''Howards End'' is a British-American television drama based on the 1910 novel of the same name by E. M. Forster. The series was adapted by

Kenneth Lonergan Kenneth Lonergan (born October 16, 1962) is an American film director, playwright, and screenwriter. He is the co-writer of the film '' Gangs of New York'' (2002), and wrote and directed '' You Can Count on Me'' (2000), ''Margaret'' (2011), and ...

, directed by

Hettie MacDonald Hettie Macdonald is an English film, theatre and television director. Macdonald is known as the director of the Hugo Award-winning 2007 episode of the '' Doctor Who'' series, "Blink", and won a Grand Prix award, an International Jury Award - Hon ...

, and stars

Hayley Atwell Hayley Elizabeth Atwell (born 5 April 1982) is a British and American actress. Born and raised in London, Atwell studied acting at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and made her stage debut in a 2005 production of James Kerr's translation ...

. The four-part series is a co-production between British network

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's Flagship (broadcasting), flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News ...

and American network

Starz Starz (stylized as STARZ since 2016; pronounced "stars") is an American premium cable and satellite television network owned by Lions Gate Entertainment, and is the flagship property of parent subsidiary Starz Inc. Programming on Starz consis ...

. It premiered on 12 November 2017 in the United Kingdom and 8 April 2018 in the United States.

Premise

''Howards End'' examines "the changing landscape of social and class divisions in turn-of-the-century England through the prism of three families: the intellectual and idealistic Schlegels, the wealthy Wilcoxes from the world of business and the working-class Basts."

Cast and characters

Main

as Margaret Schlegel *

Matthew Macfadyen David Matthew Macfadyen (; born 17 October 1974) is an English actor. Known for his performances on stage and screen, he gained prominence for his role as Mr. Darcy in Joe Wright's '' Pride & Prejudice'' (2005). He currently stars as Tom Wambsga ...

as Henry Wilcox * Philippa Coulthard as Helen Schlegel * Joseph Quinn as Leonard Bast * Joe Bannister as Charles Wilcox * Rosalind Eleazar as Jacky Bast *

Alex Lawther Alexander Jonathan Lawther (born 4 May 1995) is an English actor. He made his professional acting debut originating the role of John Blakemore in Sir David Hare's '' South Downs'' in the West End. He made his feature film debut playing a young ...

as Tibby Schlegel *

Bessie Carter Bessie Beatrice Carter (born 25 October 1993) is an English actress. She is known for her role as Evie Wilcox on the BBC television series '' Howards End'' (2017) and Violet Woodhouse on the ITV television series '' Beecham House'' (2019). Ear ...

as Evie Wilcox * Jonah Hauer-King as Paul Wilcox *

Tracey Ullman Tracey Ullman (born Trace Ullman, 30 December 1959) is a British-American actress, comedian, singer, writer, producer, and director. Her earliest mainstream appearances were on British television sketch comedy shows '' A Kick Up the Eighties'' ( ...

as Aunt Juley Mund *

Julia Ormond Julia Karin Ormond (born 4 January 1965) is an English actress. She rose to prominence by appearing in ''The Baby of Mâcon'' (1993), '' Legends of the Fall'' (1994), ''First Knight'' (1995), '' Sabrina'' (1995), '' Smilla's Sense of Snow'' (19 ...

as Ruth Wilcox

Recurring

* Donna Banya as Annie * Yolanda Kettle as Dolly Wilcox *

Sandra Voe Sandra Voe (born 6 October 1936) is a Scottish actress of film, television, and theatre. Career Television and films Voe began her on screen career in 1966, appearing in an episode of '' Dr. Finlay's Casebook''. She has also appeared in ' ...

as Miss Avery * Gavin Brocker as Crane *

Miles Jupp Miles Hugh Barrett Jupp (born 8 September 1979) is an English actor, singer, and comedian. He began his career as a stand-up comedian before playing the role of the inventor Archie in the children's television series ''Balamory''. He also played ...

as Percy Cahill * William Belchambers as Burton * Hannah Traylen as Nancy

Guest

* Leonie Benesch as Frieda Mosenbach

Episodes

Production

Development

On 28 November 2012 it was announced that Playground Entertainment, in association with City Entertainment and KippSter Entertainment, had acquired the screen rights to E.M. Forster's novel ''Howards End'' with the intention of adapting it into a television drama for BBC Two. Executive producers for the production were set to include Colin Callender, Joshua D. Maurer, Alixandre Witlin, and David A. Stern. On 11 October 2013 it was announced that

had been chosen to adapt the novel. The production had yet to be greenlit by the BBC but it was reportedly expected to consist of four episodes. It was additionally announced that Polly Hill would be executive producing for the BBC. On 28 December 2015 it was announced that BBC One had officially greenlit the production. On 7 June 2016 it was announced that

would direct all four episodes of the serial. On 15 February 2017 it was announced that

was joining the production as a co-producer.

