TV Pick of the Week: A Woman of Substance - review by Yvette Huddleston
A Woman of Substance All 4, review by Yvette Huddleston
Barbara Taylor Bradford’s bestselling novel was first adapted for television back in 1985 and was a huge ratings hit for the then fledgling Channel 4, at that point only three years old.
It starred Jenny Seagrove as the story’s protagonist Emma Harte with Deborah Kerr as her older self. This time round Blenda Blethyn takes on the role of the mature Emma with Northern Irish actress Jessica Reynolds as the feisty young Yorkshire lass who rises from poverty and servitude to become one the world’s richest and most successful businesswomen.
Taylor Bradford, who famously started out as a Yorkshire Evening Post reporter, died in 2024, shortly before the new TV version was announced, also commissioned by Channel 4, but she was involved and supportive – and keen that it should be as much as possible in her beloved home county. The landscape plays a significant role in this energetic eight-parter, with many recognisable West Yorkshire locations, including Ilkley’s Cow and Calf rocks, popping up along the way.
The series opens in the 1970s with Emma Harte (Blethyn) being approached at her New York office by a young man Jim Fairley (Toby Regbo), a journalist, who says he has important information to share with her about a potential takeover being planned by her adult children. She dismisses him out of hand at first – not least because he is a descendent of the very family who made her life a misery when she was a young woman and upon whom she has vowed revenge ever since – but discovers he has a point…
We then flashback to Yorkshire in 1911. The young Emma (Reynolds) is working as a housemaid for wealthy mill owners the Fairleys at their Downtown-esque house. She is also having a clandestine relationship with the Fairley’s younger son Edwin (Ewan Horrocks). Emma lives with her hardworking father Jack (Will Mellor), younger brother Frank (Lenny Rush) and ailing mother Elizabether (Sophie Bould). On her deathbed, her mother encourages Emma to follow her dreams and this is what sustains her and drives her.
Much of the dialogue is gloriously over the top – this is drama with a capital d – and it is hugely enjoyable because, not in spite of that. It is not pretending to be anything other than it is – cracking storytelling that races along at pace and grabs you right from the get go. It’s all enhanced by strong performances from a quality cast that also includes Lydia Leonard and Emmet J Scanlan.