The Devil’s Whore

The Devil’s Whore, new Channel 4 drama, written by Peter “Our Friends in the North” Flannery. It’s really good. If you’re in England and haven’t seen it yet, go here and watch it now: http://www.channel4.com/video/brandless-catchup.jsp?vodBrand=the-devils-whore

What’s so good about it? It looks like one of those bodice-ripping costume dramas the BBC does with such pre-Christmas gentility. But, it’s not. Maybe it’s because I’m in the midst of reading The Golden Notebook, but only one episode in this series seems to me to be a drama about feminism, class struggle, all the hierarchies in society and what we make of them. I love that it’s not concentrating on the details of the Civil War. You can’t watch this drama to learn stuff you didn’t learn at school. The Civil War in The Devil’s Whore (hmmm, they are strangely assonant) is a metaphor.

A civil war is a confusing thing; in a scene about halfway through the first episode, John Sim’s character deftly swaps sides in the middle of the battle. Nobles are fighting alongside Parliamentarians. Some common men remain loyal to the King. The thing about a civil war is that it pits brother against brother, friend against friend. How can you fight with someone that close?

What’s brilliant about the series is that it demonstrates, subtley, how that same problem applies to modern class warfare and gender warfare. Flannery’s interest in class struggle was clear in Our Friends in the North. (The man was born in Jarrow, for goodness’ sake.)  But in this new series he links together the problems of class warfare with those of feminism. Was there ever a woman like the heroine, Angelica Fanshawe (or is it Featherstonehaugh)? Was there a woman who became an atheist at eight, married her cousin, refused to accept the silence proper to women, tried to fight alongside him? Probaby not. Angelica is a modern woman, transplanted. The point is: she cannot fight back against her husband’s attempts to ‘master’ her, because she loves him. The same ties that bind her to him are the ties that make it difficult for loyal subjects to rebel against their King.  The Civil War *is* the feminist revolution. How can we fight? We need each other.

I’m making it sound like a political tract. It’s not at all. It’s just very good, deep, worthy of re-watching, of chewing over and analysing like an excellent piece of literature. I expect I’ll have more to say on it as it goes on.