THE FORSYTES - Mon 9pm ch 5 - TV PACE NO SPOILERS

[Blondeshavemorefun]

5 has announced the release date for new period drama The Forsytes, which features the likes of Doctor Who (https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/doctor-who-season-15-release-date/)'s Millie Gibson among the cast

The series, which is an adaptation of John Galsworthy’s Forsyte Saga novels, will launch on Monday 20th October at 9pm, with each episode airing weekly.

Penned by Poldark screenwriter Debbie Horsfield, The Forsytes (https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/forsyte-saga-millie-gibson-uk-broadcast-newsupdate/) follows an upper-class family of stockbrokers across multiple generations, set against the backdrop of a rapidly evolving late-Victorian world.

The show (https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/downton-abbey-star-joins-forsytes-newsupdate/) focuses on the battle between Soames Forsyte (Home and Away (https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/soaps/home-and-away/)’s Joshua Orpin) and his cousin Jolyon (Fate: The Winx Saga (https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/fantasy/wheel-of-time-what-to-watch-after-cancellation/)’s Danny Griffin) as they clash over who will take over the family firm.

James and his son Soames have been edged out of the family stockbrocking company now run by JAMES‘s older brother jolyon and his son Junior

This doesn’t sit well with JAMES and Soames

Plus Jolyon marriage to Frances and becoming step dad to her daughter June , is threatened by the return of Louisa , from his past.

Lousia is a dressmaker and has a big secret

A trailer was previously unveiled (https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/the-forsytes-5-trailer-exclusive-newsupdate/), giving fans a first look at this clash between the cousins, as well as a glimpse at Gibson as Soames's wife, Irene Heron, and Eleanor Tomlinson (The Couple Next Door (https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/couple-next-door-season-2-ending-explained/)) as Louisa Byrne, Jo's first love.

The cast also features Tuppence Middleton (Downton Abbey: A New Era (https://www.radiotimes.com/movies/downton-abbey-3-release-date/)) as Frances Forsyte and Stephen Moyer (True Blood) as Jolyon Forsyte Sr.

A second instalment was confirmed back in June, despite the first series not having aired yet.

Paul Testar, Commissioning Editor, Drama, 5, said at the time: “We are excited to announce that production has begun on the second series of The Forsytes.

"With the first series set to air soon, this early commitment to a second chapter is a testament to the strength of the stories and characters that we know our audience will embrace.

"We look forward to sharing even more of this rich and compelling series.”

Damien Timmer, CCO & Founder of Mammoth Screen, added: “We can’t wait for the world to see series 1 of The Forsytes, and we’re so pleased to be getting ahead of ourselves and starting on this thrilling second series with Debbie Horsfield’s irresistible scripts and our glorious – and ever expanding – cast.”

I was thinking more of Gina McKee’s version….

Ah sorry. Yes, she wasn’t the icy beauty of the day in the way Porter had been.

@C8H10N4O2
I read all the Whiteoaks books as a teenager - sadly lost in a house move. Might look for 'The Building of Jalna' on Ebay.
Also love The Forsytes - the books, watched the 1967 series with my Mum and also 2002. Sadly not this adaptation although it was nice to see Susan Hampshire.

See this annoys me

they do it often

if a book is good enough to make into a series /drama. Why do they change plots

I enjoyed it. I haven't read the books or seen any previous tv shows though so have nothing to compare it to.

I thought i had read them but I was getting mixed up with Cazalet Chronicles I think.

If you're read one sweeping family drama you've read them all, right?

I watched it with DM for the first time in the 70s I think - it must have been one of the repeats, possibly in the wake of the Pallisers - they merge a bit in my childhood memory.

I’m sure there is a market for it given the right promotion and place. B&W classic films are positively fashionable amongst some of my DC friends and there is no shortage of takers for B&W classic sci fi. I’ve seen a trend to B&W in photography in recent years as well as film based cameras.

Rewatching those early episodes with the quality of the acting and the tight Ibsenesque sets makes all the cgi and big budget multi location shooting seem like a distraction. I saw none of the social suffocation in the new multi location version and suffocation and constraint is core to the stories. Plus Irene as a respectable middle class girl being encouraged to be a dancer on stage just doesn’t make sense, where Irene as a hopeful and passionate pianist (but most likely to teach music) was a perfect illustration of the limitations of sex and class.

I like a good Bridgerton, but if they want alternative history romance I wish they would invent it and not bastardise a classic into the opposite of its main themes.

