Pillars of the Earth

Note-There has since been at least one other episode of this that has been broadcast. I feel bad about my sporadic posting lately. School seems to have engulfed me the past couple of nights.

The Pillars of the Earth is a television adaptation of Ken Follet’s epic novel (and one I desperately want to read) of the same name. Set in the 1100’s in England, it is the story of many characters, from kings to builders, whose stories entwine in a time of huge political upheaval.

At the opening, a boat sinks which contains the last legitimate heir to the throne. The succession seems open, and with the king having only a bastard son and a daughter, it would seem that there would be huge political issues were the king to die. However, the church have their eye on Stephen (Tony Curran), the grandson of William the Conquerer as he would protect them. So upon the king’s somewhat suspicious death, despite him asking for his daughter Maud (Allison Pill) to be seen as ruler until her son comes of age, the church crown Stephen king.

Elsewhere William Hamleigh (David Oakes) is desperately pursuing Aliena (Hayley Atwell) to become his wife, yet Aliena has little time for marriage, and Hamleigh seems motivated more by his parents (Robert Bathurst & Sarah Parish) thirst for power.

Aliena’s rejection of Hamleigh leads to repercussions further down the social scale, as Tom Builder (Rufus Sewell) is fired from building the wedding house, as it is no longer required. This means that he and his family is forced to look for shelter in the harsh winter, stumbling across the woodland dwellers Ellen (Natalie Worner) and her son Jack (Eddie Redmayne).

Tom eventually finds his way, thanks to Ellen’s guidance, to a priory in desperate need of repair, governed by the new prior Phillip (Matthew McFayden), and offers his services in creating a new cathedral.

Reading all that back it looks as though Pillars of the Earth is an intensely confusing viewing experience. Yet whilst it has numerous characters, their entwined stories mean that the audience is rarely left not knowing who is who, although occasionally working out the character’s actual familial bonds to one another is somewhat confusing.

The series is hugely ambitious, with the first two episodes being the length of films in their own right. However, the performances save it from being in anyway dull. Sewell as Tom Builder is the heart of the story, desperate to protect his family and achieve his own artistic vision despite huge personal tragedy. Other stand-out performances come from Sarah Parish as the wonderfully evil and slightly incestuous Regan Hamleigh, a woman who quite clearly has a greater understanding of events than her husband and also from Ian McShane as Bishop (I think) Waleran, the epitome of the corrupt English church, a man who despite supposedly being pious is incredibly Machiavellian in his actions. I'I think a special mention should also go to Alison Pill, who plays Maud brilliantly; you would never expect that she is an American actress. Her English accent is faultless, there is none of the over-the-top enunciation favoured by other American actors.

There are also some very powerful moments in these first episodes. The show doesn't flinch from the barbarity of war-showing not just the death of men in battle, but also the sexual punishment of women that was rife in such situations. Nor does it flinch from the crowd-sport that was public executions. On the other end of the scale, the 'miracle' at the quarry led by Prior Phillip against William Hamleigh had to be one of the most moving moments on television I've seen, and I'm not particuarly religious (although this also shows the importance of religion in the early years of England)

After only two episodes it is difficult to really say conclusively what I think will happen. There is evidently some history between Waleran and Ellen, and there is the tentative start of a love triangle between a now destitute Aliena, Jack and Tom Builder’s (horrible) son Alfred (Liam Garrigan). The end of episode two paves the way for yet more uncertainty in society, and whilst I couldn’t resist searching the internet for what happened next historically, the impact of this move on the characters in Pillars will no doubt be huge.