Viewers throughout Britain have given rave
reviews to this magnificent new adaptation of Charlotte Bront??s beloved
romantic tale. Return to Thornfield Hall and experience anew the classic
love story of Mr. Rochester and young Jane. Toby Stephens (Die Another
Day, Cambridge Spies, The Queen?s Sister) and luminous newcomer Ruth
Wilson give passionate performances that will sweep you off your feet.
A lavish BBC mini-series in the tradition of the BBC?s acclaimed Pride
and Prejudice, filmed entirely on location at historic Haddon Hall and
throughout Derbyshire. As seen on Masterpiece Theatre.
Orphaned as a child, Jane Eyre suffers a miserable
upbringing. Sent away from the cruel and loveless household of her Aunt Reed,
she is forced to endure the terrible conditions of Lowood charity school.
Jane's only consolation from the severe regime is her fellow pupil, Helen
Burns, who dies in her arms from cold and illness. Years later, Jane succeeds
in becoming a teacher - and finally makes her escape by taking a post as
governess at Thornfield Hall. Her new pupil is the young French girl, Adèle
Varens, wayward and coquettish in behaviour, and ward to the owner of the house
- Mr Rochester.
Jane finds herself irresistibly drawn to the master of the house, despite his
unpredictable moods and sardonic temper. Likewise, he is attracted by her wit
and self-possession. Soon, they fall into the habit of long, intimate
conversations. However, Jane's hopes of a mutual attraction are crushed with
the arrival of a house party - including the belle of the county, Miss Blanche
Ingram. The gossips predict a proposal from Rochester will not be long.
However, in times of danger, Jane proves herself a loyal aide to Rochester. A mysterious
visitor, Richard Mason, arrives from Jamaica. In the middle of the
night, the whole house is woken by blood-curdling screams. Rochester covers up the situation, but asks
Jane alone to help him. He takes her to the North Tower
to tend to Mason, who has been violently attacked, as if by a wild animal.
Time passes, and Jane expects Rochester
will soon announce his engagement. Much to her surprise, he reveals he has no
intention of marrying Blanche. He is in love with Jane, and proposes marriage
to her instead. Jane can hardly believe it, but accepts, convinced by the
strength of his feelings. However, the wedding day brings disaster. Richard
Mason returns with a lawyer and interrupts the couple at the altar. They cannot
continue: Rochester
is already married to Mason's sister, Bertha. Rochester admits he has a “wife”, if she can
be called as much. He was tricked into marrying Bertha, who has a family
history of insanity, and is now confined in the North Tower of Thornfield.
Despite Rochester's
pleadings, Jane leaves Thornfield and wanders the moors, destitute, until she
is taken in by the clergyman St John Rivers and his sisters. Jane forcefully
repels all memories of Rochester
and her time at Thornfield. She begins a new life as part of the Rivers family,
and takes a job as mistress of the parish school.
Over a year later, St John
makes Jane a proposition which appeals to her lifelong desire for travel and
escape. He has been offered a post as a missionary in Africa,
and wants Jane to accompany him - as his wife. Deeply torn, Jane is about to
consent when a voice, unmistakeably Rochester's,
calls to her as if telepathically across the moors.
Unable to ignore her love for Rochester,
Jane leaves the Rivers and returns to Thornfield to answer his call. She finds
the building a blackened ruin and its master blind and maimed by his vain
attempt to save Bertha from the flames. Through her love, Jane restores Rochester's spirit. At
last, she marries him and creates a family of her own.
Episode 1 - Orphaned as a child, Jane Eyre is brought up in
the cruel and loveless household of her aunt, Mrs Reed, at Gateshead Hall. She
is an outsider in the Reed family, rejected by her cousins Georgiana and Eliza,
and tormented by their brother John. As a result, Jane develops an active
imaginative life dreaming of foreign landscapes, artistic expression, and
escape. One day, John Reed provokes Jane to fight back against his attacks -
then blames the entire trouble on her, calling for Mrs Reed's intervention. So
follows a terrifying night locked in the Red Room, where Jane receives a
spectral visitation from the corpse of her Uncle Reed. Soon, Jane is visited by
the austere clergyman, Mr Brocklehurst, who runs a charitable institution
called Lowood School. Without a reconciliation of any
kind with her aunt, and aged only ten, Jane is to be sent away.
