The Village
Just before WWI , 1913 ish , and during the Great WAR , you witness all the trials and tribulations of a small English Village and its troubled , war traumatized , yet lovingly steadfast residents. A deep, multi-episode look inside opulence, poverty, Mental Illness, Factory Working, Alcoholism, and all the traditional ills of being Human.
- 2013-2014
- 2 seasons
- Drama
- TV-14
Just before WWI , 1913 ish , and during the Great WAR , you witness all the trials and tribulations of a small English Village and its troubled , war traumatized , yet lovingly steadfast residents. A deep, multi-episode look inside opulence, poverty, Mental Illness, Factory Working, Alcoholism, and all the traditional ills of being Human.
Season 2 Episode Guide
6 Episodes 2014
Episode 1
Episode #2.1
58 mins
1923: The Middletons are just about surviving with their dairy farm whilst Martha has married George. Lady Clem is reluctantly hosting arrogant, promiscuous Lord Kilmartin, who can assist Edmund's political progress towards being Home Secretary. Bert volunteers to be the hare in the annual hare and hounds race organized by the Allinghams with a £5 cash prize if he avoids capture. His plan to help him move to Sheffield for a job involves changing clothes with Gerard Eyre to put the hounds off the scent and, whilst he wins, Kilmartin accuses him of cheating and withholds payment. Socialist Bill Gibby arrives in the village to make a speech, quoting from Shelley's poem "The Masque of Anarchy." The Allinghams host a boxing tournament with a financial prize given to anybody who can survive a round with Ghana Jones, a black boxer who is barred as a boxing professional serving in the Great War. Bert enters and loses though Kilmartin wins, through bribery. However, backed by Martha, Grace shames Edmund into paying Bert his cash reward, losing Kilmartin's support. While Edmund's agent Bairstow blackmails Kilmartin into giving Edmund a cabinet post. Bert decides to give the money to his father to pay rental for a cattle barn.
Episode 2
Episode #2.2
58 mins
Whilst John struggles to maintain his dairy business without a milking barn, there are changes in the village. Grace is drawn to Labor candidate Bill Gibby and goes through the Peaks on his Sunday cycling club and she is impressed by his commitment to socialism, but her husband disapproves of their friendship. Nurse Joy Dangerfield arrives, to give family-planning advice to the likes of Norma Hankin and Marie Stopes. Martha Allingham is unhappy in her marriage to her shell-shocked husband George and takes a job at the school with Gerard Eyre. Arnold Hankin decides to open a dance hall, leaving his son Gilbert in charge of the factory, where an accident causes a pregnant Agnes to lose her job. Gilbert escorts Agnes, the former mistress of Bairstow, to the dance hall opening, and the two men fight for her there. A love letter is misdirected, making Bert Middleton believe it was from Martha. When letter writer Phoebe invites him to the dance, she is dismayed to discover his feelings for Martha. Clem Allingham is encouraged by Bairstow to find a wife for her son Edmund, but he is in love with another man. Bairstow knows Edmund is a homosexual and makes subtle digs, upsetting Edmund's lover, Robert, causing them to break-up.
Episode 3
Episode #2.3
59 mins
John Middleton makes a deal to sell milk at the Hankins' shop after Rutter's herd is stricken with tuberculosis. He begins to make a success at last whilst Grace and Bill try to get Agnes reinstated at the factory. Clem Allington tells son Edmund that, as a prospective member of parliament, he should not give his opponent Labor candidate Bill a martyr and Agnes is taken on by Norma Hankin as her maid. As her secret lover, Bairstow reveals her pregnancy to Norma who sacks her. Agnes prepares to leave the village but the adoring Gilbert stops her. Kilmartin's daughter Harriet arrives at the Allinghams with Clem anxious to create a marriage of convenience for Edmund and Harriet thinks it's a good idea...but for different reasons. Bert starts to date Phoebe. On polling day, Bill Gibby, voted for by George and Grace but not John, wins the election to be the local MP defeating Edmund Allington. After a delay, a Labor government is formed. Emboldened by this victory, Grace challenges Edmund to give the name and details of the child born to Caro and her son Joe, given up for adoption at birth.
Episode 4
Episode #2.4
59 mins
1924: Bert considers leaving the village after receiving a postcard from Ghana Jones in London. Meanwhile, he acts as best man as pregnant Agnes marries Gilbert Hankin. Arnold Hankin holds their reception in his dance hall and is positive about the marriage but his bitter wife Norma resents the fact that Gilbert has married someone pregnant woman by another man. After the wedding, Martha and Gerard succumb to passion in the school room whilst Bert and Phoebe go for a walk on the moors and are confronted by a sour-faced gamekeeper as the Allinghams are now fencing off the land. On the morning of Edmund's wedding to Harriet Kilmartin, Lady Clem discovers that he is, indeed, a homosexual after catching his lover sneaking out of his bedroom. She makes him go through with the marriage for show. The Conservatives return to power and Edmund regains his seat. Bert decides to accept Ghana Jones' offer to join him in America, leaving behind both his family and Phoebe. The villagers become angry when they are denied their traditional routes across Allingham lands. Minister Robin Lane organizes a peaceful protest, and Grace is delighted when Bill Gibby returns after a year's absence and joins their peaceful protest on newly-enclosed lands. Violence erupts when John Middleton sees his wife in Gibby's arms just before a severe blow to the head with a gun-butt knocks him unconscious as guns are turned on the ramblers who trespass.
Episode 5
Episode #2.5
59 mins
As John Middleton lies in a coma, gossip spreads through the village about the nature of Grace's relationship with Bill Gibby. Bairstow initiates a police investigation into the mass trespass, and Bert Middleton and Gerard Eyre are arrested for rioting. Two hectoring policemen arrive, more intent on proving the villagers were trespassing than finding out who brutally attacked John. Grace seeks help from Bill Gibby, whose declaration of love sets tongue's wagging. Principled George Allingham, a journalist, is leaned on by his family to demonize the ramblers and by the police to incriminate Gilbert Hankin, Bert and Gerard Eyre, refusing the latter. He is under more stress when Martha leaves him for Gerard, though the Allinghams will not sanction a divorce. Bairstow seeks to discredit Bill as a witness but, in an act of altruism by George, he arranges to be found in bed with a maid to discredit himself as a witness, and thereby free his wife Martha to divorce him and marry Eyre. This leads to a not-guilty verdict and raising grounds for the divorce.
Episode 6
Episode #2.6
59 mins
Lady Clem makes it clear that she will block any divorce as Martha moves back with her father, who is now living with nurse Joy Dangerfield. John wakes from his coma, but has speech impairment, and Phoebe works as his speech therapist. Grace worries that he remembers seeing her with Bill Gibby, and Bert becomes angry at his mother. Grace and John reconcile. Bill Gibby, whose party is out of power, but is leader of the Sheffield city council, returns. He is anxious to build a reservoir for clean water for Sheffield, but this will involve flooding the village as Grace discovers, announcing the plan to the villagers, who give her whole-hearted support in opposing it as does Edmund. Sour Norma Hankin has cause to smile on discovering she is pregnant. Edmund Allingham tries to sack agent Bairstow but is thwarted when he threatens to reveal his sexuality to the Daily Mail. Caro demands to see her son by Joe Middleton sent at birth to an orphanage but the family claims he is dead, and she attempts suicide. She is rescued by George and Bairstow who locate the child and bring him to Caro, who in turn take the grandchild to the Middletons. Martha and Gerard leave the village school to work in Africa and Bert proposes to Phoebe, who accepts.