This winter, Masterpiece is delighted to welcome Emmy Award-winning actress Laura Linney as the new host of Masterpiece Classic. The acclaimed star of John Adams, The Savages and You Can Count on Me will make her first appearance when the series premieres with a new adaptation of Tess of the D'Urbervilles on January 4, 2009."Whether it's Austen or Dickens, timeless stories by great authors are worth telling again and again," says Ms. Linney. "The beauty of Masterpiece Classic is that each generation brings a new and interesting interpretation to these programs."
Masterpiece Classic line-up for 2009 (airdates subject to change):
January 4 and 11
Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles (4-hour mini-series)
Starring Gemma Arterton (Quantum of Solace)
January 18 and 25
Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights (2.5-hour mini-series)
Starring Tom Hardy (The Virgin Queen)
"The Incomplete Charles Dickens"
February 15 and 22
Oliver Twist (3-hour mini-series)
Starring Timothy Spall (A Room with A View) and Sophie Okonedo (The Secret Life of Bees)
March 15 and 22
David Copperfield - encore (3-hour mini-series)
Starring Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Bob Hoskins and Ian McKellen
March 29 to April 26
Little Dorrit (8-hour mini-series)
Adapted by screenwriter Andrew Davies (Bleak House) and starring Matthew Macfadyen (Pride and Prejudice)
May 3
The Old Curiosity Shop (90-minute single)
Starring Sir Derek Jacobi (I, Claudius) and Gina McKee (The Forsyte Saga)
