A Woman of Substance (1985)

This is maybe the only thing I’ve ever seen Jenny Seagrove in, in which I thought she was any good. She is the young “Emma” who works as a maid for the wealthy “Fairley” family at their stately home. The youngest son of the house, “Edwin” (Peter Chelsom) and she take a shine to each other but society isn’t ever going to let them marry and so ensuing events sow in her a determination not just to succeed but to destroy the “Fairley” dynasty too. She moves away and falls on her feet, becoming an apprentice to a Jewish tailoring family. Having some aptitude for design and learned some of the basics, she then meets “Joe” (John Duttine) from whom she rents a shop, then another then finally establishes her first emporium (before marrying the man). By now, her nemesis family is being slowly ruined by “Gerald” (Dominic Guard) and so she scents her chance to bring them to their knees. Of course, her own dedication to her work is causing it’s own problems for her family and the more successful she becomes, the more isolated she seems to make herself. The Great War comes along and her ability to churn out uniforms by the thousand cements her fortune, but personal tragedy is never far away and we know from the opening scenes that she (later Deborah Kerr) is destined to have to fight right til the end. This story does meander a little, but it is still quite a solid characterisation of life in England’s gentry-controlled mill towns as the Victorian era gave way to the Edwardian one, and then the war offered opportunity to a great many of the largely uneducated population hitherto tied to a factory and a dead-end job for life. I struggled with Liam Neeson’s portrayal of the honourable and decent “Blackie” and the modern-day storyline seemed a little unnecessary, even if Kerr shines as usual, but for the most part this is a well produced, nicely scored and good looking drama with pokes at socially restrictive attitudes - many entirely self-induced, class and bigotry with some effect.