The Woman in White, episode 2 recap: Sir Percival’s villainy goes up a gear, while Blackwater lives up to its name
The BBC’s handsome (if occasionally anachronistic) adaptation of Wilkie Collins’s classic mystery continued with more dastardly doings and spooky shenanigans. Here are all the talking points from episode two…
Hero Hartright sent to Honduras
As we returned to Limmeridge House, hypochondriac lord of the manor Frederick Fairlie (Charles Dance) was firing artist Walter Hartright (ex-EastEnder Ben Hardy) from his post as drawing teacher-cum-resident heart-throb for “neglecting his duties” and pursuing an “improper liaison” with Laura Fairlie (Olivia Vinall).
Not even given the chance to serve his notice, get a communal card (“Good luck in the future, best wishes, Sue from accounts”) or have a few leaving drinks and a finger buffet at the local inn, Hartright was unceremoniously “flung from the house like some thief or beggar”.
Back in London, our waistcoat-clad hero continued to be haunted by his love for Laura and encounters with woman in white Anne Catherick (also Vinall in a dual role). Paranoid Hartright even became convinced he was being watched. In a huff, he accepted work in Central America. Surely that won’t be the last we see of our male protagonist?
Sir Percival’s villainy went up a gear
“He has done terrible things - and he will do worse.” So said the terrified Anne of Sir Percival Glyde (Dougray Scott), claiming it was the ‘tache-twirling baronet who had her locked in a mental asylum.
He certainly played the dastardly scoundrel here. A master manipulator, forever lurking in corridors, cornering women and invading their personal space like a predatory #metoo creep. And how revealing was that impatiently tapping foot when Anne tried to have a heart-to-heart?
After their wedding, he isolated Anne from her support network by whisking her away on a three-month tour of Italy - initially promising that half-sister Marian Halcombe (Jessie Buckley) could join them, then withdrawing the offer when it was too late for the women to object.
Upon their return, poor Laura had the glazed look of a coercive control victim, while he ran her down with little digs (“My wife has no idea of pleasure”, “Your charms are lost on Lady Glyde”). In short, a wrong’un. Percy The Pig getting his comeuppance can’t come soon enough.
Laura’s life was signed away
The theme of Collins’s novel was the unequal position of married women in the mid-19th century. We saw it starkly portrayed during this episode.
Despite having nightmares about Glyde chasing her through the woods and confessing she would never love him, Laura was pushed into this “suitable match”. She desperately hoped that confessing her love for Hartright would prompt Glyde to break off their engagement but sadly, it had the opposite effect. Her walk down the aisle looked more like a march to the gallows.
Ignoring the misgivings of family lawyer Mr Gilmore (Nicholas Jones) over the “extortionate” financial terms of Glyde’s proposed marriage settlement, Mr Fairley could hardly wait to sign the papers behind his niece’s back, so his “duty is done” as guardian.
It means the entirety of Laura's inheritance, the then-enormous sum of ￡20,000, goes to Glyde on her death - giving him a vested interest in his wife’s demise. Uh-oh.
Blackwater lived up to its name
We got our first look at Glyde’s estate, Blackwater Park in Hampshire. For something that sounds like a Game Of Thrones castle, it was suitably grim and Gothic – all looming towers and cawing crows, dark indoors even during daylight hours, full of flickering lamps and stuffed animals.
Indeed, it somewhat reminded me of Julia Davis’s spoof period drama Hunderby - an impression reinforced by the cruel, sneering servants and the appearance of comedy actress Vicki Pepperdine (aka Princess Anne from The Windsors) as forbidding housekeeper Mrs Michelson.
Count Fosco had lost years (and several stone)
Enigmatic, charismatic Sicilian aristocrat Count Fosco is among the more memorable love-to-hate-him villains of Victorian literature. Usually portrayed as an obese older smoothie, here he was a broody-browed, years younger and played by Italian actor Riccardo Scamarcio.
Married to Laura’s Aunt Eleanor (Sonya Cassidy, last seen as rogue robot Hester in Humans), this Fosco was a hand-kissing puppet-master, flirtatiously telling Marian: “Your beauty always surprises me”. Speculating that she shared his passionate nature, he added that Marian had “the blood of a lioness”.
Glyde’s best man also said of Laura at the altar: “She is perfect, Percy, absolutely perfect.” Did he mean as bride or victim?
Marian continued to be the coolest character
Rescuer of injured dogs. Rider of horses. Proto-feminist. There were two more pleasingly feisty speeches from Marian this week, as she fought in vain to protect the more vulnerable Laura.
First she expressed her frustration over Laura’s plight to Mr Gilmore: “If it were a man, he’d be able to choose whomever he wished - while pursuing any other needs elsewhere. I’m not cynical, merely an observer of men.”
She later told her half-sister: “No man under heaven deserves these sacrifices from us women. Men are the enemies of our innocence and peace. They drag us from our parents’ love and our sisters’ friendship. They take us body and soul for themselves, fastening our helpless lives to theirs like they’d chain a dog to a kennel.” It’s a shame she didn’t do a wedding speech.
The bond between the young women was affectingly portrayed - supportively holding hands, giving each other strength - but it could be about to find itself under threat from co-conspirators Glyde and Fosco.
Don’t miss the next episode
The five-part series reaches its midway point at 9pm on Monday - slightly confusingly, it’s scheduled across two consecutive evenings - with Sir Percival’s money troubles driving him to try, by increasingly underhand means, to lay his hands on Laura’s fortune.
Meanwhile, Anne arrives at Blackwater to tell Laura the truth about her husband. This devilish tale is about to get even darker.
