17 thoughts on “TBT: Desperate Romantics

  1. I love the Pre-Rafes and have been meaning to see this. I will get it from the library.

  2. Rafe Spall right after he returned from the Holy Land — LMFAO. That is some tragic facial hair. And Aiden Turner is so pretty, it’s not fair.

  3. I fell head over heels for Jennie Jaques after watching this. She looks like a little pixie!

    1. Hahaha!

      I was her drama teacher – I know her real name and age. More a minx than a pixie, but astonishingly talented.

  4. I have a kind of love/hate reaction to Desperate Romantics, Impossible not be caught up in the story from that opening shot. The actors are all hot. Aiden Turner as you so aptly point out is well,, Aiden Turner. The actor playing Millias was adorable and Raff Spall was excellent as Hunt. The depiction of the art was well done but there were some screaming historical inaccuracies especially towards the ending when Morris is introduced and that is where I get to the hate bit. William Morris is depicted as a buffoon and as a Morris fan I found that unforgivable. Yes he was perhaps socially awkward but he was not a fumbling idiot.
    Morris deserves a TV series of his own. I am really surprised that the Morris, Janey, Rossetti triangle has not yet made it to screen big or small though Morris deserves better than that too.

    1. I totally agree with you, re: Morris. As a designer, he’s basically God and they do portray him less than flatteringly. I’m not sure but I thought that one of the earlier films about the PRB (The Love School, perhaps?) delved into the love-triangle between Jane, Rossetti and Morris, but I could be confusing that with any number of love-triangles Rossetti was in at the time. Either way, he definitely does deserve his own film/tv show.

  5. I LOVE this show too, for all the reasons you give. Yeah, it’s not totally HA but to me it’s got the right vibe for the PRB. Everyone you mention is wonderful and Tom Hollander also does a great job at poor old repressed Ruskin.

  6. Having just finished watching it. I, too loved it except for the making of Morris as a buffoon.
    What I found sad was the whole Lizzie Siddal/Rossetti relationship. She was so betrayed by him, that although I love his art, I want to either Bitch-slap him into the 24th century or feed him to Drogon, or let Cersei blow him up with the High Sparrow. Rossetti is such a spoiled brat. Don’t like him.
    Ms. Siddal is portrayed sensitively by Amy Manson who shoes that she, too was a major talent. (Her surviving watercolours and sketches show such talent).
    I really loved Millais and Effie Grey. Happy endings for them.
    I am not sure if Ruskin was a closet homosexual, a paedophile or someone without sexual desire for anything but his art. Tom Hollander took the last view in his portrayal. Not sure I agree. But it was his view, I believe I heard.
    Jane Morris to quote Jane Curtis in the SNL sketch is ‘an …slut’.

  7. I didn’t watch this because I have loved pre-Raphaelite paintings for nearly 30 years and have read extensively about their lives, and the book this was based on mined every cliche about Fanny Cornforth that was ever written by her detractors. I couldn’t bear to watch it, even with Aidan Turner in Victorian artistic clothes, because I really thought I’d spend the whole thing ranting about what they got wrong.

    Annie Miller was poor, but having her be a prostitute is probably not very accurate. http://preraphaelitesisterhood.com/annie-miller/

  8. Oh My! Thanks for that. Now, thanks to you, I know everything this show and wikipedia has to teach me about the Pre-Raphaelites and their models! Up next- Effie Gray!

    I’ve had so much fun researching all the characters after (or sometimes during) each episode. I’ve always loved this style of painting -and Morris! – so its been a real treat getting to know the artists.

  9. I hated the depiction of them as some sort of artistic version of the Rat Pack, although I thought Tom Hollander was brilliant as Ruskin. And Jane Morris came from a lower-class family, her father was a stableman and her mother a laundress. According to Wikipedia, she grew up poor and deprived. I would rate on a much lower scale, more towards Reign, in it’s depiction. I think the Impressionists with Richard Armitage is a much better TV series than Desperate Romantics.

    1. the Impressionists is one of my favourite TV series. As stated in the beginning of Desperate Romantics it is a story based very loosely upon facts. Impressionists is endeavouring to be true to history though several crucial artists, ie Berthe Morisot are neglected and Richard Armitage.. Clearly however Impressionists is done on a very tight budget so not so much to squee over costume wise. Impressionists reignited my interest in their art and really gave me an appreciation of what they were up against and how bold they were in challenging established views. I felt that was laid on a bit thick for effect in D.R. without as much basis.

  10. I would love to see an adaptation of Beauty in thorns by Kate Forsyth. It’s set during the early years of the Pre Raphaelite era to the 1890’s, and it’s a wonderful book, with the string of the Sleeping beauty motif tying everything together.

  11. They are so young there! So sweet too.

    Ah, Jennie. I was her drama teacher at school. I have to say, that’s some impressive wigsmanship there (including pubic wig, I gather) – her real hair is brown. She was one of two students of mine who got full marks on a practical exam. She went on do do some work in Vikings”, so definitely frocky.

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