The 2008 is my second favorite, but given the amount of time they had to establish the story and characters (four episodes) but it fell short . I couldn’t stand Eddie Redmayne’ s Angel and I actually thought Tess had more chemistry with Alec (I usually detest Alec, but Hans Matheson gave the character more depth) , but the ending was very moving and Arterton gave a very good performance. Jason Flemyng’s Alec was the more stereotypical seducer, and while Leigh Lawson gave a good performance in the 1979 movie, so many of the performances in that one were understated compared to the later television productions (both 1998 and 2008 adaptations had the benefit of filming in England, whereas the feature film had to be filmed in France) . A&E’s production will always have a special place in my heart, because it was the first that I saw and inspired me to read the novel, therefore introducing me to Thomas Hardy, and I think it deserves more attention than it gets. 🙂

Cool, good to know. I will have to set aside some time to watch this one. And thank you!

In my opinion, I prefer this version to the 2008 one. They both have great aspects to them, but I just connected to Justine Waddell’s performance as Tess more. I also really liked the atmosphere of this adaptation. So personally, I like both, but this one is definitely my favorite between the two. By the way, I love your blog! 🙂

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