A major BBC Radio dramatisation of Elizabeth Gaskell's famous Victorian novel of pride, prejudice, politics and passion.

When 19-year-old Margaret Hale is uprooted from her home in the rural South of England and transplanted to the industrial North, she struggles to adapt. Smoky, grimy and ugly, Milton seems like a different country - one run by men with very different beliefs to her own, like charismatic mill owner John Thornton.

A self-made entrepreneur and pragmatic capitalist, Thornton represents everything the idealistic Margaret hates. Witnessing the conditions at his mill, her social conscience is awakened, and she clashes fiercely with him over his ruthless treatment of the workers. But when a strike turns into a violent riot, and Thornton is put in danger, Margaret is forced to face up to her conflicted feelings. Can the duo overcome their ideological differences and find love?

Also included is the fascinating programme In Our Time: North and South, in which Melvyn Bragg and guests examine how Margaret Hale's experiences echo the author's own life, and discuss Gaskell's insights into social conflicts and the changing world in which she lived.

Written by Elizabeth Gaskell

Dramatised by Lin Coghlan

Cast

Margaret - Patsy Ferran

Mr Hale - Paul Chahidi

Mrs Hale - Ruth Everett

Dixon - Felicity Montagu

John Thornton - James Cartwright

Mrs Thornton - Pooky Quesnel

Higgins - Sean Gilder

Bessy - Olivia Barrowclough

Aunt Shaw - Joanna Monro

Henry Lennox - Jonathan Forbes

Henderson - David Hounslow

Boucher - Lloyd Thomas

Frederick - Colin Ryan

Mr Bell - Roger Ringrose

Mrs Boucher - Evie Killip

Leonards - Luke Nunn

Directed by Sally Avens

First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 4-18 September 2022

In Our Time: North and South

Presented by Melvyn Bragg

With Sally Shuttleworth, Dinah Birch and Jenny Uglow

Produced by Simon Tillotson

First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 9 March 2017