It's sometimes referred to, just a bit dismissively, as bonnet drama. Whenever television visits the 19th century, the headwear of the female characters does indeed play its part. Of no adaptation of Victorian fiction is that truer than Cranford. The actresses wearing the bonnets are fairly resplendent too. This Christmas they are queueing up to appear in Heidi Thomas's new dramatisation set in Mrs Gaskell's quiet Cheshire town. Our gallery celebrates the bonneted British actresses of Cranford, to amplify director Simon Curtis's description elsewhere in theartsdesk of working on the new series.
- Michelle Dockery as Erminia Whyte
- Imelda Staunton as Miss Octavia Pole
- Claudie Blakley as Martha Hearne
- Julia McKenzie as Mrs Forrester
- Emma Fielding as Miss Galindo
- Celia Imrie as Lady Glenmire
- Lesley Sharp as Mrs Bell
- Lisa Dillon as Mary Smyth
- Francesca Annis as Lady Ludlow
- Jodie Whittaker as Peggy Bell
- Barbara Flynn as Mrs Jamieson
- Deborah Findlay as Miss Tomkinson
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Cranford is on BBC One this Sunday at 9pm and then on Sunday 27 December.