The school is freezing; the conditions unbearably austere. Jane hates her time
there, particularly the attempts by Brocklehurst to kill her spirit and
individuality. However, Jane makes a close friend in a fellow pupil called
Helen Burns who advises her not to attempt to run away but to work hard and
improve herself through education. That way, she will one day fulfil her dream
of escape. Unfortunately, Helen is not so lucky and dies in Jane's arms from
cold and illness. The whole school suffers an epidemic of typhus which kills a
large proportion of the students. Brocklehurst is deposed, and conditions
finally improve. Eight years later, Jane has worked her way up to a teaching
position at Lowood. Finally, she decides it is time to leave. After advertising
in the local newspaper, Jane gets the job of governess at Thornfield Hall.
Thornfield is a vast estate, forbidding at first with its endless corridors and
different wings. But Jane soon settles in, after a warm welcome from the jolly
housekeeper Mrs Fairfax, and her new pupil, a young French girl called Adèle
Varens. She enjoys her lessons and begins to make some progress with her lively
and wayward student. However, Jane becomes restless - her aching desire for
escape and travel still lingers. One day, whilst day-dreaming of warmer
countries on the terrace, Jane looks across the estate of Thornfield and sees a
long red scarf floating out from a window of the North Tower.
Mrs Fairfax has little explanation. She suggests it was perhaps Grace Poole,
who does the laundry and lives up there alone.
One afternoon, while walking to Millcote to post a letter,
Jane is almost run down by a rider galloping down the path towards her.
Startled, the horse falls and throws its rider. Jane helps the dark, enigmatic
man to his feet and back onto his horse. Returning to Thornfield later that
night, Jane discovers the mysterious rider was none other than Edward Fairfax
Rochester, the owner of Thornfield and her employer. Although he is taciturn,
and often moody, Rochester
is impressed by Jane's spirit. Increasingly drawn to her, he begins to engage
her in long, intimate conversations. Jane learns the story of Adèle's mother,
Céline, a Parisian opera-singer who was once Rochester's mistress. He claims Céline left
Adèle on his doorstep: she is not his daughter, but he couldn't abandon the
girl.
By now, Jane has begun to feel an attraction to Rochester and to think of Thornfield as home.
But this dream is shattered when, in the middle of the night, she wakes with a
start to hear strange noises in the corridor outside her room. Following the
sound of footsteps Jane races to Rochester's
room where she discovers his bed is on fire, and his life is in grave danger.
Episode 2 - Jane saves Rochester's
life - rousing him from his bed, and helping put out the fire raging in his
room. She waits in Rochester's bedroom, and
watches through the window as his lamplight moves through Thornfield to the North Tower.
On his return, Jane tells him she was woken by strange noises in the corridor,
including a spooky laugh. She suspects it could have been Grace Poole, and Rochester doesn't correct
her.
The next morning, Rochester
leaves Thornfield. Jane feels foolish for having allowed herself to harbour
hopes that he shared her feeling of attraction. She happens across Grace Poole,
whose attitude towards her seems almost threatening.
Rochester
returns with a house party, the guests covering a cross-section of
high-society. Eshton, a forward-thinking scientist, is studying the psychology
of twins and is compelled by the idea that twinned minds can communicate across
huge distances. More worryingly for Jane is the arrival of the Ingram family,
including the opinionated, aristocratic Lady Ingram and her striking daughter
Blanche. Soon it's the understanding of the entire household (not least Lady
Ingram) that Blanche is the perfect match for Rochester. Despite Jane's obvious discomfort
at the patronising treatment she receives, Rochester insists that she attend the evening
soirées at every opportunity. One evening, Rochester asks Jane if she thinks he should
fulfil the gossips' predictions and propose. In Jane's opinion, is he in love
with Blanche? Jane counters that she knows nothing of love. But any hopes she
might once have had for herself are now truly crushed.
