From TVTonight.com.au – 23rd August, 2011

By David Knox

Next month UKTV will premiere the BBC miniseries The Crimson Petal and the White, based on Michel Faber’s international best selling novel.

In this 4 part series the streets of London in the 1870s are anything but a safe place. It was adapted by playwright and screenwriter Lucinda Coxon and directed by Marc Munden.

The series received mixed reviews, but was noted for being provocative, bold and experimental.

This provocative and riveting four-part drama tells the story of Sugar (Romola Garai), an alluring, intelligent young prostitute who yearns for a better life away from the brothel she is attached to, run by the contemptible Mrs Castaway (Gillian Anderson).

Highly sought after and sexually adept “she never disappoints”, Sugar yearns for a better life and craves the freedom to make a living using her brain rather than her body. When not at work, Sugar pens a dark, gothic novel in which a prostitute enacts revenge on all the men who wronged her – a theme that has threatened to seep into reality.

However, things change for her when she meets wealthy businessman and reluctant heir to a perfume business, William Rackham (Chris O’Dowd). Sugar is a thrilling antidote to William’s life, saddled with a pious brother, Henry Rackham (Mark Gatiss) and fragile wife Agnes (Amanda Hale). Agnes regularly endures visits from the invasive physician Doctor Curlew (Richard E. Grant), leaving her unable to perform her wifely duties.

William ensconces Sugar as his mistress and she soon grows accustomed to her new life. Yet unbeknown to William, Sugar begins to hatch a plan which sets a series of events in motion that will change their lives forever…

“What distinguishes this intimate psychological thriller from other period dramas on television today is that it really delivers a Victorian-era experience with a contemporary storytelling approach. There is a wonderful dichotomy between the characters bound by order and duty, and those who inhabit the darker side of London, a place seething with vitality, sexuality, ambition and emotion,” said Deirdre Brennan, Director of Television, BBC Worldwide Australia.

“Period drama and mystery are two genres which galvanise the UKTV audience. I know they’ll enjoy this superb literary adaptation,” concluded Brennan.

UKTV Thursday September 1 at 9:30pm.