Tom Jones (ITVX) | itv.com
Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story (Netflix)
A Small Light (Disney+)
Black Ops BBC One | iPlayer
In the week of the coronation of Charles III, it feels fitting to encounter not one but two bustles-and-britches period dramas. The first, Tom Jones (ITVX), is an adaptation of Henry Fielding’s 1749 anti-elitist satire on class and hypocrisy, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (made into the 1963 film starring Albert Finney, and a 1997 BBC series). Adapted by Gwyneth Hughes (Vanity Fair) and directed by Georgia Parris, this Tom Jones is a lean four episodes (the 2005 Penguin Classic edition is 1,024 pages long). It stars Solly McLeod as the eponymous comic romantic hero, who was abandoned as a baby (“a gift from God!”) and raised by kindly Squire Allworthy (James Fleet).
