Join or Sign In
Sign in to customize your TV listings
By joining TV Guide, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy.
He Knew He Was Right March is...
He Knew He Was RightMarch is Women's History Month, folks, and Masterpiece Theatre has given us a present: Besides having that delightfully declarative sentence for a title, He Knew He Was Right is also a big, fat, Victorian middle finger to tyrannical husbands everywhere. (Yes, dearies, we know you're still out there.) Louis Trevelyan is madly in love with his free-spirited, fresh-from-the-Tropics wife, Emily, who pours into his dusty Mayfair manse like a shot of Mandarin Stoli at teatime. Within months, however, he has driven himself to madness with jealous suspicions that Emily's having an affair with her elderly godfather, a swaggering ex-Lothario played to prurient perfection by Bill Nighy. (How fitting that Part 1 opens with a shot o
March is Women's History Month, folks, and Masterpiece Theatre has given us a present: Besides having that delightfully declarative sentence for a title, He Knew He Was Right is also a big, fat, Victorian middle finger to tyrannical husbands everywhere. (Yes, dearies, we know you're still out there.) Louis Trevelyan is madly in love with his free-spirited, fresh-from-the-Tropics wife, Emily, who pours into his dusty Mayfair manse like a shot of Mandarin Stoli at teatime. Within months, however, he has driven himself to madness with jealous suspicions that Emily's having an affair with her elderly godfather, a swaggering ex-Lothario played to prurient perfection by Bill Nighy. (How fitting that Part 1 opens with a shot of a tropical bird in a cage... precisely the life Trevelyan has in mind for his pretty new wife.) But Anthony Trollope was no madman: His women are the only ones with any integrity. Emily shows self-respect when she won't grovel for forgiveness for a wrong she didn't commit, Nora shows honor when she refuses a man dripping with dough, shy Dorothy shows tenacity when she won't marry a man she doesn't love, and even bitchy old Aunt Stanbury despite her niggling disgust for "penny scribbler" journalists shows generosity, loyalty and even a capacity for self-criticism. Meanwhile, what fine qualities do you suppose the boys are batting about? Hmm, let's see here... paranoid bullying (Trevelyan), persnickety presumption (Bozzle), greasy arrogance (Osborne), neurotic wimpitude (Gibson) and straight-up, bare-faced lying (Gibson again, you dawg). The only girl with even a sliver of negative lighting is goofy, gawky Arabella (played to awkward gorgeousness by Fenella Woolgar), the 19th-century version of Welcome to the Dollhouse's Dawn Wiener. So what's to come in Part 2: Will Arabella find the strength to end her lifelong bad-hair day? Will sad-sack Trevelyan finally go on Xanax? Will Nora and Hugh get funding for their new porn flick (c'mon, that kiss was hot)? Here's one penny scribbler" who's got a good feeling on all counts.