Rebecca Night

The "bodice rippers" of the 1990s helped costume dramas shed their staid reputation as quickly as characters doffed their period garb. Colin Firth's wet-shirt scene in Pride and Prejudice and the romps of Moll Flanders lead the saucy literary adaptations.

James Dowland is confined to his hospital bed when his son arrives in Candleford. Dorcas welcomes the child into the Post Office, encouraging her staff to do everything they can to make the boy feel at home in Candleford. But this turns out to cause a great deal of turmoil when James is at last released from hospital to be reunited with his son.

An attractive local milk maid, Nan (Rebecca Night - Fanny Hill, Wuthering Heights), takes a fancy to Alf. But this budding young love looks like it might be thwarted by an animosity between Lark Rise and Fordlow that has been simmering for three generations.

A gypsy boy is taken in by the respected Earnshaw family only to fall in love with his stepsister, Cathy.