Drama full of old pic-nick...
PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK
BBC2, 9.05pm CREEPY, mysterious and other-worldly, this gripping adaptation will hook you in from the start.
Words flash up on the screen: “On St Valentine’s Day 1900, four young women vanished from a picnic at Hanging Rock.
“The infamous events began when a mysterious widow purchased a mansion out in the Australian bush.”
Cut to the eerie outline of the imposing Hester Appleyard, played by Game of Thrones star Natalie Dormer, veiled and dressed head to toe in black.
The idea is to make us feel this is all a true story, but it’s based on a 1967 novel by Joan Lindsay, which was then made into a movie in 1975.
This six-parter takes us back to the 19th century as Hester pays in cash for the isolated mansion. An inner dialogue reveals she is not all she seems.
Six years later, the house is Appleyard College, a school for young ladies, with Hester the terrifying headmistress.
An incident early on with a pitchfork will reveal she is not to be messed with.
Dormer is captivating, but there’s strong support from the Appleyard ladies – Irma (Samara Weaving), a Rothschild heiress; Marion (Madeleine Madden), daughter of a High Court Justice; and rebellious tomboy Miranda (Lily Sullivan).
Eventually the plot builds to the fateful day of the picnic, and a mystery that is definitely weird but wonderful.