Thoughts on A Woman Of Substance - the new series versus original and book? Spoiler Alert

[PinkTonic]

Setting up a thread to have a decent discussion of the new version compared to the original series and book.

I’m up to episode 5 personally and pretty nonplussed about what I consider to be pointless and gratuitous changes to characters and plot. I’d love to hear other opinions and don’t care what episodes are discussed. I think Brenda Blethyn is all kinds of wrong for Emma although I like the young version. I am immensely irritated that someone thought it was a good idea to completely omit how Emma started her business and life in Leeds whilst wasting time on the sordid details of Adam’s sex life. And no Laura!!

You might want to put the name of the programme in the title

Can you give us a clue OP?

Ah, A Woman of Substance.

Yes, so sorry. I accidentally let AI change the thread title and it took out the title of the show. Mortified! I reported the thread and asked for the title to be edited but nothing so far.

I sat through the first episode but haven’t bothered to watch any more. Found it all quite boring.

@PinkTonic I normally enjoy Brenda Blethyn, she is a wonderful actress and I loved her in Vera.

All kinds of wrong for "A Woman of Substance" though, sadly.

Stopped watching very early on.

eta; just as an aside and totally irrelevant ofc @PinkTonic "I accidentally let AI change the thread title" but why did you use AI?

Thanks for the thread @PinkTonic just finished watching episode five, really enjoying it so far. I feel master Edward looks too young and boyish for the role and sorry can't remember her name but his fiance looks too old for him. I think it's a lovely version that's had me nearly crying a few times. Not read the book though thinking about putting it on my Christmas list now. I've watched the original version a few times over the years. As I said on the other thread Liam Neeson was my favourite character in the original version, he was excellent at playing Blackie.

I watched the 85 one last weekend . Watched this new one yesterday a few things are changed , which one is more faithful to the book? I didn't like the ending of the new one .

AI tried to change my title the other day, MN must allow it to do that now.

It just came up and I think I clicked it to see what it was about and then the title was changed and I couldn’t edit

I finished it last night. The 1985 is faithful to the book. The new version is a completely different story loosely based on the premise of the book. The characters and their motivations have all changed. Significant characters (the love of her life) have been left out and far more has been included about the Fairleys than was ever in the book. I was shocked they went so far with the ending. It’s not what the author wrote.
The casting is ridiculous. The Hartes must have been the most ethnically diverse family in England in the 70s, and I don’t think an openly gay male personal assistant was a thing in the corporate world only a decade after the decriminalisation of homosexuality. Neither would a woman who was being groomed to take over a multi million pound business empire have been going to work dressed like an extra from Hair! The whole thing is stupid and gratuitous.

As I read/watched the original over 40 years ago I don't remember much more than the basic plot, so it hasn't spoiled it for me. I don't have the memory of an elephant 😃

I live in Yorkshire and know and have visited most of the locations where it was filmed (one being very close to me).

I am enjoying this as it feels fresh and new to me.

I watched it all last week. Enjoyed it but I’m going to rewatch the original this week to compare. Agree about the ending of the new one.

Yes and 'control the narrative ' didn't sound of the times either . I think I'm going to get the book if I can find it anywhere.

I only lasted 15 minutes- it was absolutely bloody awful. Why oh why can't they leave things alone and why bother adapting a book only to change the characters and the story.

I am increasingly out of step with so much current tv and find myself drawn to BBC iplayer "From the Archive". Wish they had this for other channels too tbh.

I very much want adaptations of beloved books to be faithful. That’s why I love the BBC Pride and Prejudice, the Emma Thompson Sense and Sensibility, the Susan Sarandon/Winona Ryder Little Women etc. For me A Woman of Substance was very much a book of its time, and it came out at a time in my life which I remember well and with great fondness. It wasn’t great literature, but it was a phenomenon. I can’t think of a good reason to rewrite this story so drastically even though probably much of the audience wouldn’t have read the book or watched the original adaptation. The original was a better story. And for goodness sake, a period drama needs to be accurate to the period.

Is the ending of this recent adaptation actually supposed to be the ending or is there another series coming?
I was left saying is that it?
Generally found it very annoying in multiple ways.
First time Will Mellor has ever pissed me off in anything too, usually love him.

I think that’s the ending. The next book was about Paula carrying on the torch and fulfilling her destiny, which can’t happen given the way they’ve taken the plot. Hopefully Emma immediately went and sold everything and left all the money to the poor.

ETA - Obviously they could just make some shit up which has nothing whatsoever to do with the book, similar to what they’ve done in this version. Looking at the costuming for the 70s period in this one, maybe they could make it a musical?

The 1977 clothes were wrong.
Young Emma.was not the Emma of the book, Jenny Seagrove was better.
Armley then, and now, was a slum. Where was the money coming from for such finery - it was humbler in the book.
What happened to the husbands?
Adele was fair and ethereal and I don't recall the menage a trois and parental sex in the book.
Where was Winston?
And oh my God the casting, Frank did not have drarfism, Emma never married a person of colour, agree about the openly gay PA black man - would never have happened in the 70s. It should have, but it didn't. How many wealthy families were from South Asia and rubbing shoulders with the mill owners in the 1910s? It's as plausible as a black Anne Boleyn. The diversity would have been better focused on the Kandinski(sp) family because there was a Jewish demographic in Leeds, involved in the rag trade.

Too much energy spent trying to overlay the dynamics of Armley and life in general on the first decade of the 20th Century.

It was bizarre.

Emma got her first job in Leeds as a result of saving David’s father from an antisemitic attack in the book. It’s how she learned tailoring.

I kept thinking jambo can't be that old now , made me feel ancient

Thagj you. I’ve so wanted to discuss this properly.

It’s a bloody travesty this adaptation. No Paul, no Daisy? Who are Paula’s parents meant to be. Also Jim isn’t unlikeable in the beginning, as far as I remember. This one is. Why Mac? Paula is meant to be savvy, this adaptation doesn’t make her appear to be at all. Rubbish. And yes I’ve watched it all!

Totally agree. Paula had a very good relationship with her grandmother, who gave her blessing to her marriage to Jim. She was supposed to be credible on the boards of a massive oil company and Harte Enterprises, which didn’t appear to be the case here. Jim comes over as a complete nasty bastard whose relationship with Paula was contrived by his desire for revenge. She should definitely LTB

I couldn’t agree more.

I had to turn it off once realised it was Brenda Bletherer. Can't stand her voice