Andrew Davies

A late-'30s-era London governess hired to work in the home of a high-profile nightclub chanteuse gets a taste of the good life when she is assigned the task of sorting out the singer's many unseemly affairs in a period comedy starring Frances McDormand and adapted from the novel by Winifred Watson. Unfairly and unceremoniously dismissed from her latest position without so much as a penny of severance pay, Miss Guinevere Pettigrew (McDormand) realizes that in order to stay financially afloat she'll need to find a new job fast. Though she has worn out her welcome at the unemployment office due to her propensity to loose jobs, she's determined to seize the day and keep an open mind. Before she's booted from the office, she takes note of a job opening that is a little outside of her experience, but decides to pursue it, pretending she is the prospective employee the office was planning to recommend. Becoming a "social secretary" may not be exactly what Miss Pettigrew had in mind when the time came to seek out a new job, yet she hopes that her enthusiasm will offset her inexperience and throws caution to the wind.

Upon arriving at the penthouse of up-and-coming American entertainer Delysia Lafosse (Amy Adams), the unassuming Miss Pettigrew becomes instantly swept up in the high-society milieu. But serving as social secretary to one of the busiest women in the city is no easy task, and before the day is over, Miss Pettigrew and her new charge will both learn a thing or two about life and love. Now, as Miss Pettigrew helps Delysia make informed career decisions and choose between one of three potential suitors, her own attraction to a handsome clothing designer named Joe (Ciarán Hands) could prove her undoing. Joe's current fiancée, Edythe (Shirley Henderson), is an insolent fashion maven with little patience for those she deems incompetent or unworthy of the spotlight, and she currently has her targets locked onto a certain social secretary who doesn't yet grasp the complex social mechanisms of the high-society lifestyle. Simon Beaufoy and David Magee co-author a screenplay directed by Bharat Nalluri. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Hattie Morahan, Charity Wakefield, and Dominic Cooper star in screenwriter Andrew Davies' adaptation of the classic Jane Austen tale of love and class conflict. Marianne Dashwood (Wakefield) has fallen deeply in love with John Willoughby (Cooper), yet despite their feelings for one another the wealthy Willoughby is considered an improper suitor for the financially destitute girl. Marianne's sister Elinor (Morahan)'s pleads with her sibling to end the romance or risk becoming the subject of gossip in their chatty social circle, all the while struggling to suppress her own romantic disappointment. So how does one find happiness in a society where the rules are set according to status and money? Perhaps a winning mix of sense and sensibility is the key to striking a harmonious balance, and living a life without regrets.
~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A precocious Edwardian girl suffocating from the social norms is forced to choose between following her heart and obliging her family's wishes after falling for a handsome but unsuitable stranger during a trip to Italy. Based on author E.M. Forster's tale of forbidden love and scripted by Pride and Prejudice scribe Andrew Davies, director Nicholas Renton's playful period drama follows young Lucy Honeychurch as she takes a trip to Italy and exchanges a brief albeit life-altering kiss with the unsuitable George Emerson. Later, as Lucy's snooping chaperone attempts to keep her on the path laid out by her family, her engagement to the dull Cecil draws near, and her repressed feelings boil to the surface, she is taken aback to encounter the dashing object of her affections back in her homeland of England. What's a girl to do when her wedding date has been set in stone but the love of her life won't be standing at the alter? ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Bridget Jones's Diary screenwriter Andrew Davies adapts John Clelend's controversial 18th Century novel for the screen in this erotic drama starring screen newcomer Rebecca Night as the mischievous, titular nymph. Upon losing her parents to smallpox, wholesome naïf Fanny Hill begins the steady transformation from innocent country girl to sexually liberated woman of the world. Her first stop was London, where she was quickly taken under the wing of a notorious madam. After falling into prostitution, Fanny is forced to survive by taking on a series of lovers. Although it is during this time that she discovers the joy of sensual delights, her one true love is never far from her heart and mind. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A trio of orphans becomes embroiled in a mysterious and long-running lawsuit in this sprawling BBC adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel. A legend in the legal circles of Victorian London, the messy inheritance case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce has been trickling through the courts for years with no end in sight. Nobleman John Jarndyce (Denis Lawson) has seen the case destroy more than one life, so when he becomes guardian to three young people -- beautiful Ada Clare (Carey Mulligan), Ada's cousin Richard Carstone (Patrick Kennedy), and her devoted companion, Esther Summerson (Anna Maxwell Martin) -- he vows to shield them from its pernicious effects by bringing them to the safety of his estate, the eponymous Bleak House. Richard, however, becomes obsessed with the unattainable Jarndyce inheritance, to the detriment of his career and mental health. Esther, meanwhile, remains haunted by her origins; the product of a scandalous pregnancy, she was raised by her aunt and knows nothing about her dead mother's identity. Meanwhile, imperious noblewoman Lady Dedlock (Gillian Anderson) plots to hide the evidence of her own mysterious past -- a quest that leads her to the intrigue surrounding Jarndyce and Jarndyce. She is but one of dozens of characters who find themselves drawn into the lawsuit's web of corruption, blackmail, and murder. Bleak House debuted October 27, 2005, on BBC One. It received its U.S. premiere on January 22, 2006, on PBS's Masterpiece Theatre, where the 15 British episodes were combined into six longer blocks. Britain's Royal Television Society named the series Best Drama Serial of 2005. A previous adaptation of Dickens' novel ran on Masterpiece Theatre in 1985. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

