{"id":343086,"date":"2026-03-12T21:58:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T21:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/343086\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T21:58:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T21:58:08","slug":"emmett-scanlan-steals-show-in-bodice-ripping-romp-with-strong-irish-cast-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/343086\/","title":{"rendered":"Emmett Scanlan steals show in bodice-ripping romp with strong Irish cast \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bodices are ripped like they\u2019re going out of fashion in Channel 4\u2019s<\/a> new adaptation of Barbara Taylor Bradford\u2019s<\/a> bestselling bonkfest, A Woman of Substance (Channel 4, Wednesday). In the first several episodes alone, we see Yorkshire housemaid Emma Harte (Belfast actor Jessica Reynolds) canoodling in a \u201csex cave\u201d with her posh beau Edwin, as a worryingly hirsute Emmett Scanlan (father to Edwin) dives into the part of a local lord of the manor who is in flagrante with his sister-in-law (Lydia Leonard), while his bed-bound wife (Leanne Best) stews upstairs. There hasn\u2019t been so much exposed flesh since a heatwave at Bray seafront in May.<\/p>\n

Earnest Emma is played in two separate timelines by the excellent Reynolds (introduced to audiences in the Kneecap movie, but here with a flawless Yorkshire accent) and by Brenda Blethyn in 1970s New York, by which point she has moved on from peasant squalor to become a self-made millionaire. These \u201cpresent-day\u201d scenes are where an otherwise assured production loses its footing slightly: Liverpool is an unconvincing stand-in for disco-era Manhattan, despite a presumably hefty CGI budget.<\/p>\n

The heart of the show lies in the period sequences, which play out like a sort of Carry On… take on Emerald Fennell\u2019s<\/a> recent Wuthering Heights<\/a>. Reynolds brings gumption and intelligence to the two-dimensional part of a can-do serving woman \u2013 back in the day, Taylor Bradford\u2019s publicity team would have called her \u201cfeisty\u201d. Emma is torn between her burgeoning romance with her useless lover and her impoverished family, living in a collapsing cottage, their tragic lives overshadowed by their mother\u2019s illness.<\/p>\n

A Woman of Substance was adapted as a TV series in 1984, where the part of Emma\u2019s Irish best friend and protector was played by a young Liam Neeson<\/a>. Back then, the character went by \u201cBlackie\u201d; today, he is \u201cMac\u201d and is portrayed in broad fashion by Belfast actor Niall Wright.<\/p>\n

But the Irish cast member who truly steals the show is Scanlan. Even in more restrained productions, the sweary, hairy thesp has always had a big whiff of camp. Here he is unleashed and magnificently gonzo. With his plummy English intonations occasionally betraying his Dublin roots, he sounds like a mix of Hugh Bonneville<\/a> from Downton Abbey and the lead singer from Fontaines DC<\/a>. What\u2019s even stranger is that his real accent becomes more pronounced during his more-or-less fully clothed lovemaking with his sister-in-law\/mistress \u2013 bringing bonus accidental hilarity to what is already a first-rate romp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bodices are ripped like they\u2019re going out of fashion in Channel 4\u2019s new adaptation of Barbara Taylor Bradford\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1795,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-343086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-channel-4","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}