“An ordinary epic”: The Village (2013–)

Abstract

The subject of this final chapter, BBC1’s most recent Edwardian drama, The Village (2013–), is the antithesis of the other historical fictions examined in this book. Set in the period immediately prior to and following the First World War, it covers ground which is by now pretty familiar to us, but sees it through very different eyes. Peter Moffat wrote the series with the intention of making it an “ordinary epic, a narrative that is determined to be interested in life as it is lived” which examines the world as it was for the inhabitants of a fictional village in the Peak District (Cooke, 2013). This show sets out to challenge and subvert the version of history offered by shows like Downton, by focusing almost entirely on the working class and attempting to represent their lives with accuracy. The televisual tradition established by Upstairs Downstairs and continued by Downton established that, where the lower classes are represented on screen, the focus is of the show is — more or less — equally divided, between them and their upper class employers. This seems to assume that while the viewer may be interested in servants, they expect equal screen time to be given to their more glamorous social “superiors”.