Adaptations
In 1970, the BBC produced a television miniseries based on Villette, directed by Moira Armstrong and written by Lennox Phillips. It starred Judy Parfitt as Lucy Snowe, Bryan Marshall as Dr Graham Bretton, Peter Jeffrey as Paul Emmanuel, and Mona Bruce as Mme Beck.
In 1999, the novel was also adapted as a 3-hour radio serial for BBC Radio 4, broadcast in February 1999 with Catherine McCormack as Lucy Snowe, Joseph Fiennes as Dr Graham Bretton, Harriet Walter as Mme Beck, James Laurenson as Paul Emmanuel, and Keira Knightley as Polly. It was directed by Catherine Bailey and written by James Friel. Villette went on to win a Sony Award.
In August 2009, the novel was also adapted as a two week-long serial for BBC Radio 4, directed by Tracey Neale with Anna Maxwell Martin as Lucy.
Jamaica Kincaid's novel Lucy draws numerous themes, character names, and plot elements from Villette, both echoing its concern of female repression while also offering an implicit postcolonial critique of the novel's slave-owning love interest.
Read more about this topic: Villette (novel)