Apple Tree Yard: From the writer of BBC smash hit drama 'Crossfire'

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There is a strong message here that – contrary to what you might be led to believe from Every Other Drama On Television – female sexuality doesn’t suddenly end at 35, but can become more powerful and more profound. Certainly for Yvonne it does, even if it somehow leads her to court. The four-part series was released on DVD and Blu-ray on 20 February 2017. [9] Accolades [ edit ] Year

Award-winning writer Hilary Mantel comments hauntingly about this story: ‘There cannot be a woman alive who hasn’t once realised, in a moment of panic, that she is in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong man.’ Shortlisted for the CWA Steel Dagger for Best Thriller and the Specsavers National Book Awards Crime & Thriller of the Year International Emmy Award Nominations Unveiled". Variety. 27 September 2018 . Retrieved 27 November 2018. Later, at home, Yvonne can scarcely believe what she has done: it is totally out of character. But in the days to come, she becomes obsessed with finding her random lover again, and succeeds in doing so.

Her trial in the Old Bailey is less concerned with DNA evidence, finally hinging on a much more observable detail: the London laneway that she and her secret lover slipped into, at the start of a horrifically fateful night. The side street, sheltered from prying eye and CCTV, gives Doughty’s her title, and a compelling four-part adaptation of the book gives BBC drama a much-needed boost in credibility (BBC One, Monday, 9pm). For its excellent supporting role, London is rewarded with an unlikely new tourist spot: a photo op for fans of forbidden fruit. Rape on television is often an unthinking plot device, used to destroy women or spur avenging males. Here, mercifully, Yvonne is not diminished; damaged but not destroyed. As the story gets darker, turning through consequences and revelations (rather than twists), it’s her power, more than her lover’s, that comes under close examination. She can influence others and deceive herself. Director Jessica Hobbs rations out plot details in a model of fleet visual storytelling and elliptical ambiguity. In her shots, the details of London tend to dissolve into soft focus, all watery blues and burning orange, as though the narrative winds between a daydream and panic of wakefulness. Emily Watson’s character, Yvonne Carmichael, looks out of the window as the vehicle in which she is travelling crosses a bridge over the Thames in London. She reflects on human nature, on the choices we make, how fear turns us into animals. The Thames can make you reflect, although Yvonne has more reason to do so than most. She is not on a bus, but in a prisoner transport van, possibly operated by G4S. She is cuffed and on the way to court, to be tried for murder. So begins this four-part adaptation of novelist (and Christmas University Challenge finalist) Louise Doughty’s psychological thriller Apple Tree Yard (BBC1, Sunday).

MyHome.ie (Opens in new window) • Top 1000 • The Gloss (Opens in new window) • Recruit Ireland (Opens in new window) • Irish Times Training (Opens in new window) Vincent, Alice (23 January 2017). "Emily Watson felt 'traumatised' by Apple Tree Yard rape scene". The Telegraph.

However, the rape scene was heavily criticised by several victim support organisations, with Rape Crisis England and Wales spokeswoman Katie Russell branding the scene "harrowing". [ citation needed] Apple Tree Yard was produced by Kudos Film & Television (production company). Apple Tree Yard does feel like a very female thing. And that’s good. Female in a positive, powerful, celebratory way, too. Although I didn’t feel much of a bond with it, or with Carmichael – in spite of Watson’s excellent performance. Or with Chaplin either, to be fair, but his is more of a role than a character. This is about her, and because this part is all about how she feels, it would help if I felt more for her.