“The Village” is a BBC television series penned by Peter Moffat. The drama unfolds in a Derbyshire village during the 20th century. The inaugural series, which Moffat envisions as the beginning of a 42-hour TV epic, aired in the spring of 2013 and spanned the years from 1914 to 1920. A second series has been slated for 2014, set to advance the narrative into the 1920s. Future installments are planned to explore periods such as the Second World War and post-war Austerity Britain.
The series narrates the life in a Derbyshire village through the perspective of the main character, Bert Middleton. Bert is depicted at different stages of his life: as a child by Bill Jones, as a teenager by Alfie Stewart, and as an elderly man by David Ryall. John Simm portrays Bert’s father, John Middleton, an alcoholic farmer in the Peak District, while Maxine Peake plays Bert’s mother, Grace. Peake, a favored actress of Moffat, has been described by him as “the best actress of her generation” and has appeared in two of his previous series, “Criminal Justice” and “Silk.”
Peter Moffat has expressed his ambition to create “a British Heimat,” referencing Edgar Reitz’s extensive German saga “Heimat,” which chronicled the life of an extended family in the Rhineland from 1919 to 1982. Unlike “Downton Abbey,” this series presents a working-class perspective on history, where “domestics are expected to face the walls when the master walks by.”