Comment

Dec 18, 2013Janice21383 rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
Catherine Cookson's strengths include showing sides of 19th century life missing from most costume dramas, including working class conflict, homosexuality, and the brutal life below stairs. Her weaknesses include episodic, melodramatic stories, and Black Velvet Gown is more so than most. Janet McTeer is magnificent as the towering matriarch, but Bob Peck, whom I dearly love, is miscast as a peevish intellectual. The daughter's story could have used another episode to make its twists and turns more plausible.