Later, the mood of the party darkens as Rochester suggests playing some dangerous
games. His ouija board experiment turns nasty, as “the board” humiliates
Blanche. Rochester
leaves the party next day, and a gypsy arrives insisting on telling the
fortunes of everyone in the house. Again, Blanche's experience is unpleasant.
Jane is called in last, and tested about her feelings for Rochester. When the gypsy probes about Rochester's marriage,
Jane refuses to go any further with the interview. Her game over, the gypsy
reveals she is in Rochester's
pay and he emerges from behind a screen.
However, Jane turns the tables on Rochester,
revealing he has a visitor from overseas: Richard Mason. Rochester is clearly unsettled by the news,
but covers well on meeting Mason. That night, the whole house is awakened by
blood-curdling screams. Rochester
manages to calm the situation, but Jane realises something is badly wrong when
she sees a pool of blood dripping from his injured arm. Rochester
asks Jane for assistance, and takes her into the North Tower
to tend to Mason who has been violently attacked, as if by a wild animal. Jane
stays with him whilst Rochester
fetches the doctor, but she is frightened by loud banging on the other side of
the door. Next morning, Rochester
sends Mason off with the doctor, and tries to cover up the situation.
Jane receives a visit from Bessie, the maid at the Reed house. She brings bad
tidings: Mrs Reed is on her death bed and asking for Jane. Rochester is reluctant for Jane to leave him,
asking who will help him now in times of danger. But Jane must go. As she
drives away, she sees Rochester
and Blanche out riding together and worries what might happen in her absence.
Episode 3 - Jane returns to Gateshead Hall, the scene of her
childhood misery. Mrs Reed is on her death bed, following her son John's
excessive debauchery and subsequent death. Jane is treated with great condescension
by her cousins Eliza and Georgiana. Georgiana has become extremely vain, whilst
Eliza claims she will wash her hands of Georgiana after her mother's funeral
and spend the rest of her life in a French Convent. Mrs Reed raves in her
delirium about Jane Eyre being a nightmare child. But in a more lucid moment,
her true feeling of guilt about Jane becomes far clearer. Three years earlier,
Mrs Reed received a letter from Jane's uncle, John Eyre, now living in Madeira. He hoped to adopt Jane and make her his heir.
Vindictively, Mrs Reed kept the news secret and replied that Jane had died of
fever at Lowood.
At Thornfield, Lady Ingram continues to hope for a proposal of marriage from Rochester to her
daughter. But Rochester's
behaviour seems very introspective. Alone, he asks Blanche whether she truly
wants to take on Thornfield.
After her aunt's funeral, Jane returns to find the house party about to leave.
However, the prospect of Rochester
and Blanche's forthcoming wedding is still the subject of discussion. Mrs
Fairfax expects they will soon have to find new positions. Jane and Rochester quickly strike
up their former intimacy. But a cloud hangs over their easy conversations, when
Rochester hints he may find Jane an alternative
position in Ireland
in the future. One day, Rochester tells Jane and
Adèle about of his time in the Caribbean: the
heady atmosphere, the seductive women, the danger… He is brought back from his
memories by the sound of a woman's voice, humming a Caribbean
tune. Neither Jane nor Adèle seem to have noticed, but it leaves Rochester with a very
ominous feeling.
When Rochester
presses Jane that she must leave Thornfield, she reveals her strong feelings
for him. The charade is over. Rochester
admits he has no intention of marrying Blanche - instead, he is in love with
Jane, and proposes marriage to her. Jane can hardly believe it, but once
convinced by the strength of Rochester's
feelings she accepts his offer. They run back inside as the skies darken with
the onset of a thunderstorm. Next morning, the gnarled chestnut tree under
which they stood has been struck in two by lightening.
Two nights before the wedding, Jane has a nightmare and
wakes with a start to a yet more terrifying vision of a strange woman in her
bedroom. She wants to believe Rochester's
explanation that it was part of her dream - but the results are scarily real.
