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Abusive and alcoholic, unemployed farmhand Michael Henchard (Ciaran Hinds) mistreats his devoted wife, Susan (Juliet Aubrey), and then drunkenly auctions her off, with their infant daughter, to the highest bidder at a county fair. The next morning, a hung-over Henchard regrets his folly and vows to God to avoid liquor. The buyer, seafarer Richard Newson (Clive Russell), turns out to be a fine man, but after 19 years of marital bliss he disappears at sea.
On her deathbed, Susan reveals the truth about Elizabeth Jane; Lucetta spurns widowed Henchard and weds Farfrae. When Newson unexpectedly returns, Henchard faces a final reckoning with his pride and jealousy. This pedigreed production builds incrementally to a powerful examination of the ways in which tragedy can lie in wait, smoldering beneath a air of propriety.
