Forbidden love, part 2
After playing shop girl who won her boss’s heart, Paradise star Joanna lands steamy Julie Christie role in The Go-Between
IN THE hit BBC drama The Paradise, she played plucky Denise Lovett, the Victorian shop girl who defied convention and fell headover-heels in love with her boss.
Now, Joanna Vanderham has landed the starring role in an even more celebrated costume drama featuring illicit love across the class divide.
The 22-year-old is to follow in the footsteps of Julie Christie and play manipulative society beauty Marian Maudsley in a new BBC adaptation of L. P. Hartley’s classic novel The Go-Between.
Published in 1953, The Go-Between’s story of lost innocence starts with the iconic line: ‘The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.’
In the steamy summer of 1900, 13-year-old Leo Colston falls under Marian’s spell when he stays at her Norfolk home. The besotted teenager agrees to act as a go-between and deliver love messages between her and tenant farmer Ted Burgess.
At first, Leo has no idea of the nature of Marian’s relationship with working-class Burgess – he is convinced she is in love with Viscount Trimingham, whom she will soon be engaged to marry. But when his role as messenger is discovered, there are disastrous consequences.
The 1970 film starred a 30-year-old Christie alongside Alan Bates as Burgess and Dominic Guard as the young Leo. It is considered one of the best British films of all time, and Joanna’s performance is bound to draw comparisons with Christie’s.
Joanna said: ‘I am so excited to have been asked to play Marian Maudsley. I hope to bring the spirit of L.P. Hartley’s iconic and wonderful story to life on screen.’
The cast of the new 90-minute drama, which has been adapted by Musketeers writer Adrian Hodges, will also include Shameless star Ben Batt as Burgess, Jack Hollington as Leo, Stephen Campbell Moore as Trimingham and Lesley Manville as Marian’s mother.
Last night Ben Stephenson, controller of BBC drama, said: ‘The Go-Between is a compelling story of class, sex and innocence, which this terrific cast will capture in all of its subtlety and power.’ The adaptation is one of four new BBC films celebrating landmarks of English literature. The others will be Laurie Lee’s Cider With Rosie, D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover and J.B. Priestley’s An Inspector Calls. The Go-Between will be screened next year.