Jane's wedding veil has been ripped in two. The wedding day arrives, but as the
pair stand at the altar they are interrupted by a lawyer, Briggs, and Richard
Mason, who announce that Rochester
is already married to Mason's sister Bertha. Rochester
takes the wedding party up to the North
Tower, introduces them to
his “wife”, and relates his history. Rochester's
father wanted to preserve his estate by marrying him off to a wife who would
bring a rich dowry. He was sent to the Caribbean,
and tricked into marrying Bertha unaware of the insanity running through her
family. Bertha quickly succumbed to madness, but Rochester didn't abandon her. Rather, he
brought her back to England
and hired Grace Poole to take care of her whilst he travelled the world, trying
to forget the horrors at home.
But Jane's dream is shattered. She locks herself into her bedroom, and, despite
Rochester's
wild protests, refuses to open the door to him.
Episode 4 - Jane wanders the moors, penniless and starving.
Utterly exhausted, she lies down in a final act of surrender to the elements.
But she is brought back from the brink by a faint light in the distance,
growing closer. The lantern belongs to the clergyman St John Rivers, who
rescues Jane. Together with his sisters, Diana and Mary, St John nurses her back to health. The family
are poor, but intelligent and spirited. Jane forcefully represses all memories
of Rochester's
desperate attempts to make her stay, and resolves to begin a new life.
On a walk across the moors, Jane meets the beautiful, wealthy Rosamond Oliver.
She is clearly in love with St John,
and he with her. However, St John's
icy will presents an obstacle to marriage. He forces himself to subordinate his
passions to his religious calling to serve as a missionary. By contrast, Diana
and Mary declare it a crime to deny love. Soon, at a visit to Morton church,
Jane pushes back memories of her failed wedding. She accepts an offer from St John to become
mistress of a new school for poor girls of the parish. Having decided to stay,
Jane's memories come flooding back… After the wedding, Rochester passionately begged her to stay,
claiming them to be true soul-mates. Jane was unable to deny her equally
overpowering love, but remained adamant she would leave. Next morning, she did
just that. She crept out of Thornfield at dawn, and got on a coach across the
country.
Some time later, Diana and Mary leave home to take up posts as governesses.
Diana asks Jane to keep watch on St
John, fearful he will take up a missionary's posting
and die overseas. When St John
cruelly rejects Rosamond Oliver again, Jane challenges him about his behaviour.
He admits he is a cold man at heart - he loves Rosamond, but she will never
make a missionary's wife.
A year passes. Jane's school has improved beyond measure;
Rosamond Oliver has married someone else. St
John visits Jane, and reads to her from a letter. It
is from the solicitor, Mr Briggs, outlining her history. Briggs is trying to
trace Jane on behalf of his client - her uncle - who has died and left her a
fortune of twenty thousand pounds. When asked why Briggs would write to him, St John tells Jane that
they share the same uncle. Indeed they are half cousins. Delighted to have
found family at last, Jane decides to share her inheritance equally, and sends
for Diana and Mary to come home.
St John makes
Jane a proposition. He has a missionary's job in the Cape,
and wants her to go with him - as his wife. Jane is shocked. She knows St John does not love
her. But he is relentless. He argues Jane has relinquished any desire of
finding love. In which case, she must use her life to find salvation through
God's work. Deeply torn, Jane goes up to the moors, where she hears Rochester's voice calling
her name. She knows she must go to him.
Jane returns to find Thornfield a blackened ruin. A year earlier, in the middle
of the night, Bertha escaped the North
Tower and set Thornfield
ablaze. Rochester
followed her to the roof, but Bertha plunged to her death before he could save
her. Jane finds Rochester
at Ferndean Manor, blind and still gravely injured. He recognises Jane
instantly, and is overwhelmed by her return to him. But Rochester wants a wife, not a nursemaid. Jane
gradually restores his spirit, and he renews his declarations of love for her.
Five years later, Rochester's
sight has improved enough to see his own son - and Jane has found a true family
of her own.