Finally

recap e1

https://reelmockery.com/the-forsytes-series-1-episode-1-recap/amp/

They've made it far too like Bridgerton! And I still didn't get what the families social standing is meant to be. And everything feels quite low budget.
Also wish the women would pin their bloody hair up. I find it so distracting and inaccurate. Maybe June at home is OK but the seamstress character definitely not. She's meant to be posing as a widow not a prostitute!

If anyone likes period dramas then the website frock flicks is really good.

Oh yes and Irene as a ballet dancer! So wrong!

I’ve watched a few more of the old episodes this evening and I’m really struck by how much better are both script and acting. The limitations of tech and budget at the time result in a show which is much more like watching a theatrical play and the better for it.

It reminds me of conversations I heard with scriptwriters in the early days of streaming. You had newer writers saying how great it was that Netflix format allowed so much freedom - they could have a 50 or 60 or 70 minute episode if they wished so didn’t have to cut out their great ideas. For the watcher, this was a mixed blessing.

The older hands at the craft thought this was a negative and cited those annoying limitations - precise and consistent episode lengths, fixed points in each episode for ad breaks as initially annoying but in practice a great discipline for tight writing. They learned to craft the script to produce the key question or hook for each ad break and each episode. This ultimately made them better writers.

Anyways, I’m now hooked on a rewatch of the original televisation. I’ll watch another episode of the new series but I’m not sure I’ll go much further with it.

@C8H10N4O2 yes it is totally possible to have a script without lots of glaring exposition! Especially if you are working from a novel

I read all the books in the early nineties. I watched the 2002 version. I haven't seen the original version and am pleased to hear it's available. I thought it had been lost.

I thought the 2002 version, whilst pretty true to the books was awful. The casting of Soames and Irene was diabolical and there was something decidedly off with Winifred and the Monty dynamic/Argentinian Entrepreneur.

The first episode of the new version is laughably not true to script. The Forsyte's were not stockbrokers, June was not a step daughter, I've no recollection of middle Jolyon being called Joe, Holly and Jon didn't come into Jolyon's life as 10 year olds but were born either after he ran away with the nanny or maid or his first wife, June's mother, died.

However, the characters, within a somewhat reinvented storyline, feel truer to character and are more watchable. Jolyon (Joe) and particularly Irene captured the sensitive artist and spectacular beauty described in the book. I'm not so sure about Demelza Poldark!

The original, if I can find it, is worth a watch and the books a quick re-read. DH and I read them on our honeymoon in 1991. If my recollections are a bit off, I apologise. It was a long time ago.

@RosesAndHellebores
yes, I agree Joe and Irenie are much better, especially when you consider how each of their stories progress.

So much this. If you're going to adapt a book, you should adapt the book, IMO. I can understand changing something for reasons of economy or brevity but why shoehorn in characters that aren't in the books or doing things like making Irene a dancer.
It's 'adapted' by Debbie Horsfield though. The woman who butchered the Poldark books so I'm not surprised.
It's not really a prequel though as Philip Bosinney is looming and June is grown up. I watched the first episode and don't think I can face any more. The quality of the CGI was appalling.
I loved the 2002 version.

Here are some typical hair dressings of the period.

It’s rare that I’ve read a book then it’s on tv

to I rem they did it to The Secret of Crickley Hall by James Herbert

I was so annoyed

I think they made June Jolyen's stepdaughter so he could still be young and "hot". Yawn! Or to condense the action. I hate it though as it removes her relationship with Old Jolyen which is such an important one.

I'm a huge Rupert Graves fan and really fancy him in the 2002 one even when he's older though.

I do like the Irene. But I don't see why she has to be a ballet dancer. Soames is too cute.

And Soames playing polo. As if!!!

I got through most of the first episode but I won't be watching any more. The changes frpm the book are too great, tbe historical inacurracies too jarring..no hats, hair down, no jackets in the office.
If they'd called it 'the Jones's' and sold it as an original, light costume drama I might have stuck woth it but the Forsytes it 'aint.

I started watching the original 1967 series a couple of days ago and I'm hooked. So fabulous. Very good quality picture on YouTube.

E2 tonight

joly visits Louisa …..

I'm not bothering with it any more. The best thing about it is that it's finally started me watching the original which is fabulous.

I will watch this and maybe the orginal

if I do both at same time I will confuse myself

Does he? That’s going to be a lot of drama