A SLAVE NO MORE
‘The Long Song’ explores the history of slavery in Jamaica
Looking back on her life, July (Doña Croll, “EastEnders”) reflects on her experience as a slave on a sugar cane plantation during the final days of slavery in Jamaica in Masterpiece’s “The Long Song” on PBS.
With so many people stuck at home these days, television can be a welcome distraction, featuring shows that make us laugh or cry or both. Some TV programs go beyond mere entertainment to educate and inspire, and one such miniseries is headed to prime time thanks to PBS.
A woman recounts her life as a slave on a sugar cane plantation in early 19th-century colonial Jamaica in Masterpiece’s “The Long Song,” premiering Sunday, Jan. 31, on PBS. Based on the novel of the same name by Andrea Levy, the three-part miniseries stars Tamara Lawrance (“King Charles III,” 2017) as young slave July and Hayley Atwell (“Agent Carter”) as her abusive mistress, Caroline Mortimer, the sister of the plantation’s owner.
Doña Croll (“EastEnders”) portrays the older version of July, effectively serving as the program’s narrator as she writes her memoir about her transition from slave to free woman around the time of the Christmas Rebellion of 1831, a slave uprising that marked the beginning of the end of slavery in Jamaica. July recalls how she was ripped away from her mother, Kitty (Sharon Duncan-Brewster, “Bad Girls”), as a child to train as a lady’s maid for Caroline.
“The Long Song” has already captivated U.K. audiences as the miniseries aired on BBC in December 2018 and received rave reviews. The novel was adapted for the small screen by Sarah Williams (“Wallis & Edward”), who also adapted Levy’s “Small Island” into an Emmywinning miniseries in 2009.
The late Levy, who died in 2019 after battling breast cancer for more than a decade, was taken with Lawrance from the get-go, as she explained in an interview posted on the BBC’s website.
“The first time I saw Tamara Lawrance’s face, I said, ‘Yes, her. She’s July. That was it,’” Levy said. “And then I saw her audition tapes, and I said, ‘Yes, yes, yes, that’s July moving. That’s her. You’ve got her.’”
Young British actress Lawrance is best known for her role as Prince Harry’s republican girlfriend in the 2017 TV movie “King Charles III.” Her other credits include television’s “Undercover” and “No Offence,” as well as the horror film “Kindred” (2020).
Levy was likewise impressed with the production as a whole, saying in the same interview: “I have to say that every time I have seen anything visually come from the shooting that has been done, when I first started, I would just cry — always — because there is something incredibly emotional about seeing characters come to life in front of your eyes.”
For her part, Atwell has been praised for her ability to bring the hateful Caroline to life. In a December 2018 review of the miniseries, The Guardian’s Lucy Mangan described the actress’s take on the character as “a pitch-perfect performance from Hayley Atwell, who takes her right up to the line of real monstrousness without crossing into caricature.”
Most North American viewers probably recognize Atwell as a much more favourable character. She is well known as Agent Peggy Carter from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, having appeared as the heroine in the feature films “Captain America: The First Avenger” (2011), “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” (2014), “Avengers: Age of Ultron” (2015), “Ant-Man” (2015) and “Avengers: Endgame” (2019). She also played Carter in the ABC TV series “Agent Carter” from 2015 to 2016. Her other credits include the miniseries “The Pillars of the Earth” and the films “Cinderella” (2015) and “Christopher Robin” (2018).
Jamaican-born Croll is best known to TV fans across the pond for her roles as Emerald Fox in “EastEnders,” Pearl McHugh in “Family Affairs” and Vera Corrigan in “Doctors.” She’s also a renowned stage actress and notably played the first-ever Black Cleopatra on the British stage in a 1991 production of Shakespeare’s “Antony and Cleopatra.”
Duncan-Brewster’s Kitty is a field slave who remains strong even after her daughter is taken from her. English actress Duncan-Brewster starred as Crystal Gordon in ITV’s “Bad Girls” and is also known for her roles as Trina Johnson in “EastEnders,” Sen. Palmo in “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” (2016) and Maggie Cain in a 2009 “Doctor Who” special.