Andrew Davies has created successful TV miniseries based on Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice," Elizabeth Gaskell's "Wives and Daughters" and George Eliot's "Daniel Deronda."
Now, he's tackled Sarah Waters' "Tipping the Velvet," a tale of lesbian love set in the music halls, mean streets and posh parlors of Victorian London.
"Sarah writes very vividly. I'm often accused of inventing sex scenes that aren't really there in the books I adapt, but there was certainly no need to with this book. If anything they had to be slightly toned down," says Davies, speaking from his home near Warwick, England.
Davies is an expert on the sexual mores of many eras. He also co- wrote the 2001 feature film adaptation of Helen Fielding's "Bridget Jones's Diary," about a modern British girl looking for love.
He was on a trip to Banff, Canada, when he first read "Tipping the Velvet," which he describes as "something like a 19th century classic with dirty bits!" He became so engrossed, even the amazing views of the Canadian Rockies couldn't distract him, Davies said.
BBC America is broadcasting his three-part adaptation at 9 p.m. tonight through Sunday. The lavish saga caused a brouhaha in England. The version airing here has been slightly edited for visual and verbal content, but it still remains considerably racier than most TV fare and carries mature theme warnings.
The story's heroine, Nan Astley, is played by 25-year-old Rachael Stirling, the daughter of Diana Rigg, who played the sleek Mrs. Emma Peel on the 1960s secret-agent series "The Avengers" and became the host of PBS' "Mystery!" in 1989.
Stirling did some historical research into the culture and customs of the Victorian era and was amazed by the hidden libido of what is traditionally considered a very prim and proper time, symbolized by the family values of Queen Victoria.
Sexual relations between men had just been criminalized. But women were not subjected to the same fate because, according to Stirling, the queen had refused to recognize that sex between women was even possible.
Astley works as a male impersonator and prostitute, but her love affairs are with women. Stirling's body-baring embraces are with actresses Keeley Hawes, Anna Chancellor and Jodhi May.
"I would only worry if I thought, 'Here I am with my clothes off for no reason whatsoever.' But there was a reason–the story had to be told and I knew that when I read the script," Stirling explains by phone from her London home.
She says a glass or two of white wine — preferably dry — or a "quick nip of whiskey" was sometimes helpful. "We just needed to have a tiny bit of a tipple, partly because the number of carpenters and electricians who suddenly went 'Ooh, sorry, I've got to drive a nail in that plank just by the bed' was innumerable," she laughs.
Stirling says the role is "the best part and the best script I'd come across for a young girl in a long time. It's a love story that transcends lesbianism.
"It's about [Astley] coming to grips with who she is and what she wants from life. You can identify with her, be you a lesbian or not."
Stirling grew up in England and Scotland. She attended Edinburgh University, studying the history of art, classical literature and Russian.
"I knew I wanted to be an actress, but I think it is more important to broaden your mind than to go to drama school," she said.
Stirling previously had only garnered supporting roles. In 2001, she played a character called Lulu in a modern TV version of "Othello," written by Davies and directed by Geoffrey Sax, who also directed the "Velvet" project.
"I've been asked by a million people, 'Why did you choose this part?' and I go, 'Choose it! I had to fight tooth and nail for it because I didn't have a name, I didn't have a reputation, I wasn't going to pull an audience in.' "
Earlier in her career, she was reluctant to reveal that Rigg is her mother because "so many people in this profession are the children of [stars] and quite often they aren't good and they do rise on their [parent's] name. I just thought, 'I must try to make it on my own.'"
