The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders

The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders
 
Alex Kingston's portrayal of Moll Flanders in this ITV adaptation is possibly one of the best cases of perfect casting… going up there with Sean Connery as James Bond and Richard Rowntree as Shaft. Watching this, over ten years since it was first aired and I still cannot imagine a more perfect actress for that role.
 
Coming off the heels of BBC's iconic adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, you could be forgiven for dismissing The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders as simply a string of nudity and sex scenes in period costume. Yes, there is a great deal of nudity, mostly provided by Kingston, and at the time this had the record for most sex scenes for a TV series (Thirteen over less than four hours), but the actual story of Moll is far much more than that. Moll Flanders is a girl born in jail, raised by the Mayor of Colchester, married five times (once to her own brother), goes from being a noblewoman to a thief, to prison, where each episode begins. Told in narration, as the original book was, but also to the viewer in an almost Ferris Bueller-way, breaking the fourth wall, meaning you can relate to Moll more than you could with most period dramas. At one point she talks directly to the camera several times and then pushes it over, which is such a shock upon first viewing. The costume and sets are superb and the direction throughout is up there with even the most lavish cinematic production.
 
One of the best things about The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders is the almost 'Before they were Famous' look at some of the cast, most notably Daniel Craig as Moll's third husband Jemmy and though it would be over ten years later before he donned Bond's tux, you could almost feel the oozing confidence that he would employ for that role. The rest of the cast are wonderful, with Kingston, who appears in almost every scene proving just way she was worthy to be picked up for international stardom in films like Croupier and as Dr Corday in ER.
 
Though the documentary, made at the time of the production, is a nice insight into the creation of the piece and how much work was made into everything, I do think something more modern would have been nice. A commentary by some of the creators or a retrospective of some of the key people looking back on the shows' success and/or their own since the show would have been a great way to show just how much impact the show has had.
 
However, The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders is a wonderful piece of drama, without the stuffiness of most period pieces there is a lighter tone that makes it a lot easier to watch and enjoy.