Melvyn Bragg

Billy Casper, a 15-year-old working class Yorkshire boy, is a scrappy loner who delivers papers before and after school, shares a bed with his bullying brother, Jud, and mostly ignores his self-absorbed mother. His routine is derailed when he spots a small falcon, a kestrel, in the countryside. He's raised birds in the past and is inspired to capture a young kestrel and try his hand at falconry. When not enduring the scorn of his peers and "betters,"...

An exquisite, richly layered adaptation of Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles. A strong-willed peasant girl is sent by her father to the estate of some local aristocrats to capitalize on a rumor that their families are from the same line. This fateful visit commences an epic narrative of sex, class, betrayal, and revenge. With its earthy visual textures it is a work of great pastoral beauty as well as vivid storytelling.