Based on author Helen Fielding's sequel to Bridget Jones's Diary, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason picks up four weeks after the original film left off, with Bridget (Renée Zellweger) emotionally satisfied at long last with Mark Darcy (Colin Firth), her barrister boyfriend. Stability in Bridget's life, however, quickly becomes a contradiction in terms. Though Mark is openly supportive of Bridget's eccentricities -- and there are many -- she is nonetheless threatened by Mark's young, nubile intern, not to mention irked at finding out that he is, among other less desirable qualities in her eyes, a conservative voter. Complicating issues further is the reentrance of her ex-lover, Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant), whom Jones, perhaps mistakenly, thought she had finally gotten over. Before long, the situation escalates into another series of embarrassing circumstances for Bridget, who is faced once again with a crippling feeling of self-doubt and has only her diary and friends to combat it. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

ER regular Alex Kingston stars as the title character in this British-produced biopic of first century A.D. "warrior queen" Boudica. After the death of her husband, King Prasutagus (Steven Waddington), the feisty Boudica becomes the leader of the Iceni, a Celtic tribe living in East Anglia. Though Boudica and her followers put up a valiant defense, their homeland is overrun by the Roman legions of the mad emperor Nero (Andrew Lee Potts), who has devised a hellish scheme to put the "ginger bitch" in her place. Beaten and bound by the conquering soldiers, Boudica is forced to watch as her daughters are brutally raped. Assuming that the Iceni queen has been humbled and no longer poses a threat to the Empire, Nero spares her life -- which turns out to be one of the emperor's biggest errors in judgment, as the vengeful Boudica and her army set about to prove in bloodthirsty fashion that she is, to paraphrase a much-later British monarch, a queen with "the heart and stomach of a king." In America, Warrior Queen proved to be an uncharacteristically violent Masterpiece Theatre offering when it was broadcast over PBS in the fall of 2003. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Boris Pasternak's Nobel Prize-winning novel of love and betrayal amidst the Soviet Revolution is given a new interpretation for the small screen in this made-for-television adaptation. Yury Zhivago (Hans Matheson) is a young man who is sent to live with his aunt and uncle, Anna and Alexander Gromeko, (Celia Imrie and Bill Paterson) after his father takes his own life as a result of the machinations of his corrupt business partner, Victor Komarovsky (Sam Neill). As Zhivago grows to manhood and studies to be a physician, he falls in love with his cousin Tonya (Alexandra Maria Lara), but one day he sees a beautiful woman and immediately becomes deeply infatuated. Zhivago learns that the woman in question is Lara Guishar (Keira Knightley), whose mother is the lover of Komarovsky. Eventually, Zhivago marries Tonya, and Lara weds Pasha Antipov (Kris Marshall), a passionate Bolshevik. As World War I breaks out, Zhivago once again crosses paths with Lara, who has become a combat nurse and is searching for her missing husband. After Zhivago is severely wounded, Lara nurses him back to heath, and along the way the two fall deeply in love. However, after the end of the war, the reality of Zhivago's marriage to Tonya puts a halt to their romance, and the explosive impact of the Soviet Revolution changes the shape and character of the land they knew, especially when Lara discovers that her husband is not dead, but has become a powerful and calculating leader of the new regime. Doctor Zhivago had its American debut on the acclaimed PBS anthology series Masterpiece Theatre. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Set amidst the controversy of the handover of the Panama Canal from America to Panama in late 1999, this espionage thriller follows seductive British spy Andrew Osnard (Pierce Brosnan), who has found himself recently banished to Panama. When Osnard stumbles into a tailor shop, he meets Harry Pendel (Geoffrey Rush), a garrulous sort with an unmatched penchant for "fluence" -- that is, fabricating wild tales with real-life details. Osnard threatens to expose his shady past, until Pendel agrees to provide him with information about the political situation in Panama. Pendel's wife Louisa (Jamie Lee Curtis) tries to remain unscathed by her husband's constant follies, which escalate and put him in the midst of international discord, while also threatening the shaky relationship between himself and Osnard, who cannot escape each other's grasp. Based on John le Carré's popular 1996 novel, the film also features Catherine McCormack, David Hayman, and young Daniel Radcliffe, who completed this film before his starring role in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, released later in the year. ~ Jason Clark, All Movie Guide

