Thomas Hardy: Scripting the Irrational

Through creative practice and critical engagement this thesis argues that film and television adaptations of the work of Thomas Hardy have failed to capture elements of his writing both in terms of content and form. Hardy’s writing is infused with references to the folkloric practices and beliefs that he grew up with in nineteenth-century Dorset; much of this folklore concerned itself with the irrational and the practice of witchcraft in particular. Hardy was also keen from the outset to explore adventurous narrative patterns, anticipating literary styles that were to come and this is mirrored in the form that the series takes and the attention given to it in the critical elements of the thesis. Yet these aspects of his work have been largely ignored by production companies in their quest to present Hardy’s work to the financially lucrative heritage market both here in the UK and in North America. This is a market in which the inclusion of any supernatural elements presented in a slightly challenging manner, would simply not fit with the kind of past they are recreating and their attempts to offer the nostalgia of a safe and rurally idyllic picture of nineteenth-century England. This practice-led thesis has involved scripting a five-episode mini-series for television with the aim of addressing this situation; the series, The Haunting of Mr Hardy, comprises adaptations of four of his dark short stories plus one original episode. The scripts will make an important contribution to knowledge about Hardy and their appearance is timely in that the contemporary television audience seem to have an increasing appetite for the weird and eerie, witnessed by the growing popularity of the folk horror genre. To most viewers it will be a little seen side of Thomas Hardy’s work and the series will be as much about their creator and narrator as the stories he is narrating.