TV Gallery: Cranford's Bonnets

TV Gallery: Cranford's Bonnets | reviews, news & interviews

TV Gallery: Cranford's Bonnets

A pictorial display of the bonnets and leading ladies of Cranford

by Jasper ReesFriday, 18 December 2009

Hats on: Dame Judi Dench as Miss Matty JenkinsAll photographs by Laurence Cendrowicz

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.

My Job Directing Cranford

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