Sparkhouse

I finished watching Sparkhouse last night. I had to watch it in sections given restraints on my time. Initially, I found it very dark and quite depressing but after watching the complete series, I found it to be very moving and thought provoking. It has an ending that left me wanting to know more about what happened to the characters ... a little like North and South did. I admit that I have never read Wuthering Heights so I am unable to draw any parallels to the novel but I'm interested in finding the novel after watching this series.

I unearthed a number of articles about Sparkhouse thanks to a google search and Richard Armitage Online. (Thanks again, Annette!). It was released in 2002 and created for BBC1 by Red Production Company. The story, written by Sally Wainwright, follows the lives of two characters, Carol (Sarah Smart) and Andrew (Joe McFadden) who have been inseparable since they were 12 year olds. Andrew is an only child, the son of a doctor, Paul (Nick Farrell) and teacher, Kate (Celia Imrie), who have high expectations for him in terms of career and relationships. Carol, by contrast, comes from a disadvantaged, abusive background. Her father, Richard  Bolton (Alun Armstrong), is a heavy drinking, aggressive sheep farmer. As far as Andrew's parents are concerned, she will never be good enough for Andrew and they do everything in their power to prevent Andrew and Carol from being together. Eventually they marry different people but can never stop loving one another. The consequences are tragic. Richard Armitage plays the reliable and gentle John Standring, who works on the farm and who has been in love with Carol for years. He is what we would call out here, a "salt of the earth" type character - a good bloke. 

RA's performance as John Standring was very moving - I've now watched him as John Standring and as John Thornton and feel that he reached a pinnacle of excellence very early on. It's a pity he wasn't recognised more by a wider audience for these roles. I'm not sure the projects he has done recently (Lucas, Guy) can be compared with those past roles despite both being good performances.  I think the two Johns may have been his best work to date. I wonder if the third John (Strike Back) will allow him to extend himself further in terms of character portrayal? I feel the Lucas and Guy characters don't come close to the Johns in terms of interest and emotion although I think RA made the most of Guy out of a script that may have originally had him as a one dimensional baddie. I have high hopes of seeing a more developed Lucas North in the next series of Spooks but to date, the two Johns have both captivated me with their characters and enthralled me in terms of their emotional depth. Nice work RA! I hope we see a lot more performances like this from him.

The emotions Richard Armitage is able to evoke in his character of John Standring - a superb performance!

Some interesting links courtesy of Richard Armitage Online and also a google search:

1. Interview with sally wainwright  

2. Sally Wainwright: Heaven's Heathcliff's a girl  

3. BBC Drama Sparhouse page

4. Red Production Company  

5. The Full Bronte 

6. BBC Press pack.  Download

Following are two screencaps with the same actors - Holly Grainger as Lisa and Richard Armitage as John Standring

Seven years later, they act together again as Meg and Guy of Gisborne in Robin Hood Series 3.