Anyone else recently discovered North and South on iPlayer and fancy discussing/indulging me? I've also just read the book in 2 days!

[DuggeesWooOOooggle]

Don't know how I managed to miss this - it was first on a whole 14 years ago now and I think has been on several times since but somehow I have always been watching something else. Spotted it on iPlayer the other day while looking for something to watch and my goodness what have I missed?! It would have been a perfectly serviceable period drama, bit of social commentary and worthiness but they went and cast Richard Armitage! I had not really thought of him as sexy but my God the way he looks at her! I would have been unable to get out any of my lines if I were Daniella Denby-Ashe (and what has she been in recently?). He is just pure smouldering sex throughout the whole bloody thing.

And then I borrowed the book from the library on Thursday and have already finished it as I needed to compare the two. I was surprised that some bits where I thought they must have deviated from the book (eg both Thornton and Margaret getting chummy with Higgins and the great unwashed) were fairly well depicted. The final scene (and The Kiss!) were obviously vastly different but you couldn't really argue with it. Wish they had done the first meeting as in the book though, the way he is taken with her from the start is so beautifully written, especially the fact she is oblivious.

Anyone else just discovered this too or feel like indulging in a bit of chat about it?

My flatmate in uni halls was obsessed with this series. I remember walking past the communal area and hearing Richard Armitage shout 'you and your Southern ways!' quite a lot

Anyone remember the series with Patrick Swayze?

Actually I am getting mixed up between the one set in the American civil war and Elizabeth Gaskell's version.

I loved the one with Patrick Swayze.

Love the final train scene. So romantic. Richard Armitage was fantastic and gorgeous, and Daniella Denby Ashe was great too.

I watched it a few months ago for the first time. Binge watched it as it was so good, now looking for something else to watch which is as good!

Yes, I love this series too although watched it quite a long time ago! I introduced dd (14) to it this year and she totally agreed!

I don't recall the American Civil War one, not sure dear old Mr Swayze could smoulder quite as well as Mr Armitage.

Richard Armitage is fit like.

I watched it for the first time a few months ago too, and have since watched it all the way through again, plus repeatedly gone back to a few key scenes . I was taken aback by the grittiness to begin with but that is not a negative, just an indication of my surprise.

Yes, RA has got the smouldering look down to a fine art. I was surprised to read that this was his break out role. He seemed so natural in the role, and of course has done so much since, it seems hard to imagine he was an unknown before.

I am interested to know how you found reading the book. Is Elizabeth Gaskell a very wordy author, like Dickens, or is her narrative quite accessible?

I had a long train journey recently and downloaded this on to my iplayer in desperation - and loved it! Like you, I totally missed it the first time round, and for me Richard Armitage is Thorin Oakenshield in The Hobbit, but my, he can smoulder with the best of them.

In fact, the more I see other actors in things like this, the more I really can't see what all the fuss was about over Colin Firth in P&P. Vastly overrated...

Dumbledore I found the book relatively easy to read although perhaps having seen the programme recently helped with some of the wordier parts. I do hate the passages where the Higgins's etc talk in their Lancashire dialect - makes it so hard to read! I guess it's more authentic than if they all spoke in perfectly phrased educated sentences but I must admit I did skim read much of it!

I would say it's somewhere between Austen and Dickens in tone, subject and style. But read it just for the way she describes how Thornton is in love with Margaret.

Gaskell wasn’t a patch on Austen IMO! Far too much moral worthiness.

But agree that it is a decent read.

Have you read any of Gadkell's other works, Loopy? Just wondering where to go next?

Also, this is The Look. That preceded The Kiss. Swoon.

Oh I just remembered how much I loved that book. And Richard armitage

I got this muddled up with South Riding!

Anyone remember the series with Patrick Swayze?

I do.

North and South was our first book club book of this year on Mumsnet (it fizzled out a book or two after that, sadly), though I'd read it many times before.

Yes, apart from a few details, it doesn't deviate much from the book. I wasn't quite satisfied with the actress who played Margaret, but she wasn't dreadful by any means.

I think it is by far the best of Gaskell's works. Cranford isn't bad, but unlike, I thought, the TV series which I disliked.
Wives and Daughters perhaps next best for me, but unfinished. Mary Barton is similar setting to N and S, but I found it superficial. Ruth is tragic, moralising, and of its time. Not pleasant reading. I can't think of others off hand. You might try the short stories, one of two gems.

.

Also, this is The Look. That preceded The Kiss. Swoon.

Ahhh, such a nice ending. Though an underlying voice was saying they wouldn't have kissed publicly and like that!

Yes of course, HermaHelen, snogging with tongues on a crowded station! And him not wearing a cravat! The scandal! I think we can make allowances though. Much hotter than Darcy coming out of the lake at Pemberley half dressed

Yeah, who cares about historical accuracy! Phwoar.

I don't know if you were being sarcastic or not Loopy!

I'm rewatching again now and am now finding the initial contact between Thornton and Margaret sadly wanting. In the book he is clearly besotted with her from their first meeting but we have so far just had some brooding looks. And the scene where he beats up the factory worker is just so jarring, totally out of character. They've tried to make him more brusque and bad boy but there's no need. They could have made more of his friendship with Mr Hale and his and Margaret's verbal sparring. It's pretty dense prose in the book but taken right down to the bare bones, presumably to fit a 4 hour adaptation.

Anyway I'm coming to all this 14 years (or 170 years) later than most so I'm sure these things have already been said a thousand times!

I remember the scenes when the cigarette worker lit a pipe or cigarette and the male lead gave the worker a bollocking and sacked him. Female lead bollocked with the male lead who then explained to her that a pipe/cig in a factory could result the goods and
building catching fire. It was well done. Then she realised this but was a bit slow to admit this to him.