Helen is played by Tara Fitzgerald. 'It's a great story and wonderfully modern', enthuses the 29 year old star of TV dramas such as The Camomile Lawn and The Vacillations of Poppy Carew. 'There's love, lust and sex. No wonder it was called England's first feminist novel.'
Tara is joined by Rupert Graves as Helen's nasty husband Huntingdon, and Toby Stephens as the softhearted Gilbert Markham, who falls for her.
Says Tara: 'There's not as much cleavage as there was in Pride and Prejudice in fact, I get dowdier as the story progresses, but there's a lot of intense passion'.
The tale of an unhappy marriage hasn't put Tara off getting wed. She and actor Dorian Healy have been engaged for two years, but have yet to set a date.
'At first, it seemed like there was this pressure to book the church and buy the dress', she says. 'It wasn't a nice feeling, so we decided to relax.
'Sometimes people are surprised I want to marry because my own parents divorced when I was young. But I never thought, well, I won't get married then, because I still think it's a lovely thing to do.
'My mum certainly won't put any pressure on me. She's been married twice and neither worked out'.
