Jessica Reynolds and Brenda Blethyn in 'A Woman of Substance' (C4/BritBox)

A young woman in service at one of the great houses of Yorkshire in the early 1900s aspires to something far greater, pursuing her dreams with riveting verve and tenacity. A viewer preparing to tune into A Woman of Substance could be excused for thinking they were hitting play on a Downton Abbey watchalike, but those expectations would be fully dashed by the end of the first episode. As played by Jessica Reynolds (Kneecap) and Brenda Blethyn (Vera) over the course of her life, housemaid Emma Harte is twice (maybe even five times) as smart as her employers and many orders of magnitude more ambitious than any woman was encouraged to be in 1911.

BritBox’s adaptation of Barbara Taylor Bradford’s novel of the same title arrived on the heels of their triumphant spring offering, The Other Bennet Sister, delivering a follow-up that should encourage new subscribers to stick with the streamer through the summer and beyond. Hybridizing the subject matter of Downton Abbey with the horny, over-the-top frothiness of Rivals has yielded a serious period drama where the massively soapy plot twists are treated with total earnestness.

Prior to the series’s U.S. debut, Reynolds and Blethyn shared their perspectives on the project, their shared character, and what they hope audiences will find most compelling.

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‘A Woman of Substance’ Stars on Soapy, Substantive Scenes