The Essex Serpent might sound like something you’d unwittingly encounter at the urinals of the Be At One in Chelmsford, but, from the first moments of this adaptation of Sarah Perry’s acclaimed 2016 novel, it’s clear this is something very different. This is Essex at its most primal: a gloomy, ominous landscape that, pulled back to this late-19th-century setting, feels trapped in the mists of prehistory. In short, a far cry from Gemma Collins.
Cora Seaborne (Claire Danes), a strikingly independent woman of newly acquired means (thanks to the death of her villainous husband), leaves London for the Essex coast, where strange rumours of a winged serpent abound. There, she encounters local vicar Will Ransome (Tom Hiddleston), and witnesses a society on the brink of collapse, as whispers of the monster beneath the surface bring about a stand-off between Christianity, science, and folkloric tradition. While Will represents rational religion, in its dying days, Cora is present at the genesis of scientific understanding. “Natural history is my passion,” she announces proudly at the funeral of her brutish spouse. “We must all follow our passions.”
