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(More customer reviews)I loved Sarah Waters's novel, "Tipping the Velvet." Director Geoffrey Sax and screenwriter Andrew Davies have captured beautifully and vividly the novel's characters, storyline and the remarkable setting of a Victorian England that few have glimpsed. I say BRAVO! I am usually skeptical about movies made from books. This one is the exception to the rule.
Nancy Astley, (Rachael Stir), was born and raised in an English seaside resort, Whitstable, where her parents own an oyster restaurant, and Nan can shuck with the best of them. She seems perfectly content with her lot in life, loves her family and imagines that someday she will marry one of the neighborhood boys and have a family of her own. When the Astley family is invited to a perfomance at the town's music-hall, Passion, (with a capital "P"), enters Nan's life for the first time. She sees a beautiful male impersonator perform at the hall. Not just any male impersonator...but the ever so seductive Miss Kitty Butler, (Keeley Hawes). Nan is entranced and obsessed with Kitty. She longs to meet the object of her devotion and becomes first, Kitty's friend, then her employee/dresser. Her once normal life is turned topsy-turvy, filled with passionate fantasies. The Astley family is delighted with Kitty "the celebrity" friend. However, Alice, Nancy's sister, and until recently her best friend, is hostile and suspicious of the relationship between her sister and the performer.
When Kitty is offered a prime London music-hall gig through her manager, Mr. Bliss, she takes Nan with her. The two live together, sharing a room, a bed, love and sex, and eventually the stage, as Nan is successfully incorporated into Kitty's act - as another male impersonator. Our heroine loses her innocence in the big city, in more ways than one. Adventure, disillusionment and major heartbreak loom on the horizon for our Nan - until she finds herself reaching rock bottom. If you don't know what "rock bottom," sometimes called "the pits," is in Victorian England, you may want to reread Dickens.
It takes years for Nancy to climb out of the pit she fell into, (or was she pushed?), and fashion a life for herself. Her attempts to earn a living wage are outrageous, fascinating and ingenious. The folks she meets along the way are absolute originals. The take on London's local color, sexual and socialist politics, and social and sexual mores are delicious.
This is one of the best BBC mini-series that I have seen. The characters are extremely well cast, really three-dimensional. The acting is superb. The lesbian love scenes are extremely erotic and tasteful. But don't shy away from this series, or be drawn to it, because of the lesbian content. This film is much more than a story about women who prefer women. I can't recommend it highly enough. And be sure to read the book too! ENJOY!!
JANA
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Tipping the VelvetSmitten by music hall life, and by the beautiful male impersonator Kitty Butler (Keeley Hawes), Nan Astley (Rachael Stirling) leaves her family’s Whitstable oyster parlor and follows her heart to London. There she finds unimaginable joy-and misery-as she explores the secret side of fin de siècle life. Based on the acclaimed novel by Sarah Waters and adapted by Andrew Davies (Bridget Jones’s Diary, Doctor Zhivago), this powerful BBC drama is both a frank depiction of lesbianism and a witty and moving account of a young woman who will win your heart while searching for her own. Also starring Anna Chancellor (Pride and Prejudice), Jodhi May (The Last of the Mohicans), Hugh Bonneville (Iris) and John Bowe (Poldark). "Provocative and uplifting" ––The Baltimore Sun. "Flat-out sublime" ––The Seattle Times.
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