Jonathan Firth

Based on Thomas Hardy's classic novel, Far from the Madding Crowd is a turbulent tale of passion and destruction set in the 19th century. Bathsheba Everdene (Paloma Baeza), a beautiful and proud woman with a fiercely independent spirit, ensnares-and almost destroys-three men. She rejects the proposal of the loyal and dependable Gavriel Oak (Nathaniel Parker), who takes a job on her farm because of an unfortunate twist of fate. He can only stand by and watch as Bathsheba mischievously flirts with her neighbor, Mr. Boldwood (Nigel Terry), unleashing a passionate obsession that burns deep within the reserved Gabriel. However, both men are eclipsed by the arrival of the dashing, womanizing soldier, Frank Troy (Jonathan Firth). Despite being in love with another woman, he sees a challenge in Bathsheba and sets out to win her. Troy manages to tame the wild young woman, but their marriage is instantly doomed, and a dramatic chain of events are set in motion.

This Masterpiece Theatre production, set at the cusp of the Industrial Revolution, chronicles, the life, loves, foibles and politics of the fictional English town of Middlemarch. Adapted from the George Eliot classic of the same name, the plot centers on the socially conscious, but naive Dorothea Brooke, whose disastrous match to the pedantic Rev. Edward Casaubon sets in motion a chain of events that will change the face of Middlemarch forever. The efforts of the dashing young physician, Tertius Lydgate, to modernize the medical practices at the new hospital causes quite a stir, both in the political power structure, headed by the evil Mr. Nicholas Bulstrode, and the heart of sweet Rosamund Vincey, the town beauty. Smaller plots interweave the action and lead to reconciliation, resignation, remuneration and resolution.

This is a fanciful drama about life in medieval England for Sir Thomas, a widower, and his four children. Richard and Armus are stalwart young knights, but the other two children only wish they were. Cedric is in training to be a cleric as his late mother wished. Eleanor finds it difficult because of her sex, although she is as good on a horse and with a crossbow as any man. (Another son, William, left for the Crusades after the pilot episode and was barely mentioned again.) Sir Thomas has developed a relationship with Lady Elizabeth, who lives in her own castle nearby. Their other neighbor, Baron John Mullens, is continually plotting to ruin Sir Thomas and take his land.