A Passionate Women comes from Kay Mellor, so I expected it to be good. I’m glad to say I wasn’t disappointed. It is a well written piece of drama and wonderful to see stories about women’s lives on TV. Something we don’t necessarily see enough off. It’s a sprawling, engaging piece of drama.
The series boasts a strong cast, with Billie Piper putting in another brilliant performance, Theo James also gives a great performance as ‘Craze’, the Polish womaniser who Pipers character has an affair with. James did this show before his star turn in Downton Abbey. He is a star in the making. A Passionate Women is a great piece of drama that gets you thinking. Set in the 50s and 80s, it has beautiful cultural reference points and a wonderful ending that pays off. Your mother will love it and I reckon you will too. I particularly liked the moral tail of the story, it opens up the debate on infidelity and it’s long-reaching consequences.
The mini-series charts two stories in two feature-length episodes – the first focusing on a mother’s affair in the 1950s while the second is set in the 1980s and looks at the consequences of that affair 30 years on. Set in Leeds in the 1950s Cold War period, Billie Piper stars as Betty, a young wife and mother who reluctantly falls passionately and hopelessly in love with her charismatic Polish neighbour. But little does Betty know that some 30 years later, in 1980s Britain, her affair will implode on her beloved son Mark’s wedding day…
Sue Johnston plays the older Betty in the 1980s, while Andrew Lee Potts, Frances Barber, Theo James, Rachel Lesokovac, Alun Armstrong and his real-life son, Joe Armstrong, also star.
Kay Mellor OBE, one of Britain’s leading TV writers, has penned numerous hit dramas including The Chase, Fat Friends, Playing The Field and the seminal Band Of Gold. A Passionate Woman is based on the real-life affair of the writer’s own mother, and is a very personal look at the changing role of women over the last 50 years, making it an ideal Mother’s Day gift.
The DVD of A Passionate Woman will be released on 27 February 2012 by High Point Home Entertainment through HMV and other retailers and is soon to be available on Amazon and Play for Pre-ordering A Passionate Women