:21All mine, and I forbid it.
0:57:26 > 0:57:29THEY LAUGH
0:57:30 > 0:57:34Theirs is a relationship made for the 21st-century -
0:57:34 > 0:57:38equal, passionate and sizzling with sexual tension.
0:57:42 > 0:57:45Over 50 years, the BBC's love affair with the Brontes has
0:57:45 > 0:57:49experienced the ups and downs faced by any long-term relationship.
0:57:55 > 0:57:59But it survived because it was built on extremely solid foundations.
0:57:59 > 0:58:02Why did you betray your heart, Cathy?
0:58:02 > 0:58:05The three Bronte sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne,
0:58:05 > 0:58:09produced novels with themes so universal that generation after generation
0:58:09 > 0:58:14has been able to connect with their work on a very personal level.
0:58:15 > 0:58:21And over the decades the BBC has been able to bring it to new audiences -
0:58:21 > 0:58:24making it relevant and keeping it fresh.
0:58:25 > 0:58:30It's a relationship that is likely to continue for years to come.