The Mill: Series One

A Dickensian flavor pervades this British series that mixes fact and fiction to tell the story of owners and workers at the Quarry Bank Mill in Cheshire during the Industrial Revolution in England. Set in the early 1830s, The Mill contrasts the attitudes of Samuel Greg (Donald Sumpter), founder of the textile manufactory, and his son, Robert (Jamie Draven). Samuel, a man of high motives, sees his hiring of women and children out of workhouses as philanthropic, a view shared by his wife, Hannah (Barbara Marten), who is also active in the abolitionist movement. By contrast, Robert is more pragmatic, believing in modernizing machinery and imposing harsh punishment on troublesome workers. The laborers' perspectives come from Esther Price (Kerrie Hayes), who is radicalized by the often brutal actions of supervisors and overseers; an apprentice named Tommy (Connor Dempsey), who loses a hand to one of the machines; and Daniel (Matthew McNulty), an engineer who is torn between self-interest and the agitation of a labor organizer promoting parliamentary passage of a 10-hour-workday bill. Shot on actual locations at the mill in Cheshire (preserved as a museum of the cotton industry), as well as newly constructed sets, the series features an appropriately dark and gritty look, with exemplary attention paid to period detail. Compiling all four episodes from the 2013 first season, this is highly recommended. (F. Swietek)