Daily News Online Edition---Saturday, September 12, 1998

Victorian Drama Stands The 'Tess' of Time

By KAY GARDELLA

It's ironic, as well as coincidental, that forgiveness, a word and concept so much in today's news, should be the underlying theme of Thomas Hardy's "Tess of the D'Urbervilles," which stars comely Justine Waddell as the novel's tragic heroine.

Timely 'Tess' explores moral digression.

Televised on cable's A & E Sunday and Monday nights at 9, the visually rewarding production moves at a leisurely pace befitting the lengthy literary classic, as a narrator intermittently nudges the drama along with passages from the author's work. This storytelling technique is extremely satisfying, and it connects a viewer to the author, as one senses his understanding and compassion for his ill-fated heroine.

True, moral attitudes have changed since Tess struggled to find happiness in rural 19th-century England, but what hasn't changed is the comfort mankind takes in judging others. Such opportunities for exercising self-righteousness are as hard to pass up today as they were when Tess' one moral digression turned the tide of her life.

Poverty-stricken as Tess' overpopulated family may be, its members are comforted by her father's newly acquiredknowledge that they're descendants of a noble family, the D'Urbervilles. Immediately, Tess is sent off to her alleged distant relatives' estate to find work. She does find work, and more: Alec D'Urberville seduces the young innocent and makes her pregnant.

As played by Jason Flemyng, Alec is a scoundrel right out of our early melodramas, with the only thing missing being a black cape. He even has a black moustache, but thank heavens, he doesn't twirl it.

As for Waddell, she beautifully captures Tess' independent spirit and unwillingness to settle for less than love. That's why she flees the estate, and Alec, and heads for home to rear her baby.

Eventually, though, she meets her true love, Angel Clare (Oliver Milburn). With his proposal of marriage she faces a moral question: Should she tell him about Alec? Would he be forgiving and still love her? She tries, but the confession is delayed until their wedding night.

What follows, as Hardy so sensitively demonstrates in his writings, is the result of the harsh, rigid, unbending standards that dictated behavior in 19th-century England.

The pastoral scenes and realistic depiction of farm life are as much stars of the drama as the fine cast. Sally Head was the executive producer of this meticulous production, which was directed by Ian Sharp and written by Ted Whitehead. All in all, it's a superb job, though viewers do have to adjust to its pace.