Painted Lady (TV series)

Painted Lady
Genre	Drama, murder mystery
Written by	Alan Cubitt
Directed by	Julian Jarrold
Starring	Helen Mirren Karl Geary Iain Glen Franco Nero Michael Maloney Lesley Manville Iain Cuthbertson Barry Barnes Michael Liebmann John Kavanagh
Composer	Peter Salem
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	1
No. of episodes	2
Production
Executive producers	Gub Neal Rebecca Eaton
Producer	Emma Burge
Production locations	Dublin, Ireland
Running time	101 minutes (including adverts)
Production company	WGBH Boston in association with Granada Television
Original release
Network	ITV (UK) PBS (U.S.)
Release	7 December (1997-12-07) – 8 December 1997 (1997-12-08)

Painted Lady was a 1997 murder mystery miniseries starring Helen Mirren, involving art theft. It co-starred Franco Nero, Karl Geary and Iain Glen, and was directed by Julian Jarrold.

The role was created specifically for Mirren, as a means for her to try something a bit different from her Inspector Tennison character on the popular Prime Suspect series. The series was a collaborative effort of Granada Television (UK) and PBS (U.S.). It was broadcast on the ITV network from 7 to 8 December 1997 in the UK and in the U.S. PBS's Masterpiece Theatre 26 April 1998.

Plot summary

Maggie Sheridan (Mirren), a washed-up blues vocalist from the 1960s who had long since stopped performing, had settled into a comfortable life on the Dublin estate of the father of her childhood friend, Sir Charles Stafford (Iain Cuthbertson). When Sir Charles is murdered in what appears to be a bungled robbery (in which a valuable sixteenth-century painting is stolen), Maggie is drawn into the world of illegal art trade in an effort to solve the mystery and avenge her friend's murder, donning the persona of Polish Countess Magdelena Kreschinskaá.

The story centers around Judith Beheading Holofernes, the masterwork of Artemisia Gentileschi, who was a 17th-century female Italian painter who survived a rape. The painting fictionally travels to Dublin and New York City, and Gentileschi's tragic story eventually figures into the plot. There are other visual references to notable paintings in the film.

Cast

• Helen Mirren as Maggie Sheridan
• Iain Glen as Sebastian Stafford
• Franco Nero as Robert Tassi
• Michael Maloney as Oliver Peel
• Lesley Manville as Susie Peel
• Iain Cuthbertson as Charles Stafford
• Barry Barnes as D. S. Fagan
• Michael Liebmann as Bryan Gavin
• John Kavanagh as Michael Longley

Gallery

Paintings featured:

• 
  Judith Beheading Holofernes by Artemisia Gentileschi
• 
  The Death of Marat by Jacques-Louis David, imitated in bathtub scene
• 
  Martyrdom of St. Sebastian by Giovanni Bassi (and many others), alluded in death scene

References

• John Leonard (27 April 1998). "In Brief: Painted Lady". New York Magazine. Retrieved 27 July 2013. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
• John Carman (26 April 1998). "Painted Lady Thriller Crowds An Already Bursting Sunday". South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Retrieved 27 July 2013. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
• David Mermelstein (27 April 1998). "Review: Painted Lady". Variety. Retrieved 27 July 2013. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)

External links

• Painted Lady at IMDb