Philippa is sprinkled with stardust as Howards End gets the TV treatment
AUSTRALIAN actress Philippa Coulthard has won a starmaking role in a new television version of the E.M. Forster novel Howards End. The 24-year-old from Brisbane will play Helen, the youngest of the idealistic Schlegel sisters, in the four-part adaption of Forster’s 1910 novel.
Hayley Atwell has signed on for the part of Margaret Schlegel, Helen’s more level-headed older sister.
It’s a whopper of a TV drama — not least because the screenplay is by Kenneth Lonergan, who won a Bafta on Sunday for the original script for the film Manchester By The Sea. The movie masterpiece, starring Casey Affleck, is also up for six Oscars, with Lonergan in contention for original screenplay and direction.
Hettie Macdonald will direct Howards End — another indication of its pedigree. I remember seeing her fine film of Jonathan Harvey’s play Beautiful Thing back in 1996. More recently, she made the TV film White Girl, and episodes of Doctor Who and Fortitude.
Coulthard has appeared in Aussiemade programme Lightning Point and a distant Doctor Who spin-off called K9. But Howards End is the real deal for her. Helena Bonham Carter played the Helen role in the 1992 picture (opposite Emma Thompson as Margaret, a performance that won the best actress Academy Award). Bonham Carter beautifully captured the spirit of the headstrong young woman who blunders across class lines with little understanding of the damage she is doing. The Schlegel sisters, who are into art and helping those less fortunate than themselves, meet up with the Wilcoxes, headed by industrialist Henry: a man proud of his obtuseness.
His saving grace is his delightful but frail wife Ruth (Vanessa Redgrave in the film). Julia Ormond, who was in Mad Men, signed a deal on Wednesday to play Mrs Wilcox. Matthew Macfadyen will play her husband.
Colin Callender, who’s producing the mini-series with the BBC and American digital channel Starz, told me Lonergan’s adaptation will resonate with today’s audience.
‘The world was dealing with change and social mobility. The scripts are fresh, witty and have a great contemporary tone, yet they’re respectful of Forster’s novel.’
Callender noted that the four-hour TV version would be able to fit in a lot more of the book than the MerchantIvory film was able to.
Other casting includes Joseph Quinn in the pivotal part of Leonard Bast; fast-rising Rosalind Eleazar as Jacky, Bast’s wife who has been shamelessly treated by men in high places. (Eleazar was in NW, the series based on Zadie Smith’s novel, and the superb C4 drama National Treasure.) Alex Lawther, who was in The Imitation Game, plays another Schlegel sibling Tibby; while Tracey Ullman is their Aunt Juley. Filming begins later this month in and around London.
The biggest casting job was finding a fitting house to represent Howards End.
A suitable country property has been found in Surrey — but its exact location is being withheld for now.