The late-Georgian stage is set for a fine gothic thriller, as a servant is dragged screaming from her blood-sodden mistress’s bed and arrested for the murders of her and the master of the house, who is splayed out on the floor downstairs. The accused, grief-stricken and protesting her innocence, is thrown into the filth of the nearest prison – and thereby hangs the entire tale.
Indeed, The Confessions of Frannie Langton, adapted by Sara Collins from her 2019 novel of the same name, is a fine gothic thriller. The mysterious murder is in place. There is Pooky Quesnel as the housekeeper Linux, who makes Mrs Danvers look like Amelia Bedelia. There is also a missing boy; hints of unspeakably loathsome practices in the background; and a slow-burning, illicit Sapphic relationship to leaven the mix without lowering the tension. And it is set in a firelit 1826.
