Jamaica Inn
Welcome to the wild west, an unruly, brutish place, where violent death and the hangman’s noose are never too far away, while all around the rugged landscape is as inhospitable as it is breathtakingly beautiful. That is, the wild west of Cornwall; for this is the first episode in a three-part adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s Jamaica Inn (Easter Monday, 21st, BBC One, 9pm). Thankfully, the BBC has got this one right: it’s excess all areas, in the ripsnorting Gothic melodrama of a young girl caught up in the wicked misdeeds of smugglers and shipwreckers in the 1820s. For Jessica Brown Findlay, this role will consign her Lady Sybil in Downton to the past. In this, she’s a vision of the wide-eyed romantic heroine as Mary, an orphaned young woman who finds a new home at Jamaica Inn, with her aunt Patience and uncle Joss (a memorably feral Sean Harris).
Love, too, is soon on the agenda, in the handsome form of Joss’s ne’er-do-well brother Jem (Matthew McNulty), until a storm of mischief and murder gathering in from out on the ocean puts Mary’s very life at stake. This spirited retelling will keep you enthralled, even if you know Du Maurier’s novel or the Hitchcock film. The stunning vistas around Bodmin Moor are enough in themselves to capture the imagination, but keep an eye out to see if you can spot the scenes that were filmed in Cumbria and Yorkshire. Does the Beeb not tremble in fear at the wrath of Cornishmen?
NOT TO BE MISSED
THE GUESS LIST, Saturday 12th BBC One 9.30pmA possible TV institution in the making: Rob Brydon hosts a comedy quiz show with a reassuringly traditional panel format.
MONTY DON’S REAL CRAFTS, Tuesday 14th, More 4, 9pm
Doughty Don presides over a new series in which ordinary people seek out a new life working in traditional crafts. First up: three wannabe blacksmiths.
MESSIAH AT THE FOUND LING HOSPITAL, Sat 12th, BBC Two, 7pm
The story behind Handel’s meisterwerk in relation to a pioneering fundraiser for children.