Casting

Alongside the announcement that Starz was joining the production, it was confirmed that Hayley Atwell, Matthew Macfadyen, and Tracey Ullman would star in the series. A few days later, it was announced that Julia Ormond, Philippa Coulthard, Joseph Quinn, Rosalind Eleazar, and Alex Lawther had also joined the main cast.

Filming

Principal photography for the drama began during the summer of 2016. The house used for Howards End is Vann House, near Hambledon; dating from 1542 but remodelled by WD Caröe after 1907 with gardens designed by

Gertrude Jekyll Gertrude Jekyll ( ; 29 November 1843 – 8 December 1932) was a British horticulturist, garden designer, craftswoman, photographer, writer and artist. She created over 400 gardens in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States, and wrote ...

. Scenes were filmed at

Waverley Abbey Waverley Abbey was the first Cistercian abbey in England, founded in 1128 by William Giffard, the Bishop of Winchester. Located about southeast of Farnham, Surrey, it is situated on a flood-plain; surrounded by current and previous channe ...

West Wycombe Park West Wycombe Park is a country house built between 1740 and 1800 near the village of West Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England. It was conceived as a pleasure palace for the 18th-century libertine and dilettante Sir Francis Dashwood, 2nd Barone ...

Ballard Down Ballard Down is an area of chalk downland on the Purbeck Hills in the English county of Dorset. The hills meet the English Channel here, and Ballard Down forms a headland, Ballard Point, between Studland Bay to the north and Swanage Bay to the ...

, Swanage Pier and Harry Warren House on

Studland Bay Studland is a village and civil parish on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset, England. The village is located about north of the town of Swanage, over a steep chalk ridge, and south of the South East Dorset conurbation at Sandbanks, from which it is ...

. London locations included Myddelton Square in Clerkenwell,

Great Russell Street Great Russell Street is a street in Bloomsbury, London, best known for being the location of the British Museum. It runs between Tottenham Court Road (part of the A400 route) in the west, and Southampton Row (part of the A4200 route) in the eas ...

Chancery Lane Chancery Lane is a one-way street situated in the ward of Farringdon Without in the City of London. It has formed the western boundary of the City since 1994, having previously been divided between the City of Westminster and the London Borou ...

, the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docume ...

Australia House The High Commission of Australia in London is the diplomatic mission of Australia in the United Kingdom. It is located in Australia House, a Grade II listed building. It was Australia's first diplomatic mission and is the longest continuously ...

and Simpsons in the Strand.

Release

Marketing

On 4 May 2017 the first image from the series was released. On 7 December 2017 Starz released the first trailer for American audiences.

Premiere

On 1 November 2017 the series held its official British premiere in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

at the

BFI Southbank BFI Southbank (from 1951 to 2007, known as the National Film Theatre) is the leading repertory cinema in the UK, specialising in seasons of classic, independent and non-English language films. It is operated by the British Film Institute. Hi ...

. On 4 April 2018 the series held its official American premiere in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

at the Whitby Hotel.

Broadcast

''Howards End'' is broadcast on

in the United Kingdom, ABC TV in Australia and

in the United States. The series premiered in the United States on 8 April 2018 on Starz.

Reception

Critical response

The series was met with a positive response from critics. On the review aggregation website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, the series holds an 88% approval rating with an average rating of 7.73 out of 10 based on 34 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Hayley Atwell shines in ''Howards End'', a beautiful, if borderline superficial, adaptation of a much-revered book."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned the season a score of 86 out of 100 based on 15 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

References

External links

* * {{Starz Shows 2017 British television series debuts 2017 British television series endings 2010s British drama television series BBC television dramas E. M. Forster in performing arts 2010s British television miniseries English-language television shows Starz original programming Television series about sisters Television series set in the 1900s