The six-part British miniseries The Way We Live Now was adapted from the satirical 1875 novel by Anthony Trollope. The central character was Augustus Melmotte (David Suchet), a mysterious international financier of questionable parentage. Invading the uppermost circles of Victorian society, Melmotte inveigled a considerable number of prominent Londoners in a spectacular get-rich-quick scheme. Among those involved were the Carburys, an aristocratic but cash-poor family anxious to recoup their fortunes by whatever means necessary. Details essential to the plot include the somewhat one-sided romance between Melmotte's rebellious daughter Marie (Shirley Henderson) and caddish Sir Felix Cadbury (Matthew MacFadyen), the exploits of an American adventuress (Miranda Otto) with a predilection for shooting her lovers, and a high-born author of trashy romance novels. Though written in the late 19th century, the story line had a queasily contemporary significance to those burned by such financial peccadillos as the Enron scandal in the early 21st century. Originally telecast by the BBC beginning November 11, 2001, The Way We Live Now was shown in America (as a four-parter) on PBS' Masterpiece Theatre starting April 1, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Screened on U.S. television in 2001 as a presentation of Masterpiece Theatre, Take a Girl Like You is a two-part adaptation of English novelist Kingsley Amis' 1959 novel of the same name. The titular "girl" is Jenny Bunn (Sienna Guillory), a beautiful and virginal young woman who has the exhausting habit of inspiring lust in every man (and certain women) whose path she happens to cross. Hailing from England's industrial north, 20-year-old Jenny moves away from home to take a teaching job in a small town just outside of London. After arriving at her lodgings, a room in the house of the acrimoniously married Dick and Martha Thompson (Robert Daws and Emma Chambers), Jenny makes the acquaintance of Patrick Standish (Rupert Graves), the town's resident lothario. Patrick, a Latin teacher at the town's posh public school, becomes immediately obsessed with Jenny and wastes no time in forming a strategy to get her in the sack. Although Jenny is attracted to Patrick, she is also intent on saving herself for marriage. Additionally, she finds herself dealing with the amorous advances of Graham (Ian Driver), Patrick's socially inept Scottish flatmate; Julian Ormerod (Hugh Bonneville), a local millionaire and friend of Patrick's; and Dick, her dodgy landlord. By the end of episode one, Jenny and Patrick are officially dating, but Patrick, who is frustrated by Jenny's steadfast refusal to put out, continues to pursue a sleazy pastime as an unrepentant womanizer.
~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide

Though not the most ambitious British TV adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray's 19th century novel Vanity Fair, this six-part BBC1 version was arguably the most expensive and elaborate. Natasha Little was cast as scheming country lass Becky Sharp, who managed to climb to the top of the British social ladder during and after the Napoleonic Wars, leaving a trail of broken hearts, betrayed friendships, and shattered reputations in her wake. Somehow, however, Becky always managed to land on her feet, and after mending her ways in middle age, she lived out her declining years as a much-beloved "Lady Bountiful." Debuting in Britain on November 1, 1998, Vanity Fair subsequently aired as part of the American public TV Masterpiece Theatre anthology beginning October 24, 1999. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this witty romantic thriller, Alan (Jared Harris) is a London schoolteacher who leads a quiet, mildly stuffy life. As a hobby, he serves as a jazz disc jockey, spinning tunes for a hospital's public address system, but he craves danger and excitement. One night, Alan stops into a bar for a drink and sees Beatrice (Asia Argento), a beautiful woman who is arguing with two men. Alan is immediately enraptured by Beatrice and begins to pursue her. What Alan doesn't know is that Beatrice is an infamous thief known to the police as "B. Monkey" (named for her ability to break into anything), and the men she was quarreling with were Paul (Rupert Everett) and Bruno (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), a gay couple who are her partners in crime. When Alan becomes aware of Beatrice's secret, he tries to lead her into a safer and more honest way of life, even as she lures him into the thrilling existence he's been dreaming of. Leading lady Asia Argento is the daughter of Italian horror auteur Dario Argento. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide