readingredhead | Hargrave Hall: A (made-up) Regency period drama, starring Alex Kingston (Reply)

In response to a fake TV show meme on Tumblr. I may have put too much thought into this, you guys. But I might also have my Script Frenzy project for April already...

Title: Hargrave Hall

Prompt: Alex Kingston, Regency period drama (thanks,

damelola !)

Type: One-hour network drama

Setting: Hargrave Hall (Sussex) and London

Synopsis: Fifteen years ago, Cecily Hargrave lost everything. Her father died, turning over their estate and his title as baronet to Cecily's irresponsible younger brother, James. The man she was set to marry was captured in France in the early days of the French Revolution and presumed dead. And the one man she thought she loved returned to America -- but not before double-crossing James in a business deal that cost him and Cecily their fortune. Too poor to marry, too well-bred to find real work, Cecily pulled herself together and found a way to make a living doing the one thing she was always good at: helping young women behave in society and find eligible husbands. By 1805, she's trained scores of young girls in the womanly arts, guided them through coming-out and the horrors of the London season, and overseen more than her fair share of successful matches. But when Mr. Wright -- the one who got away, and took her money with him -- returns to London to enroll his daughter in Cecily's school, she's forced to confront the past she's spent so long trying to forget.

Cecily Hargrave (Alex Kingston)

Cecily has always seen the marriage market for the game that it is, and it's a game she knows how to play. She's a tough businesswoman, the kind of person always being gossiped about at the edges of the ballroom, but she's also observant and knows how to bide her time and deploy information to her best advantage. By now, most people -- including her own brother -- have learned not to cross her if they want their reputations to remain intact.

She cares about the girls that she instructs at Hargrave Hall, but she'd rather see them marry up in the world than sacrifice social status for mere infatuation. It's not that she doesn't believe in love -- but she's older and wiser now than she was fifteen years ago, and she understands that for women in the upper tier of Regency society, love can be a grave weakness.

James Hargrave (Rupert Penry Jones)

Cecily's impulsive and irresponsible younger brother can be charming when he wants to be, and despite his fiscal troubles, some still consider him to be an eligible bachelor. His mismanaging of the family finances, coupled with his gambling problems, has driven him to the brink of bankruptcy, and he often resorts to asking his sister for her aid, which she gives him on the condition that he never attempt to attract one of her rich pupils. A prideful man, James resents Cecily for forbidding him from visiting at Hargrave Hall, but not as much as he resents William Wright for getting the better of him fifteen years ago. He's determined to get back at them both...and with the arrival in London of William's attractive young daughter and news of her substantial dowry, James might just have figured out how to do it.

William Wright (Gabriel Macht)

Heir to a New York-based shipping enterprise, William has drastically expanded the family business, to the point where he may have bitten off more than he can chew. With the death of his wife and a downturn in business, he's decided to return to London for a time, hoping to rein in some of his foreign business associates and, if necessary, use his daughter as a chess piece in the tangled game of alliance negotiations. He isn't heartless, but his shrewdness often leads him to go for the kill before he can understand exactly how many people in addition to his main target may be affected by his actions. He never says sorry -- and never once, in fifteen years, has he bothered to set the story straight with Cecily about the exact role he played in the loss of the Hargrave family's fortune...

Carrie Wright (Saoirse Ronan)

Brought up by her mother in a secluded mansion in upstate New York while her father conducted business throughout the Atlantic, Carrie dislikes busy cities and would rather spend her time alone in her library with a book than at a ball searching out eligible young men. Her mother's death after a long illness causes her to retreat further behind a mask of shyness, but her father is determined that she will marry to advantage by the time she turns eighteen.

Josephine Darrow (Joanne Froggatt)

Josephine is the closest thing Cecily has ever had to a friend. The unmarried youngest daughter of a mere gentleman farmer, she's never matched up to Cecily's wealth, but her musical and artistic talents make her a perfect instructor for the girls at Hargrave Hall. As Cecily's unofficial second-in-command, she balances her friend's strict pragmatism with measured optimism. Josephine may be an unrealistic romantic, but as she tells Cecily, when you don't have anything else, dreams become currency of their own, and you never know when they might come true.

Isabelle Evans (Charity Wakefield)

Isabelle is one of the oldest girls at Hargrave Hall, with a rebellious streak that reminds Cecily a bit of herself when she was younger. What Cecily doesn't know is that Isabelle is far less interested in finding a husband than in flirting with the other girls, and marriage to any man is nowhere on her list of priorities -- which is why her family sent her to Hargrave Hall in the first place.

Viscount Thomas Archer (Alan Rickman) Special Guest Star

The elder brother of the man Cecily was set to marry before his untimely death, the Viscount is well-connected and has money to spare. Although he's used to wealth and prestige, he can be a shrewd businessman, and although his charitable donations to Hargrave Hall have made him Cecily's greatest benefactor over the years, she repays the favor by complying with his occasional requests for sensitive information about the families who have relinquished their daughters to her care.