Follow the hardships and survival of plantation slave July and her odious mistress Caroline during the final days of slavery in 19th century Jamaica. Based on the novel by Andrea Levy.
The Long Song Disrupts PBS Masterpiece s Typical Slate By Putting Black Characters First: TV Review
Caroline Framke, provided by
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Courtesy of BBC/Carlos Rodriguez
“The Long Song” knows what an audience might expect from a period drama airing on the BBC, as it did in the UK in 2018, or under the PBS Masterpiece banner, as it will in the US starting on January 31. The camera, helmed with a steady hand by director Mahalia Belo, pans across still life scenes of porcelain curios and rumpled silks in a manse surrounded by gently swaying palm trees. “The life of a white missus on a Jamaican plantation,” a narrator (Doña Croll) intones, “be surely full of tribulation from the scarcity of beef to the want of a fashionable hat.” Within seconds, the piercing screech of that “white missus” shatters the idyllic scene, and the acidic streak of sarcasm laden in the narrator’s words comes more clearly into focus. “If that be the story you want to hea
Tamara Lawrance stars as an indomitable house slave in Jamaica during the era of emancipation, with Hayley Atwell as her demanding, capricious mistress, in “The Long Song,” a miniseries in three parts beginning Sunday, Jan. 31, 2021, on WGCU PBS.
Based on the award-winning novel by Andrea Levy, the miniseries airs through February 14, 2021, at 10 pm.
The British press applauded the UK broadcast of “The Long Song,” with The
Guardian calling it “a beautiful, moving, horrifying adaptation of Levy’s
unsimple tale, that honors the source and its subject.” The Radio Times
judged it “so finely-tuned and carefully-balanced that it’ll break your heart
based on the bestselling novel by Andrea Levy
on MASTERPIECE
Sundays, January 31 – February 14, 2021 on PBS
Tamara Lawrance (King Charles III) stars as an indomitable house slave in Jamaica during the era of emancipation, with Hayley Atwell
(The Avengers) as her demanding, capricious mistress, in
The Long Song. Based on the award-winning novel by Andrea Levy, the miniseries airs in three parts on MASTERPIECE, Sundays, January 31 – February 14, 2021 at 10 pm on PBS.
Shown from left to right: July (TAMARA LAWRANCE), Nimrod (JORDAN BOLGER)
(C) Heyday Television – Photographer: Carlos Rodriguez
The British press applauded the UK broadcast of
The Long Song, with The Guardian calling it “a beautiful, moving, horrifying adaptation of Levy’s unsimple tale, that honors the source and its subject.” The Radio Times judged it “so finely-tuned and carefully-balanced that it’ll break your heart and make you laugh at the same time.” And The Times opined, “What can a