Incredibly Bleak British Production

[silvertaff]

A few years ago I caught the beginning of an incredibly bleak British production of what appeared to be a TV adaptation of perhaps a 19th century novel? It began with a poverty-stricken woman giving birth to a stillborn baby in a ramshackle dwelling and wrapping the corpse in cloth before she ventured off. She came to a village (at night) and was invited in to a family home where the evening meal was in progress and things seemed pretty tense. It had the feel of Charles Dickens or Jane Austen - only much bleaker. Any ideas, anyone?

[emmie]

sounds like Dickens, but doesn't ring a bell. Thomas Hardy maybe, his stories are pretty bleak

[silvertaff]

A friend has suggested George Eliot's 'Adam Bede'. Can anyone confirm this?

[Tilly2]

If you google 'plot for Adam Bede' it might help you to decide.

[jno]

two threads going on this, I've posted on the other one

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Arts-and-Literature/Question1239256.html#answer-7974814

[jno]

a 1992 TV version

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101271/

[silvertaff]

Thanks, all. I've checked synopses and plot descriptions and detect similarities though can't be sure without viewing what I watched again. No clips of the 1992 adaptation seem to be on-line so I'll have to end my search here. Many thanks for all suggestions.