thisbluespirit | Fake TV Show Meme - Take 2! 'Cloak and Dagger'

For the 'I surrender' meme,

persiflage_1 gave me this prompt: Regency-era Spooks - so a spy show, but set in the Regency era.

It couldn't really be more different to the other one... This is only part done, but I have the main set-up and the first part of the cast (naturally, it's one of those big ensemble dramas with scene-stealing guest stars), but I post this here now (before I go away for the weekend on Sat.)

I’ve cast whoever I liked in this because it’s a BBC period drama – no one is out of bounds, unless they’re dead (although generally anyone I can find wearing a bonnet or cravat just to help the scene setting). I apologise only because I know Richard Armitage is a too obvious here, but once you’ve thought ‘The main character needs to be like Richard Armitage… and Eileen Atkins is playing his grandmother’ it’s a bit late to do anything but cast him.) There is some casting overlap with my other show (guest stars only) but British TV is like that.

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Cloak And Dagger

The Show
Billed as ‘Spooks for the 19th Century’, Cloak and Dagger was a daring and expensive gamble on the part of the BBC to breathe new life into their trademark period dramas that paid off. It boasted a strong cast with a string of high-profile guest stars. Reviews were enthusiastic and the first seasons was nominated for several BAFTAs. Tackling the subject of Napoleonic spies with wit, style, danger, scandal, gossip and duels, critics referred to it as a return to the golden age of period drama.

A Foreign Office diplomat returns to England to find the there’s a scandal over high-level leaks in the department, with messages being passed over the channel via a fashionable émigré dressmaker – but his superiors want the high society source. To solve the problem, he enlists the help of the young bride he barely knows. It turns out to be only the first of a series of problems they tackle together, growing ever nearer to the sinister mastermind behind the French agents – and becoming adept at averting scandal of all kinds.

The show followed the events of 1811-1815 over two 10 episode series, culminating in a two-part finale centring around the events of Waterloo, the intervening episodes taking in various royal scandal, political intrigue, over-zealous radical reformers, military secrets, the Congress of Vienna, and all in pursuit of the shadowy master-spy whose identity is unknown up the final episode. (Some commentators have felt that the decision to focus more on the ball than the battle was evidence of some budget-cutting, but the ‘court-intrigue’ aspect was always the show’s strongpoint rather than all-out action, despite some excursion to the Peninsula.)

The complications provided by the supporting characters, and the continual conflict between patriotism and personal honour also provided dramatic tension. For the millions of watchers, the essential question (throughout the first series at least) was not who was the traitor, but when would Rothley and his wife finally realise that their marriage was more than a mere convenience?

It was too mainstream to attract the devoted fans of the small, genre or cult shows, but it was a popular destination for writers of crossover fan-fic, especially given the high number of scene-stealing guest performers as historical figures (notably Anthony Head’s recurring role as the Prince Regent). The makers were adamant that the show had run its course, although it did return two years after with a Christmas special set in 1820 and centring around the Princess Caroline affair and the Regent’s eventual coronation as George IV, where John and Katherine’s talents are in demand once more. (For those pining for their fix of Austen-era drama, the show inspired the Beeb to dramatise two Heyer novels, The Talisman Ring and The Reluctant Widow.)

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The Characters - The Longvilles & the Rothley families (Not all of these are necessarily main characters, but they belonged together).

John Rothley (Richard Armitage)

Returning to England from America, John Rothley finds himself immediately involved in an attempt to stop high-level leaks from the Foreign Office. The affair seems to centre around an émigré modiste who is currently all the rage in London. To find out more about who might possibly be her clients, Rothley enlists the help of his young wife, Katherine who is still a virtual stranger to him. As he comes to rely on her talents increasingly in various affairs, it’s not entirely reassuring for him to realise that his discreet, impeccable bride is also a flawless actress…

Katherine Rothley (née Longville) (Kate) (Gemma Arterton)

Daughter of Sir George Longville, it suited Katherine to accept Rothley’s offer – she had no desire to become her father’s encumbrance or her mother’s help and, as an intelligent, lively young lady she could see the advantage in becoming the wife of a diplomat. She is determined to become the ideal political hostess. Becoming involved in the hunt for a spy was unexpected, but she finds she secretly revels in the challenge. What she fails to see is that Rothley (contrary to her mother’s unfortunate advice on how to conduct oneself in a marriage of convenience) might be more interested in the real Kate, than the impeccable façade.

