Take one boy. Put him in the 18th century, and add a tortured romance along with some high wigs. Mix together with a smattering – make that a lot – of sex, and what you have is Tom Jones, ITV’s newest period drama.
Adapted from the 1749 book by Henry Fielding, we follow foundling Tom Jones (Solly McLeod) as he grows up and his various adventures in love. The story was ground-breaking for its time, featuring various love affairs, prostitution, the prospect of incest and, as screenwriter Gwyneth Hughes says, rather a lot of sex.
“I was quite reluctant to take it on,” Hughes says. “It’s a million pages long. I thought it would just be some sort of randy shag fest. I mean, it is. But I thought that’s all it was. I just got the wrong end of the stick, and picked it up rather glumly and you know, within a couple of pages was so addicted to it.”
Did Hughes baulk at adapting such a beloved classic? Not a bit of it. “I’ve taken big chunks out of the middle stuff that wasn’t centrally to do with the relationship between Tom and Sophia, I mean, you know, the meat of the rom com, if you like,” she says.
“Famously, Tom Jones has been described as having one of the most perfect plots in the whole universe. And it is perfect, but it takes him 200 pages to unravel it.”
Despite the book’s perfect plot, it was pretty much an unknown for McLeod, who admits he had never heard of Tom Jones before the show came along – “I’m not the most studious person, you could say,” he admits. “I had no idea.” – and baulked at the idea of having to do Tom’s Welsh accent.
Nevertheless, he soon fell in love with the character of Tom. “He starts his story [as] a young man. He’s very energetic, loves nature; loves life, basically.” As McLeod puts it, Tom’s dalliances over the series are formative experiences that help him grow up and develop a sense of perspective.
“He slowly starts to realise about actions having consequences… but also what’s nice is that he changes and grows up and doesn’t lose that part of himself. He doesn’t lose that love or that innocence, which is what kind of draws you to him.”
However, make no mistake: this show is not just about Tom and how many ladies he can seduce over the course of four episodes.
“It’s absolutely clear that for Fielding and for us, men and women have absolutely equal sexual desires. They’re just not quite able to act on them equally. I think that’s still the case.” Hughes says.
Tom’s foil and love interest for much of the series is Sophia, played here by Sophie Wilde – who says that the show is just as much a coming-of-age story for her character as it is for Tom’s.
“She does start off somewhat sheltered and naive. But I think she’s always had this kind of fiery energy and is not passive… her journey is very much her finding her kind of autonomy in the world and, and finding where she fits in and what her desires are,” Wilde says.
In a departure from the book, the Sophia of the show is mixed-race, descended from a Jamaican slave and brought back to the UK as a wealthy heiress. It’s part of a modernisation of the adaptation, that director Georgia Parris says she was determined to make happen.
“I loved the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, and Mr Darcy had a big effect on me,” she says. “But… I would hope that if there is a younger audience watching this, when you’re looking at true love, and consent, and forgiveness and themes like that that we have tried to prise out, that we’ve showed it in a slightly different, more relevant, more modern way.”
It is, she says, “a slightly new era of period dramas.”
“I personally feel a responsibility if you’re going to do an adaptation of something that has been done before, and done well. Why are we making this show, and how is it going to have a contemporary relevance? That was hugely important to me.”
In addition, Hughes made the issue of consent a central one. “The only person whose consent is ever in question in this story is Tom’s; all the women are willing,” she says.
“Tom’s consent becomes an issue when he gets involved [with] Lady B. And that’s extremely touching. And it’s from the universal fear of losing control of your life, like he does in that relationship.”
The Lady B in question is Lady Bellaston, played here by Ted Lasso star Hannah Waddingham – with whom McLeod had to coordinate a fair few sex scenes along with the help of an intimacy coordinator.
“Thankfully, the three jobs that I’ve had an intimacy coordinator on, it’s more like a supportive pair of eyes and ears,” Waddingham says.
“But actually, each time and particularly with Solly, I think you find your own rhythm… [drawing on] their friendship with each other, his escapism with her and to a point hers with him. So it does become choreographed with the intimacy coordinator, but actually, I think it’s just like a support there. I think most of it was us really.”
Nowadays, Waddingham’s star is flying high: in addition to her breakout role in Ted Lasso, she’s also appeared in Sex Education and Game of Thrones over the past few years.
“I did 23 years straight in musical theatre and plays, with a kind of smattering of TV. And looking back, that is exactly how I would have had it. Because it means you don’t get above yourself, you value everything that comes your way,” she says.
“The luxury that Ted [Lasso] and Game of Thrones and Sex Ed have given me [is] that I can see where I want to sit in something; if I want to sit in something. And that’s what drew me to this piece. I was very aware of everyone in it. And you can just feel those ingredients and if they’re gonna fizz together.”
This being a period drama, there are of course gorgeous costumes galore. “Probably with my heels and the wig and the feathers, I was literally about seven foot tall,” Bellingham says. “Not even joking.”
“I feel like the novelty wears off after maybe like the first day,” Wilde adds. “You’re like, ‘This is amazing.’ And then you’re like, ‘Oh, I’m wearing this for three months.’”
When the show does arrive this week, just don’t expect the next Bridgerton. As Hughes puts it, this is instead a “universally fantastic classic story about love; about a boy who is just made of pure love. You know, forget toxic masculinity. This boy is what boys should be like. And that’s what Fielding was saying. Fielding made him like this.”
