Episode 2

Available for over a year

by Elizabeth Gaskell Dramatised by Lin Coghlan Margaret ..... Patsy Ferran Mr Hale ..... Paul Chahidi John Thornton ..... James Cartwright Mrs Thornton ..... Pooky Quesnel Mrs Hale ..... Ruth Everett Frederick ..... Colin Ryan Dixon ..... Felicity Montagu Higgins ..... Sean Gilder Boucher ..... Lloyd Thomas Mrs Boucher ..... Evie Killip Leonards ..... Luke Nunn Inspector ..... Jonathan Forbes Old Man ..... Roger Ringrose Old Woman ..... Joanna Monro Directed by Sally Avens The Hale family have moved North to Milton, an industrial mill town. Margaret's friendship with Bessy, a young mill girl who died, has brought her into close contact with the suffering of the workers. Now Bessy's father, a union leader, has called a strike and Margaret finds herself caught in the middle between the workers and the mill owner, John Thornton, one of her family's only acquaintances. Gaskell's great novel still resonates today in its portrayal of the north-south divide and its themes of class, gender and social responsibility.