Condensing Howards
End into four episodes must have been a challenge for the writer (Kenneth
Lonergan), but as we reached the penultimate episode it was all coming together
nicely. He has all his plates spinning and he’s keeping them balanced, just as
a novelist would be in the large central section of a book. The idea was to
concentrate on the Schlegel sisters and the men in their lives and this does
allow a wider look at other main themes.
The opening scene was a bit stagey and heavy-handed in
showing Margaret Schlegel displaying her interest in the latest car being
driven by the Wilcox chauffeur. It served to indicate her feminism, contrasting
with the older Wilcox and his old-fashioned view of the roles of men and women,
but there is little to reinforce the idea of Margaret as a New Woman apart from
this and her decision to take the initiative in giving a passionate kiss later.
I am left with the feeling that the Margaret in the novel might be more
complex, interesting and likeable than the one in this series.
After the initial car scene the acting and dialogue
became more believable, with a convincing marriage proposal that takes place
without either person saying it explicitly and both cutting the other’s
sentences short and saying they understood. Wilcox became more likeable than
before in his modest expectation of rejection and offer to help with housing
nonetheless. Margaret’s motives are hard to fathom, especially when she makes
it clear to Wilcox that she agrees he should pass his money to his sons and
daughters.
It’s hard to see what has drawn her to him and it seems
like a genuine attraction, even if his attempt at a kiss is initially looks unwelcome.
The Margaret who worried about her sister Helen being led on and abandoned by
Wilcox’s son in the first episode, seemingly at his father’s request, has
vanished. She has no time for Helen’s objections even if we are suddenly
reminded by Helen’s own memories that Wilcox is the stuffy and cold
authoritarian who hid behind his newspaper to make her feel unwelcome in his
home.
Wilcox had been winning us over with his humble proposal
in this episode and his willingness to ‘enjoy’ a meal at the protein café at
Margaret’s invitation, despite others saying the reformed food is vile.
However, we soon see his other side when he just expects Margaret to do as he
says. He is inconsiderate about her Aunt Juley’s need of her company on a
seaside break and takes her away, speaking over her objections. He also tells
her which of his houses she will live in with him without consulting her, only
letting her know when she asks.
Margaret’s first view of the empty Howards End is a
striking moment. It’s almost derelict without the family there and she seems to
fall in love, which many viewers will understand and identify with. In this
episode we discover that Howards End is not the only or the main property
Wilcox owns and he doesn’t want to live in it. This makes it unacceptable that
he ignored his wife’s dying wish to leave it to Margaret (I would still have
liked to see more of their short but deep friendship).
Worst of all he has no conscience when he hears his
advice has led to Leonard Bast giving up a safe job as a bank clerk and taking
on a lower paid job. He doesn’t even remember Bast or that he said the bank was
going to have serious financial difficulty. The bank is in no trouble at all,
but Bast’s new employer lays him off, leaving him struggling with serious
poverty and his live-in partner Jackie ill and malnourished. When he is
unwilling to ask the Schlegel sisters for charity, Jackie calls on Margaret to
ask for help.
Helen’s response is as immature and tactless as her behaviour
in earlier episodes, making us cringe as she drags Bast and Jackie on a train
to confront Wilcox at his daughter’s wedding to insist he takes responsibility
for his incorrect advice. When Margaret sees them at the wedding marquee she
seems to have turned into an echo of Wilcox, shocking Helen by insisting they
should leave. However, she offers to speak to Wilcox in a more conventional way
to ask him to find Bast a new job.
Wilcox comes good with an offer to please Margaret, even
though he believes Bast’s problems are all of his own making. The bringing
together of Bast, Jackie and Wilcox leads to a revelation about Wilcox’s past
and I’ll be interested to see in the final episode if Margaret will accept it
with so-called Bloomsbury open-mindedness about polyamory or if it’s just a new
way of turning a blind eye to the patriarchal behaviour of men like Wilcox.
Bast remains the most interesting character to me, and
the subtlety of Joseph Quinn’s acting works superbly in this role. So much has
to be suggested by looks, body language and few words: his despair at his
poverty and loss of work; his feeling of failure at not looking after Jackie;
his humiliation at being pressurised to ask for charity and his polite way of
understating it in his letter so that Margaret would have to be an expert at
reading between the lines to know how much trouble he’s in. The moment he sees
Margaret in his home we feel the shock and humiliation with him and we cringe
with him on the train he would certainly never have got onto with Helen without
Jackie going along with the plan.
When Margaret asks him to leave and says Helen has misled
him in expecting Wilcox to help, Bast is only too eager to apologise and go,
but Margaret is charitable enough to put him up in a local hotel where Jackie
soon falls asleep and he’s left alone with Helen. This moment feels as if it
has been inevitable since his first awareness of her sitting beside him at the
classical music concert. Helen finally listens to him, rather than treating him
to her philanthropy. In few words he tells of his working class family cutting
him off because of his relationship and we find out the back story that has
left him in his trapped situation. But he does care for Jackie and when Helen
says they can’t have anything in common it’s a poignant moment when he answers,
‘We have companionship in common.’ His acceptance of Jackie with her past, and
his greater compassion for her because of it, marks him out as the most
appealing and ethical character.
Despite her immature behaviour and tactlessness, Helen
has also become more likeable because her motives are laudable. She has also
started to see Bast as an equal. It’s a significant moment and Joseph Quinn
somehow charges the atmosphere with a type of charisma I admire and don’t quite
understand in an actor. How exactly does he do it with so few words and
restrained body language? When he crosses the room to help Helen close the
window, standing close and reaching across her to do it, there’s more erotic
tension than in an explicit scene. He has quickly established himself as an
actor I would watch a television series to see.
All three first episodes are on BBC iPlayer for a while
and they’re well worth seeing, and the fourth will join them after it’s aired
this evening.
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