First Look
First Look: The Thirteenth Tale
Vanessa Redgrave and Olivia Colman are a powerful and dramatic combination – so when we heard these two leading ladies would be appearing in Oscar-winning Christopher Hampton’s adaptation of Diane Setterfield’s novel The Thirteenth Tale we were beside ourselves with delight!
First published in 2006, the best-selling The Thirteenth Tale is a dark and emotional tale of two damaged women and is utterly compelling.
BBC’s The Thirteenth Tale
“…we’ve done our utmost to do justice to Ms Setterfield’s sinuous tale of the encounter of two very different writers who have, however, a compelling secret in common, against a full-blooded background of murder, incest and arson.”
Christopher Hampton, screenwriter
The wonderful Olivia Coleman plays Margaret Lea a bookish amateur biographer who seems to be in an emotional trap of her own making.
“I love darkness in stories but I am a bit of a chicken. I do remember watching Carrie as a child and being terrified, but loving it. I would rather go on the tea pot ride than the rollercoaster!”
Olivia Colman
Catch The Thirteenth Tale on BBC2 on Monday 30th December at 9:30pm!
About the Book:
Vida Winter, a bestselling yet reclusive novelist, has created many outlandish life histories for herself, all of them invention. Now old and ailing, at last she wants to tell the truth about her extraordinary life. Her letter to biographer Margaret Lea – a woman with secrets of her own – is a summons.
Vida’s tale is one of gothic strangeness featuring the Angelfield family: the beautiful and wilful Isabelle and the feral twins Adeline and Emmeline. Margaret succumbs to the power of Vida’s storytelling, but as a biographer she deals in fact not fiction and she doesn’t trust Vida’s account.
As she begins her researches, two parallel stories unfold. Join Margaret as she begins her journey to the truth – hers, as well as Vida’s.
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Disappointed when I viewed the recording of The Thirteenth Tale. I only got 4secs of viewing and 1min of pause. Had to leave it as it was taking so long.