Adam Bede (1992) is a BBC production for Screen One. (It's hard to find it on IMDb, because it's listed as an episode of Screen One.) It was directed by Giles Foster from a novel written by George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans). Adam Bede was written in 1859, so it was definitely a Victorian novel, but it was set in 1799. (Even then, writers were looking back at a more bucolic rural England.)
Iain Glen does a fine acting job as Adam Bede, an upright, honest carpenter. Unfortunately, he's in love with Hetty Sorrel, portrayed by Patsy Kensit. There's an interesting set of love triangles, because Hetty is in love with the local squire's grandson, who is a dashing captain in the army.
Susannah Harker plays Dinah Morris, who is a young woman who lives in Northern England, and works in a cotton mill. She visits the area, and takes the opportunity to act as a Methodist preacher. She should be in love with Adam, but she is determined to stay unmarried and spend her life helping others. Adam should be in love with her, but he's too smitten with Hetty to notice Dinah as far more noble and suitable for his love.
Being smitten with Hetty isn't hard. Patsy Kensit was astonishingly beautiful when she played the part of someone who is supposed to be astonishingly beautiful. (She's also vain, as director Foster tells us as he shoots scene after scene with Hetty looking into a mirror.) Kensit usually played roles in which she was blonde, but here--in a symbolic way--she has dark hair.
Susannah Harker was also astonishingly beautiful, but director Foster made sure to tell us that she was a pure, caring person. (She dresses very simply, she has light hair, and she never looks in a mirror.)
Author Evans sets up the basic situation as I outlined it above, and then she moves the story forward with clever plot devices. Director Foster knows that he is directing an adaptation of a great novel, and he proceeds accordingly.
This is an excellent movie, made for the small screen, and available on DVD. As we expect from a BBC production, all the details look right. (Obviously, I don't know what an English rural village looked like in 1799, but the production feels right when you watch it.)
I think this movie is definitely worth seeing. It's carrying an anemic IMDb rating of 6.9. I don't know why. Find it, watch it, and see for yourself.
