Who doesn’t love a good period drama? The tension, the drama, the romance, the various comedies of manners, and, of course, the incredibly huge dresses – all of those things make for a wonderful break from mainly watching shows about people having weird group sex between bouts of being killed by ice zombies.
Despite its very specific setting, the broad themes (I promise this is not a weird sexist pun) of Little Women have managed to remain relevant for a good 150 years, getting adapted time and time again for a new audience.
The BBC alone has already done three adaptations of Little Women, and now they’re having a crack at a fourth, this time as a three-part miniseries starring Maya Hawke as Jo, Annes Elwy as Beth, Willa Fitzgerald as Meg and Kathryn Newton as Amy. The show will also feature Michael Gambon as Mr Laurence, Emily Watson as Marmee and Dame Angela Lansbury as Aunt March.
For those of us in Australia, the show will be premiering exclusively on Stan, very conveniently over the holiday season. It would be even more convenient if we lived in a country that snowed over Christmas, making it perfect for rugging up and watching TV but, failing that, lying completely immobile and watching TV is still a pretty good way to escape the heat that we actually have to deal with.
The series is going to be released one part per day, starting on the 27th of December and continuing on through the 28th and 29th, to leave you with a sufficient level of suspense despite the fact that you quite likely already know exactly how the story plays out (but that is NOT the point).
You can catch some beautiful, fleeting glimpses of the show in this trailer for all of BBC’s delightfully British Christmas offerings – it looks like it’s going to be gorgeous.
