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Friday 5 July 2013

The Village (BBC)

Since this series is coming out on DVD soon, I thought I'd let you know why this is worth your time.


In brief, The Village focuses on, well, a villag,e during the 1910s with a specific focus on the Middleton family and the youngest boy Burt Middleton, who is being interviewed as he is now the oldest man in the world. This framing device is unconvincing and acts only as a forced prelude to the episodes, which do not benefit from it at all. Nevertheless, as the popularity of Broadchurch proved, great drama can be found in exploring relations within a close community and taking its time to explore the nuances within them.

The series begins with the arrival of the first bus to the village which to most people's surprise actually has someone on it. Change seems to be what drives the drama throughout this series as events beyond the characters control affect their way of life, notably the First World War. Writer Peter Moffatt avoids patronising or sentimentalising rural life and the class differences within it. In fact, it avoids cliche and stereotype altogether by remaining true to its characters and settings - even the seemingly angelic and perfect Caro Allingham is revealed to be a far more complex character than either we or the other characters expect her to be. She suffers as much as Burt's father, Jon, does as his traditional working life begins to be challenged. However, while the character development is convincing and engrossing, it often appears sudden such as the conversion of Jon Middleton. Perhaps if the show was longer, such transitions would be smoother. Indeed, that I would like it to be longer shows how entranced I was by the community on screen, despite the downbeat tone of the production.

As critics of the show complained, there is a lot of suffering in The Village providing a tragic inevitability for much of the drama. But rather than predictable, it allows the tragedies to really pack a punch and bring the best out of the actors who fully embody their characters. Matt Stokoe as phenomenal as Gerard Eyre, a friendly teacher at Burt's school. It is predominately his performance that makes Episode 3 a standout as it examines the initial impact of the First World War and deals with Eyre struggling to cope with being condemned for being a conscientious objector. Indeed its treatment of the War is admirable, resisting portraying life at the front and presenting it only through its relationship to the village and its inhabitants, such as in the harrowing fifth episode where Nico Mirallegro as Joe Middleton gives a very unsettling and sympathetic portrayal of shell shock.

The Middleton family as a whole are incredibly fascinating with John Simm and Maxine Peake heading the family and manage to communicate the characters years of hard endurance through looks and posture. The child actors here also show great talent with Bill Jones as Young Burt Middleton making a fantastic lead character demonstrating as much complexities as the experienced actors around him.

The actors that I've picked may be personal favourites but the cast as a whole are phenomenal. They are very much an ensemble which helps to establish the community of the village. While it would be easy to try and reduce the characters to stereotypes, the characters defy these stereotypes and demonstrate much complexities. It is this degree of complexity that I believe has caused people to call the show uncomfortable and unpleasant. By no means is the show for everyone but if you're looking for complex drama which resists going for easy resolutions and safe straightforward plotlines, then this should be right up your street.

From what I've heard, the follow-up to this series will each deal with subsequent decades, so the next series will explore the 1920s. If they can create as much fantastic drama from that period as they have here, then I can't wait.

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