Tess Of The D'Urbervilles - Episode guide
New Bond girl Gemma Arterton stars as Tess, the spirited heroine, in BBC One's new four-part adaptation of Thomas Hardy's Tess Of The D'Urbervilles.
Read our interview with Gemma Arterton.
Hans Matheson (The Virgin Queen, Dr Zhivago) plays her nemesis, the arrogant Alec D’Urberville, who seduces her and Eddie Redmayne (Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Savage Grace) is Angel Clare, with whom she falls in love and marries.
Read our interview with Eddie Redmayne.
Episode 1
Sunday 14th September 2008
The four-part drama begins with John Durbeyfield, a "haggler" and a drunk, weaving his way towards the pub one afternoon when he meets the village priest, Parson Tringham, who tells him that his family has distinguished ancestry. They are descended from the D'Urbervilles, a wealthy, but now extinct, family.
Durbeyfield's daughter, the beautiful Tess, is dancing with the other village girls at the May Day parade. There she spies a handsome young stranger joining in the dance. His name is Angel Clare, a parson's son, but he doesn't seem to notice her. Durbeyfield and his wife, Joan, have learnt that a woman called D'Urberville lives nearby. They want to send Tess over there to "claim kin". Tess is reluctant but when the family horse is injured in an accident and has to be shot, she realises that, for the family's sake, she must go.
She meets Alec D'Urberville, a good-looking, suave and apparently charming man, who lives with his mother in the biggest house Tess has ever seen. He does not permit her to meet his mother. But, when Tess leaves, Alec forges a letter from Mrs D'Urberville, offering Tess a job on their estate. Tess accepts. Alec and his mother are not genuinely descended from the D'Urbervilles. His late father bought the title with money made from manufacturing chocolate. Tess at last meets the blind and daunting Mrs D'Urberville, and works on the estate under the wary supervision of the bailiff, Groby.
Aiming to seduce Tess, Alec showers her with attention and gifts, assuring her that her family will want for nothing. Offering her a ride home after a village fair, he deliberately gets lost, tells her to sleep while he finds help, but returns and rapes her. Tess returns home in shame and confused. A year has passed since the May Day dance. Now she can only watch the dancing girls from afar, holding a tiny baby boy in her arms.
Episode 2
Sunday 21st September 2008
Because her father refuses to allow the baby to be baptised in a church, Tess is forced to perform the ceremony herself, calling him Sorrow. When the baby dies, Tess pleads with Parson Tringham to allow him to be buried in the churchyard, but the parson says he cannot permit it. Tess digs a small grave for Sorrow on unconsecrated ground in a field next to the church. Tess leaves home and finds work at a dairy farm, a happy and sun-filled place, presided over by the jovial Mr Crick. Tess makes friends with three dairy girls, Marion, Izzy and Retty, all of whom are besotted with an educated young man who is on the farm learning how to become a gentleman farmer. His name is Angel Clare. Tess recognises him instantly.
During the course of a hot summer, Tess and Angel fall in love. He travels home to tell his parents of his intention to marry Tess, but they do not approve, as he is informally betrothed to a prim and proper local girl, Mercy Chant. But Mr Clare, a deeply religious but tolerant man, concedes that the decision as to whom Angel should marry must be Angel's alone. Briefly, at the parsonage, Angel catches a glimpse of Alec D'Urberville, who is taking religious instruction from Mr Clare following the death of his mother.
Angel rushes back to the farm to propose to Tess. She is torn between ecstasy and fear as she struggles with her love for Angel and a sense of guilt and unworthiness. Can she tell him about her past, her relationship with Alec, her dead baby? Succumbing to his passionate entreaties, she finally accepts his hand. The other girls are jealous, but pleased for her. Retty seems to be more distressed than the others.
On a trip to town to choose her wedding dress, Tess encounters Alec's bailiff Groby, who calls her a whore to her face. Not knowing who he is, Angel knocks the man to the ground. Tess decides that she must reveal all to Angel, before they are married. On the night before the wedding, she writes him a letter and puts it under his door. The next morning she is relieved that Angel appears completely unaffected by her confession. But when she goes to his room to fetch something she notices that the letter has slipped under a rug. It hasn't been opened. She tries to tell Angel verbally, but he won't hear about anything as they have a wedding to get to...
