If you love British period dramas
by ballybeg
Catherine Cookson, born poor to a young, single mother in 1906, didn’t set pen to paper until she was 44 years old. When she did, a steady stream of stories flowed from her, all set in her native county Durham, in the far north of England, and all featuring the struggles and hopes of young working class women trying to survive in the Victorian and Edwardian eras, through to the uncertain time of WWI. (one is set during WWII)
She was especially class conscious: at a time in England when each class was in its own track and changing lanes was barely possible, it was hard not to be. Still, her stories were prescient about the winds of change which would blow through England after WWI and rearrange the possibilities for classes to rise, mingle and even inter-marry. Many of her stories seem patterned after her own life, for she did rise from a washerwomen to be the famed and beloved authoress of over 100 books.
Tyne Tees Studios took 18 of those stories and adapted them to a television series which aired in England in the 1990s. We own 17, and my favorite is whichever one I am watching at the time.
Here is a list by production date, but it doesn’t matter the order you watch them – each stands alone. They are all a delight: the wild beauty of the north country settings; the lovely, lilting north country accents; the marvelous acting by many familiar British actors and actresses; and the rousing life stories of north country heroines. For quintessential Cookson try The Wingless Bird or The Tide of Life.
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