‘Wives’ Is Worthy of ‘Masterpiece’ Crown

What is it about the English and good costume drama? They create it with as much arresting pomp as U.S. television does, say, an Academy Awards telecast: lots of speeches and wardrobe choices that are alien to the present century.

The differences are that everything said on an Oscar show appears mannered and everything worn borrowed for the evening, in contrast with how Brits usually tackle history by fitting into their period roles and attire effortlessly, as if born to them. It must be a cultural thing.

A case in point is “Wives and Daughters,” the sumptuous, four-part adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell’s 19th century novel that on Sunday recaptures for “Masterpiece Theatre” some of the golden glow of its former sunshine years on PBS.

What elegant, leisurely, seductive fun.

Gaskell has never shared a pedestal with Jane Austen, nor her “Wives and Daughters” with “Pride and Prejudice” or “Emma,” two classics previously adapted for British television by Andrew Davies, who wrote this teleplay. Yet see for yourselves if Gaskell does not re-create here, with as much delightful, gentle irony and insight as Austen did many years earlier, the manners and morals of a rural gentry that sees high virtue in social responsibility and family loyalty.

The lush country setting, rather early in the century, is the town of Hollingford where romance, scandal, intrigue and gossip coexist equally in a six-hour miniseries executed so seamlessly that it’s unthinkable that a camera is observing and director Nicholas Renton calling the shots.

After the initial intros, we find a respected doctor, the widower Mr. Gibson (Bill Paterson), doing the honorable thing when his assistant expresses love for his 17-year-old daughter, Molly (Justine Waddell). Naturally he sends her off for an extended stay at Hamley Hall, setting in motion the wheels (this being the dawn of a technology age) of Gaskell’s story.

Enter now Squire Hamley (Michael Gambon) and his sons, highly artsy and sensitive Osborne (Tom Hollander) and science-minded Roger (Anthony Howell), along with Mr. Gibson’s ambitious new bride, Clare (Francesca Annis), whose own daughter, the flirty and lovely but shallow Cynthia (Keeley Hawes), soon joins her mother at the Gibson house. Everyone who really matters is now assembled, except for Mr. Preston (Iain Glen), a well-tailored land agent with the smell of mystery and deceit on him.

This is grand storytelling by Gaskell through Davies, who proved his versatility with earlier contemporary teleplays for the tender and amusing “A Rather English Marriage” and political thriller, “House of Cards.” The cast, too, is first-rate, including Waddell, just about perfect as loyal and feisty Molly, the usually glamorous Annis playing Clare to the hobnobbing, social-climbing hilt, and Gambon on point as a doddering squire who growls a lot when not being humorously cutting.

“I’m not saying she was very silly,” he observes about meeting the new Mrs. Gibson. “But one of us was very silly, and it wasn’t me.”

Meanwhile, it’s believed by some that Osborne is loved by Molly, who secretly loves Roger, who loves Cynthia, who loves no one in a universe that is unlike our own. When Molly’s reputation is stained and her life nearly ruined by town gossips after she is seen innocently passing a note to Mr. Preston in public, you know you’re not in Kansas anymore. Nor in this case, do you want to be.

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“Wives and Daughters” begins Sunday night at 9 on KCET-TV and KVCR-TV and airs on consecutive Sundays through April 22. The network has rated it TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young children).