The family saga about love, wealth and scandal is complete with renowned acting and lavish costumes.
ITV’s much-lauded The Forsyte Saga(Image: ITV)
Newcomers to Channel 5’s period drama The Forsytes might be unfamiliar with its beloved predecessor, The Forsyte Saga. Despite two decades having elapsed since it first aired, period drama fans still heap praise upon this sweeping multi-generational tale of an affluent family.
The latest programme acts as a prequel and “reimagining” of the Nobel Prize-winning novels written by John Galsworthy. The Forsyte Saga, a 10-part ITV miniseries, follows the scandals spanning three generations of a socially ambitious family from the 1870s through to the 1920s.
Central to the narrative is Damien Lewis’s character, who delivers a “constant marvel” of a performance as Soames Forsyte, the family’s unlikeable yet complex patriarch.
Soames is an affluent solicitor consumed by property and riches. His pursuit of Irene Heron (Gina McKee), a beautiful woman living in genteel poverty, is spurned at first, despite his wealth.
The sumptuous period drama begins in the Victorian period(Image: ITV)
The pair ultimately wed, but it becomes evident that money cannot buy love. Their unhappy marriage — and its consequences — establish the backbone of this multi-generational saga about a family fixated on riches and social standing, reports the Express.
Spanning roughly half a century from Victorian times through to the end of the First World War, The Forsyte Saga is renowned for its social commentary of a changing British society at the turn of the 20th century.
“It’s still one of my favorites,” one devoted viewer remarked, more than two decades since it first aired. “It’s such a perfect period drama for me. It made me love so many of these actors as it’s where I first saw them.”
Irene (Gina McKee) and Bosinney (Ioan Gruffudd)(Image: Granada Television)
“It is testimony to Lewis’ extraordinary skill that his is the character we loathe at the outset of The Forsyte Saga and in whom we become most interested by the end,” one critic praised.
Describing the programme as “a family treasure”, People Magazine wrote: “Lewis’s performance, though, is a constant marvel. The actor makes Soames’s emotional repression so palpable that it’s hard to hate him even at his most heartless. When his humanity finally breaks through, you’ll feel a surge of hope.”
The Forsyte Saga(Image: ITV)
Before the latest version hit screens, one enthusiast commented: “The 2002/3 series was phenomenal. It has a lot to live up to. A good binge watch for you!”
The novels were first adapted by the BBC during the 1960s. That 26-episode production, broadcast in black and white, became a worldwide hit. ITV’s two-series adaptation arrived 35 years afterwards, and now the family chronicle has been brought back to life once more for television audiences.
The first of six episodes of The Forsytes aired on Channel 5 on October 20. The ensemble cast includes Poldark’s Eleanor Tomlinson portraying a new character created for the series — a lost love whose appearance rocks the family.
Doctor Who’s Millie Gibson stars in the latest reimagining of The Forsyte Saga(Image: 5 and MASTERPIECE)
“The Forsytes chronicles the lives, loves, trials and triumphs of a wealthy Victorian era stockbroking family, whose generations find themselves torn between tradition and self-sacrifice versus personal happiness and the pursuit of love,” the show description reads. “Inspired by John Galsworthy’s celebrated Forsyte Saga novels, The Forsytes portrays events that take place before those covered in Galsworthy’s books.”
The Forsyte Saga can be viewed on ITVX. New episodes of The Forsytes continue to air on Channel 5 every Monday at 9pm.
Soames (Joshua Orpin) and Irene (Millie Gibson) in The Forsytes(Image: PBS/Masterpiece)Soames and Irene’s unhappy union is the foundation of The Forsyte Saga(Image: Granada TV)
