Experimentation and Post-Heritage in Contemporary TV Drama: Parade’s End
Hockenhull, Stella
Hockenhull, Stella
Authors
Editors
Other contributors
Affiliation
Epub Date
Issue Date
2014
Submitted date
Alternative
Abstract
At the beginning of Episode Three of Tom Stoppard’s adaptation of Ford Madox Ford’s 1920s’ tetralogy, Parade’s End (White 2012), the central character, Christopher Tietjens (Benedict Cumberbatch) lies in hospital wounded, suffering flashbacks to his First World War experiences in the trenches. The sequence commences with an extreme close-up of his bloodied face, before a dissolve introduces a kaleidoscopic and bleached image of his beautiful wife, Sylvia (Rebecca Hall). This shot is immediately followed by that of Tietjens’s lover, Valentine Wannop (Adelaide Clemens), before returning to the more realistic and gruesome events at the hospital. The story chronicles the life of Christopher Tietjens, a wealthy landowner and man of principles, and his promiscuous socialite wife, Sylvia. Tietjens has joined up to fight, but the events which occur in the war form only one layer of the complex plot and backdrop to the love triangle with suffragette, Valentine. The flashback and the optical effect of the kaleidoscope is a repeated motif in the serial, and director, Susanna White, introduces a variety of experimental, surreal and perplexing images throughout this fast moving drama.
Citation
In: James Leggott and Julie Taddeo (Editor); Upstairs and Downstairs: British Costume Drama Television from the Forsyte Saga to Downton Abbey; chapter 14, p191
Publisher
Journal
Research Unit
DOI
PubMed ID
PubMed Central ID
Embedded videos
Type
Chapter in book
Language
en
Description
Series/Report no.
ISSN
EISSN
ISBN
9781442244825