A sublime, gritty mystery
Claire Danes and Tom Hiddleston are the heart and soul of this intriguing drama, writes James Croot.
Returning to the spotlight for the first time since her awardwinning eight season run as troubled CIA Agent Carrie Mathison on Homeland, Claire Danes is at the top of her game in a new Victorian-era period drama.
Based on Sarah Perry’s critically acclaimed 2016 novel of the same name, in the sixpart The Essex Serpent (now streaming on Apple TV+) the triple Emmy winner plays Cora Seaborne.
Widowed after her husband stubbornly refuses the surgery that might have saved his life, her very public lack of tears is a reflection of the scars she brandishes elsewhere from the worst parts of their relationship.
Striking up a camaraderie with young cutting-edge surgeon Luke Garrett (Frank Dillane), she admits to having been shut away for too long and delighted to be free now to make new friends. To his dismay though, her passion appears not to be for him, but rather for natural history.
A newspaper article about the sighting of a monstrous serpent in Blackwater Estuary near Colchester arouses her interest, even more than Garrett’s ‘‘odd present’’ of a slice of human heart.
‘‘You’re grieving,’’ he says, trying to dissuade her from leaving London.
‘‘I can do what I want now that he’s dead,’’ she retorts.
Once in the countryside, Cora is eager for an onsite visit. But an encounter with a muddied local, wrestling with a stuck sheep in the bog leaves her vexed. He appears to know why she is there. ‘‘You’ve heard the rumours – and you’re going to have a look,’’ he snarks. ‘‘There’s nothing to see – go home.’’
To make matters worse, Cora is also advised to take tea with local clergyman Will Ransome (Tom Hiddleston) and his family to better understand the lay of the land.
‘‘He’ll just make me say grace,’’ she says, convinced that meeting a boring vicar will be of no benefit. However, the Ransome household are equally sceptical about greeting their guest.
‘‘She’ll be old and wrinkled and bore us all with the latest society talk,’’ Will warns his children. But when the pair finally lock eyes, neither finds the other is what they expected, and discover they’ve met before, earlier that day, in the middle of an estuary.
As he tries to explain away ‘‘the myth of the serpent’’ as ‘‘a symptom of the times we live in – great change brings real fears’’, she returns serve with ‘‘I’d rather believe in a creature people have actually seen than an invisible God’’.
That is when Will admits that the continued disappearance of young Gracie Banks, alleged to have been taken by the serpent, has troubled him. ‘‘But, if I were to let in any doubt, how would I look after my flock?’’
After a terrific trio of evocative features – The Selfish Giant, Dark Water and Ali & Ava – that showcase a fabulous sense of space and place, as well as complicated human interactions, director Clio Barnard’s television series debut is a stunning piece of work that draws you in with its provocative premise, sumptuous costuming and production design and promise of an intriguing mystery.
As well as the misty, boggy backdrop, the tense atmosphere is beautifully realised by Dustin O’Halloran and Herdis Stefansdottir’s haunting score.
But, of course, the heart and soul of Serpent are the performances. Aided by a terrific supporting ensemble that also includes Hayley Squires and Clemence Poesy, Hiddleston and Danes are just magnificent, apart and together, as their clash of ideologies sparks more than just friction between them.
Gritty, pithy, compelling drama that’s one of the most accomplished and engrossing shows of the year so far.
The Essex Serpent is now streaming on Apple TV+.