Wuthering Heights Stars Tom Hardy and Charlotte Riley Are Engaged

Kathy and Heathcliff (Charlotte Riley and Tom Hardy)

Tom and Charlotte hit if off from the moment they met on the set of Wuthering Heights, and now they are engaged. Considering his appearance as Heathcliff, I'd say that Tom cleans up well. Very well.

Charlotte and Tom shortly after their engagement

Tom and Charlotte at the Inception premiere, July 2010

Read more about the couple in the article from People magazine.

Tom Hardy – Mr. Darcy Wannabe

British actor Tom Hardy, who recently portrayed the brutishly demented Heathcliff in the BBC/PBS production of Wuthering Heights, has aspirations of classic romantic icon grandeur. Despite his best known performances as bad boy thugs, gangsters and bullies he would actually prefer to play classic archetypes such as The Oresteia, Romulus and Remus, Iago and Othello, Tamburlaine the Great – and Pride and Prejudice’s Mr. Darcy. Yes, Mr. Darcy! In a recent interview for the Telegram.co.uk, he revealed his first failed attempt to convince movie producers that he had the Darcy noble mien.

In fact, Hardy says he very nearly won the part of Darcy in Joe Wright’s 2005 film of Pride and Prejudice, where Matthew MacFadyen in the end played opposite Keira Knightley. And he was gutted when the very powerful Stacey Snider, ex-head of Universal Pictures, now CEO of Steven Spielberg’s company Dreamworks, told him: “Babe, every woman in the world has an impression of who Darcy is and you’re just not it.”

“That hurt, that really hurt,” Hardy recalls now. “I’d worn a blue shirt and jeans and a blue blazer and been doing my best Hugh Grant impression. But now I was back to playing the wonky skewiff-teeth kid with the bow legs.”

Even though the “blue coat” worked for Mr. Bingley as an enticement to the Bennet sisters in Pride and Prejudice, don’t you know that you just can’t make a silk purse out of sow’s ear Mr. Hardy? We admire you in those nasty boy roles. Stick to what you do best and leave by your dreams of Darcy!

Cheers, Laurel Ann, Austenprose

PBS gets twisted with new Oliver this Sunday

Last season Masterpiece Classic gave us The Complete Jane Austen and our world was all propriety, parlor room drama and romance. Life was good. Our happily-ever-after was complete. That was before the economic downfall.

How appropriate that PBS has turned its tenor to the darker side of life with The Tale of Charles Dickens, four new adaptations of the Victorian author's famous works. Beginning the season will be a new production of Oliver Twist, a bleak look at the economic woes of early Victorian England that could soon match our own spirits. How timely of them to know so far in advance that this classic story would mirror our own troubles. It’s not all doom and gloom though. The famous story of the young orphan Oliver Twist is as compelling as ever and the cast shines. Here’s a look at a few of the major male players.

Eleven year old William Miller (Oliver Twist) beat out 700 other Oliver hopefuls to win the part of classic literatures most endearing waif. The son of actress Janine Wood and director Sam Miller, he is a relative newcomer to acting and if given a choice he is uncertain about continuing, preferring football. What young boy would not?



Timothy Spall (Fagin) is a self professed Dickens fan and a regular on Masterpiece Classics as of late featuring in last seasons A Room With (2008) and Nicholas Nickleby (2002). He may be most recognizable in his role as Peter Pettigrew in the Harry Potter films. Watch an online interview of Timothy Spall about his interpretation of Fagin for a modern audience.



Tom Hardy (Bill Sikes) returns to Masterpiece after portraying Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights last month and in The Virgin Queen (2005). Some of Hardy’s other films include Band of Brothers (2001), Marie Antoinette (2006) and Sweeney Todd (2006). Playing the sinister Bill Sikes should be an easy role for him and fun for us to watch.

Check out the Oliver Twist website at Masterpiece Classics and sign up for a free drawing for a copy of the book. Be sure to tune in this Sunday February 15th at 9:00 pm (check your local listing) and concluding on the 22nd.

Cheers, Laurel Ann, Austenprose