For those of you looking for something to tide you over till the next season of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale‘, you may want to take a look at this new Netflix mini-series based on one of Margaret Atwood’s other books, ‘Alias Grace‘.
The story of Alias Grace follows Grace Marks (Sarah Gadon – ‘11.22.63’, ‘Letterkenny’), a poor, young Irish immigrant and domestic servant in Upper Canada who, along with stable hand James McDermott (Kerr Logan – ‘Strike’, ‘Game of Thrones’), was convicted of the brutal murders of their employer, Thomas Kinnear (Paul Gross – ‘Due South’, ‘Republic of Doyle’), and housekeeper, Nancy Montgomery (Anna Paquin – ‘X-Men’ movies, ‘True Blood’), in 1843.
James was hanged while Grace was sentenced to life imprisonment. Grace became one of the most enigmatic and notorious women of 1840s Canada for her supposed role in the sensational double murder and was eventually exonerated after 30 years in jail. Her conviction was controversial and sparked much debate about whether Grace was actually involved in the murder, or merely an unwitting accessory.
Whilst the story is based on fact, Atwood added a number of fictional characters including Jeremiah Pontelli (Zachary Levi – ‘Chuck’, ‘Thor’ movies), a handsome peddler that visits the Parkinson’s House where Grace works as a young teenager, housemaid Mary Whitney (Rebecca Liddiard – ‘Saving Hope’, ‘Between’), and Dr. Simon Jordan (Edward Holcroft – ‘Wolf Hall’, ‘London Spy’), an American doctor who is brought to Kingston, Ontario to write a report on Grace.
‘Alias Grace‘ streams onto Netflix from Friday, 3rd November 2017.