Sophia Longville (Sophy) (Felicity Jones)

Kate’s youngest sister is currently making her delayed come-out under her sister’s aegis. She is devoted to Kate and eager to make a good impression, but she is still the careless, scapegrace of the family. Her efforts to help, her unlikely admirers, and her inexperience often cause more trouble than anything, but she always means well. She is rather more ready for adventure than anyone else would like.

Captain James Longville (James D’Arcy)

Kate’s elder brother and his father’s heir, currently serving in Spain. He is both resourceful and reliable, and at times a useful ally for John, especially since he regards being in England while there is a war on as a waste of his time and is grateful for any practical action. He despises his younger brother Hugh for being frivolous (although the two of them are at lest united in regarded their other brother Frederick, the clergyman as an insufferable prig), but despite being the steadiest of the Longvilles, his fascination with an unhappily married young lady might ruin them all…

Hugh Longville (Lee Williams)

With an allowance left to him by his wealthy godmother, Hugh has no need to follow a career and can afford to be a man about town, enjoying fashionable pursuits with his cronies. Naturally, this annoys both his elder brothers intensely. And while he’s reluctant to join the army, the truth is, he’s reckless in pursuit of adventure to liven his days and is often in need of Kate’s ingenuity to extract him from his latest predicament. He’d like nothing better than to help hunt down a spy, but Rothley can’t think of anything worse…

Cecilia Percival (née Longville) (Cecy) (Emma Pierson)

The middle sister of the Longville family, Cecy may not be as clever as Kate or as unaffected as Sophy, but she is entertaining and loyal, and has lately made a splendid match with the Marquis of Browham, Henry Percival. It doesn’t take her long to find that her marriage was a mistake she has very little chance of escaping from and she is hiding the truth from her family, but it becomes increasingly likely that the unreliable Marquis might have more to do with the circle of spies, her loyalties are torn.

Sir George Longville (Desmond Barrit)

He regards his children as collectively a nuisance and lives for country pursuits. He leaves his wife to do the worrying and is happy enough when they’re off his hands. He’s not much interested in his new son-in-law, either, but feels that no one has the business to poke their nose into the private affairs of another, even if they suspect them of treason.

Lady Letitia Longville (Julia Davis)

Kate’s mama is only too inclined to worry and still tends to make inconvenient demands on her daughter’s time. The least trouble sets of one of her nervous ailments (which serve to pass the days in a now all-but empty house with a husband who spends all the time he can outdoors). She is very useful in collecting valuable gossip, however.

Dowager Countess of Lynton, Elizabeth (Bess) Harwell (Eileen Atkins)

(She wouldn'be seen dead dressed like this, but I'm doing my best, okay?)
Ailing but unconventional and as indomitable as ever, Bess is Rothley’s grandmother. She’s the one member of his family he feels he has anything in common with – although he would prefer it if she didn’t issue summons to her death bed unless she is actually dying – and they are both united in being the only two to think well of John’s late mother. (Bess maintains that Rothley snr mistreated her daughter and hounded her out of existence.) It doesn’t make her sympathetic to John’s half-siblings, but luckily for them, they live at the other end of the country.

William Rothley (Liam Cunningham)

John’s elder half-brother. They don’t have much to do with each other since John’s appointment to the Foreign Office, (and particularly since he inherited his maternal uncle's estate on the Kent/Sussex border), but he was the one who originally proposed the alliance with the Longville family, through a connection of his wife’s. Marrying Kate is probably the only thing his brother has ever done that he approved of.

Lavinia Caldwell, widow (née Rothley) (Anna Chancellor)

John’s half-sister. She has an unfortunate tendency to come to London during the Season, unlike her brother who tends to remain safely in the north. She regards John only as the son of That Woman (her father’s second wife) and delights in arriving to visit and being as vocally disapproving of everything as she can be. She and Kate are at war whenever they meet, and she is happy to cast a spoke in the Rothley’s wheel whenever she can. However, she doesn’t approve of the French, either…

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And two other cast members to be going on with:

Jane Clark (Jenny) (Claire Foy)

Kate’s new maid. She becomes her mistress’s closest ally in any number of investigations, even on one occasion entering the employ of a suspect. She also seems to have a surprising network of contacts of her own…

John Dalting (Brendan Coyle)

~~Because apparently there’s a law in UK TV that says if you have a salt-of-the-earth type in a historical drama, it has to be Brendan Coyle.~~ An innkeeper at the Three Crowns, near to Rothley’s country estate, he maintains he has no knowledge of the smugglers (whose cross-channel activities provide a vital link in the chain of French intelligence), but his cellar’s full of smuggled brandy. He’ll never betray his fellows, but he might just know something about the network of spies, and while he’ll turn a blind eye to the traders, he’s no traitor…