Jane Eyre (Sorcha Cusack)

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Back when I was a teenager, my class at school studied the classic book ‘Jane Eyre' in English Literature. There was a new BBC mini-series broadcast at the same time, based on the book, starring Sorcha Cusack and Michael Jayston. I watched it avidly and developed quite a crush on Michael Jayston. I hoped, for years afterwards, that it would be repeated.

So I was extremely pleased when I discovered, back in 2006, that this series had been published on DVD. I watched it in 2007 with my husband and teenage son, one episode at a time, and we all liked it very much. My husband had not read the book, although he had at some point seen a different adaptation. My son, like me, had read and enjoyed the book, and we all thought this version excellent.

I don’t re-watch DVDs very often, preferring a gap of at least eight or nine years between viewings, and this is a long adaptation. There are five episodes of nearly an hour each. But after thirteen years it seemed like a good idea to see it again. So my husband and I re-watched it over four evenings in the past two weeks.

The first episode is a bit slow-moving. We meet Jane at the age of ten, excellently played by Juliet Waley. She lives with her cruel aunt and spiteful cousins, and is treated worse than a servant. She is constantly reminded of her aunt’s ‘charity’ in taking her in, and is struck and bullied badly by her cousins - who can do no wrong in their mother’s eyes.

Jane is not a docile child, and she fights against her tormentors, earning herself some quite cruel punishments. Eventually she’s sent away to school, where she even has to stay for holidays. And even though it’s an extremely unpleasant school for orphans, run by the selfish Mr Brocklehurst, where Jane is often hungry and cold, she prefers it to her previous life. It’s a sad and insightful picture of the horrors of some institutions in this era. But eventually it is given to kinder managers, and Jane grows up to become an assistant teacher, and then applies for - and gets - a job as governess to a young French girl.

The second and subsequent episodes are mainly based at Thornfield Hall, where Jane endears herself to the other household staff, and becomes very attached to the master of the house, Edward Rochester. He is unpredictable, often rude and abrupt, but there’s a chemistry between the two which works extremely well. There’s even some humour now and again, albeit quite low key.

Thornfield Hall has its dark secret, one that is quite well-known, but which was a huge shock to me the first time I read the book. Jane is convinced that one of the servants is rather dangerous and somewhat unhinged; there is a nasty scene when a visitor is attacked, and one in the fourth episode where, even knowing what was coming, I hid my hands.

We watched the fourth and fifth episodes together. The end of the fourth was quite a cliff-hanger, and even though I knew what was coming I wanted to see the end by that stage. And it’s all very well done. The BBC was always excellent at making period dramas. The costumes are authentic, the house realistic, and the conversation is mostly taken straight from the book.

There isn’t a huge cast, but they are all fully believable in their roles. To me, Sorcha Cusack is Jane Eyre. Michael Jayston in the role is exactly how Mr Rochester should look. And Megs Jenkins as Mrs Fairfax is delightful, with some wonderful facial expressions that communicate her thoughts perfectly.

There are other film adaptations of this classic novel, though as far as I know I’ve only seen one of them. It’s hard to imagine anything coming as close to the original as this mini-series, however. So much would have to be cut out for a two-hour film version.

Definitely recommended if you like films to stay close to the books from which they’re taken.

Review copyright 2020 Sue's DVD Reviews