Episode 3
Sunday 28th September 2008
A heartbroken Retty doesn't attend the wedding, as David Nicholls's adaptation of Thomas Hardy's classic novel of love and betrayal continues. As a small, but joyful, ceremony takes place, she tries to drown herself.
After hearing of Retty's attempted suicide while on their honeymoon, a suddenly troubled Angel decides it is time for him and Tess to make known their former transgressions. Solemnly, he informs Tess of a wrongdoing in his past and is surprised when she readily forgives him. Tess, meanwhile, has misjudged the situation and thinks that if she forgives him he will forgive her and reveals all about Alec D'Urberville.
Angel is appalled and tells her that she is no longer the woman he loved and that they will remain married but must part. To the fury of her parents, Tess reveals what has happened. Angel isn't as honest with his own parents, however, and says that he and Tess have merely separated and that he is going to Brazil to set up a farm there. Angel later meets Izzy, Tess's friend, and asks her if she will accompany him on his new adventure. But when she tells him that nobody could love him more than Tess, he acknowledges the folly of his request and sets off for Brazil by himself.
Tess finds a job on a bleak farm run by Groby, the cruel bailiff – at least she has comfort in the companionship of her two friends, Izzy and Marion. Izzy persuades her to swallow her pride and ask Angel's parents for help. Her nerve fails her, however, when she overhears Angel's brothers discussing his ill-advised marriage.
On her way back to the farm, she comes across Alec D'Urberville preaching in a tent. He tells her that he has found God and that he's a changed man. She tells him that she had a child, who is now dead, and that they must never see each other again. Inflamed by the meeting, Alec turns up at Groby's farm and proposes marriage. Tess reveals that she is already married, but Alec is determined to have her. Tess, in desperation, writes to Angel, begging him to come and rescue her. But Angel is in Brazil, dreadfully ill and close to death.
Episode 4
Sunday 5th October 2008
Tess continues to work on the farm through a cruelly bitter winter, and Alec, who seems to have replaced any religious fervour he once had with a passion for Tess alone, continues to plague her with his relentless attention.
Tess's younger sister, Liza-Lu, arrives at the farm to report that their father is dying, and they both hurry home. Following his death and burial, the family are turned out of their house and travel to the village once owned by the blighted D'Ubervilles with all the possessions they can carry. Tess later writes an angry letter to Angel, as she cannot forgive him now for ignoring her. Alec, meanwhile, follows the Durbeyfields. Unable to find lodgings, they have encamped in the local churchyard. Alec finds Tess and tells her that he has offered the family support and a home. She has no choice but to go with him.
Elsewhere, in Mr Clare's church, a ghostly, frail, young man appears. Angel Clare has returned home. Angel's parents show him a letter from Izzy, begging him to save Tess before it is too late. Angel sets out to find her, and finally, he arrives at the house still owned by Alec D'Urberville – where Alec is allowing the Durbeyfields to work and stay. But there is no sign of Alec or Tess.
Liza-Lu tells Angel that Tess is in Sandbourne, a seaside town, and he finally tracks her down to a boarding house. Still staggeringly beautiful, she is a changed woman, wearing expensive clothes. When she says that Alec has won her back, Angel leaves in a daze. A distraught Tess fatally stabs Alec and goes in search of Angel. She finds him at the station, where she confesses to what she has done. Knowing that they will now be pursued, Tess and Angel escape across the countryside to Stonehenge.
Tess has one last instruction for Angel – he must marry her sister, Liza-Lu. They spend the night together and, at dawn, the police arrive. Tess goes willingly, knowing she has experienced happiness. As Tess faces execution, she recalls the May Dance and thinks of how different things could have been. From a distance, Angel and Liza-Lu watch the sinister black flag of execution flying over the prison.