"Cancel your plans for the next few Sundays - BBC1's
Jane Eyre has style, substance, and just the right amount of heaving bodices
... It's all very stylised and gothic ... And it looks fabulous, but substance
hasn't been sacrificed for style ... And there are two great performances -
from Toby Stephens, as a fiery and brooding Rochester, and from Ruth Wilson, as
an awkward, embarrassed but quietly determined Jane Eyre." - Guardian
"...a wonderfully reconceived and re-energised production, beautifully
stylised, with a pared-down look and beautifully bleak lighting ... Toby
Stephens is the pleasure deferred, a predictable piece of trouser totty cast as
Rochester. He glowers and glooms and sulks in an acceptably gothic manner ...
Ruth Wilson's Jane is what really lifts this production to being exceptional.
She is a servant without being servile or simpering, strong without being
wilful; and by doing very, very little, she manages to evoke an awful lot. With
a twitch of her Nike swoosh eyebrows, she elicits a slow-burn, knicker-melting
erotic energy with Rochester." - Sunday Times
"The BBC's Jane ... is one hot 19th-century governess. She looks like a
chick in a Magnum ice-cream advert. She's got flawless skin, tumbling hair,
perfectly sculpted eyebrows and a frankly extraordinary upper lip: a fleshy,
kissable duckbill, which appears to vibrate lasciviously in moments of high
emotion … Toby Stephens's Rochester,
meanwhile, ... strikes you as an entity with hot, steaming vents on his lower
flanks." - The Times
"...a stylish production that is all steely grey tones and ominous
corridors. Edward Rochester (Toby Stephens) is not so much the Byronic hero as
a rich, bored and believably modern young man whose secret is slowly corroding
him from the inside ... by the end of episode one, you will be wanting
more." - Sunday Times
“Well paced, beautifully designed and astutely scripted...” - Observer
“Forget Darcy - meet the new smoulderer … this is a performance that looks set
to confirm Stephens as the new pin-up of period drama.” - Express on Sunday
"The new adaptation … doesn't add new colors to Bronte's romantic novel.
Rather, it brings out all the shades and hues of the original portrait,
restoring it to its full glory. But wait. The news gets better. The careful
restoration applies not only to the characters but also to the breathtaking
cinematography. Scene after scene transports viewers across time and space to a
place made vivid and real. By doing all this, the robust, two-part, four-hour
Masterpiece Theatre program raises the bar for future Jane Eyre productions to
a level that will not be easily hurdled.” - Hollywood Reporter
"Jane Eyre hits the full Brontë in every scene … From sweeping shots of
the English countryside through all seasons to intimate scenes in the recesses
of the manor house, this adaptation of Jane Eyre shows off a richness American
TV projects rarely attempt. The appeal stretches beyond style. The lean
scripting (even at four hours the program can't cover every one of Brontë's
plot details), the expeditious pacing and the interaction among the actors are
first-class, if not as brilliant as the more ambitious and magnificent Bleak
House from last season” - USA Today
“Ever respectful of its source, the miniseries doesn't add on sexuality so much
as it seeks and finds character depth and dimensionality. And it helps that, as
Jane and Rochester,
Ruth Wilson and Toby Stephens are open, soulful actors. More than some of the
famous pairings … they keep things down to earth.” - Boston Globe
“For the first time in the filmed telling of this tale, perhaps, we watch a man
grow worthy of Jane's affection and devotion … The period Jane spends with the
clergyman St John Rivers and his two sisters features some of the most
fascinating minutes in the film, because these characters come to life as never
before." - Wall Street Journal
"…the casting is close to perfect. Everything else - and there's plenty
else to enjoy - is a bonus … Inevitably, this miniseries will be compared to
A&E's splendid 1995 Pride and Prejudice, starring Colin Firth and Jennifer
Ehle, and the comparisons are mostly justified … This miniseries retains the
conventions of the gothic genre - the spooky castle, the nighttime screams,
mysterious midnight stabbings and maulings, the Gypsy fortune-teller, the
supernatural carryings-on - but most important, it gives a passionate new take
to an archetypal love story. This production of Jane Eyre holds its own against
any other." - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
