Buy The Village

An epic drama series for BBC ONE starring JOHN SIMM and MAXINE PEAKE charting the life and turbulent times of one English village across the twentieth century. THE VILLAGE is written by BAFTA winning writer PETER MOFFAT. The camera never leaves the village. Births, deaths, love and betrayal, great political events, upheavals in national identity, ways of working, rules kept and rebellions made, sex, religion, class, the shaping of modern memory all refracted through the lives of the villagers and the village.One man, Bert Middleton lives across the entire hundred years and his life story from boyhood to extreme old age provides the narrative backbone. His last great act of remembering is our way in to an examination of our recent past.The first series begins in 1914 and ends in 1920. Young Bert Middleton (introducing BILL JONES) is growing up in extreme poverty on a family farm in Derbyshire. His parents John (JOHN SIMM Mad Dogs, State of Play, The Devils Whore) and Grace (MAXINE PEAKE Silk, Criminal Justice, Shameless) struggle to provide for Bert and his adored older brother Joe (NICO MIRALLEGRO My Fat Mad Teenage Diary, Upstairs Downstairs). John is proud, unyielding and haunted by his past. Grace devotes her life to protecting her sons from the violence of his despair. Is her sacrifice sustainable? Is John capable of redemption? Will Berts funny, gentle ways and rich imagination survive? Joe supplements the family income by working at the big house where he comes into contact with the troubled and deeply unstable daughter, Caro Allingham (EMILY BEECHAM The Runaway).