Miranda Richardson is Mother Cecilia who seems to be ‘Good’. But Mattie is hanged as a witch at the end of the episode because the monk doctor, Brother Joseph (David Bradley), does not approve of her methods, she is half Moor, and she has a third nipple – ultimate proof of being a witch. She actually wants to be an independent woman – a doctor – as Mattie Wise is (played by Indira Varma). Forced into marriage to Alfred Builder, who later throws her out, she exchanges meaningful glances with Merthin, the son of the deposed Earl of Shiring, throughout the episode. She is the aunt of Caris, played by Charlotte Riley (who was in the tv adaptation of Wuthering Heights with Tom Hardy a few years ago), who is the main heroine of the piece. Cynthia Nixon is a ‘villain’ – Petranilla – who in the course of the first episode kills her sister-in-law in order to be able to sell her house and live for free with her brother, the wooler, and then kills her other brother, the Prior, so that her son Godwyn can become Prior. But so far, after one episode, it doesn’t have the coherency or excitement that Pillars did.Īrguably it doesn’t have as high profile a cast, but there are a great deal of ‘names’ in it.

It has already had a witch trial as well. It still has corrupt monks, corrupt regents, corrupt earls and corrupt traders. Channel 4 are now showing the follow up to The Pillars of the Earth, set a couple of hundred years later but still primarily based in Kingsbridge – World Without End. I haven’t read Ken Follett’s books though I suspect I would probably enjoy them if I got round to them. But mainly it was about the building of the cathedral.

There were plots about corrupt monks, corrupt traders, corrupt earls and corrupt kings and queens. There was Hayley Atwell in it and Eddie Redmayne with ‘red’ hair. Ian McShane was Waleran, a corrupt bishop who flagellated himself and was the best kind of villain to watch. The main characters included Tom Builder played by Rufus Sewell who was in charge of building Kingsbridge Cathedral – and it was in that market town that the main dramas unfolded, although the story also flitted back to the Monarch’s court and the local Earl. But it had a great cast – a range of characters and stories – heroes and villains. I enjoyed it, though it did drag on a bit. The Pillars of the Earth, the tv miniseries adapted from the Ken Follett book, was shown on Channel 4 at the end of 2010.

Gwenda world without end