PERIOD & MORE PERIOD: REIGN, JAMAICA INN AND NEW WORLDS

Reign: when history becomes a fairy-tale

This series recently wrapped at its 22nd episode after being on US CW Network for months . Though far from being historically accurate, Reign kept faith to the gist of the true history of Queen Mary Stuart and her life at the French court,  as the betrothed of Prince Francis, Dauphin of France. The two royals  were actually married for one year, until he died very young of an infection.

It is a smart series that winkles at teenage  and young audiences with   captivating photography, a somewhat-anachronistic soundtrack, doll-faced actors and actresses, intriguing love stories and a bit of sex, supernatural events and magic, wicked villains and gorgeous costumes. I am definitely not intended demographic, but I liked it,  anyhow. Well acted and well written, the show caught me at first sight.

MASTERS, WORKERS AND SLAVES - THE MILL, TV SERIES & DVD

The Mill was unfortunately broadcast on Sundays,  while BBC1 The White Queen had been off to a good start  for a few weeks. The scheduling  was unfair, and probably unfruitful,  for Channel 4. Watchers like me, fond of period drama and longing to see both, had to choose. But it was not a huge problem: I saw The White Queen live and recorded The Mill.  I could catch up,  I saw the 4-episode series and it was worth it.

Set in a cotton mill in Cheshire in 1833, The Mill is a very interesting,  original drama based on the real lives of humble young people who lived and worked in that area when the political unrest to obtain more rights for workers was rising.

The idea of using the historical archives of the Quarry Bank Mill in Cheshire to tell the story of a social turning point, when workers and activists began to rebel against the use of unpaid child apprentices forced to work 12-hour shifts in dangerous conditions makes this series really realistic and unique.

The series offers a very realistic picture of the working class in the Victorian Age, something I only saw in one other period drama before, BBC North and South (1994) based on Elizabeth Gaskell's novel (1855). The Mill has been defined the anti-Downton Abbey, and it actually is a completely different attempt to period drama.