The Observations & Gillespie and I

Full-cast adaptations of Jane Harris’s first two novels, plus an interview with the author

The Observations: Scotland, 1863. A young Irish girl, Bessy Buckley, escapes her former life when she is hired as a maid in a big house near Edinburgh. But her new employer, Arabella, has secrets of her own. She encourages Bessy to write her thoughts and experiences in a journal, and subjects her to odd experiments, but Bessy goes along with them because she is flattered by the attention and quickly grows attached to her mistress. Things change when Bessy snoops into Arabella's locked desk and discovers the book Arabella has been writing, The Observations, a study of the ‘habits and nature of the Domestic Class’. Bessy is incensed, and concocts an act of revenge… Starring Lucy Paterson as Bessy and Candida Benson as Arabella.

Gillespie and I: A Victorian gothic mystery. In 1888, Harriet Baxter, an art-loving Englishwoman, arrives in Glasgow for the city's International Exhibition. She meets the Scottish painter, Ned Gillespie, and his wife, Annie - but tragedy is about to strike the Gillespies... Starring Phyllis Logan as Harriet and Liam Brennan as Ned.

Also included is an interview with Jane Harris, from Woman's Hour.

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