Search icon

News

16th Sep 2017

This Netflix series is a must see for fans of The Handmaid’s Tale

It begins on November 3.

Keeley Ryan

This is going to be seriously intense.

We’ve definitely been missing The Handmaid’s Tale since the first season wrapped up this summer.

But there’s a new adaptation of a Margaret Atwood novel getting ready to launch on Netflix – and it looks seriously intense.

Alias Grace, based on Atwood’s 1996 historical novel of the same name, tells the story of a young woman who was convinced of murder in Canada.

 

The mini series, due out on November 3,  will see Cosmopolis’ Sarah Gadon and Game of Thrones’ Kerr Logan in the lead roles.

But, unlike The Handmaid’s TaleAlias Grace takes a look at the past – and is more heavily inspired by true events.

The six part mini-series’ lead character is Grace Marks, an Irish immigrant to Canada who was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of her employer and his housekeeper.

Thomas Kinnear and Nancy Montgomery were found dead at his home in Ontario, Canada, in 1843.

Marks was just 16 years old at the time and had recently fired from her job as a maid in the household after Montgomery, who was also Kenner’s mistress, grew to be jealous of her.

This seemed to give the teenager a motive, and she was later found guilty of the murders alongside Irishman James McDermott, who worked as a stablehand.

The four of them – Marks, McDermott, Kinnear and Montgomery – were all real people, with the former really being convicted of the murders.

Margaret Atwood also incorporated some fictional characters into the story, when she first released Alias Grace – particularly doctor Simon Jordan, who goes to research Marks’ case.

The mini-series will span across three decades.

It is written and produced by Sarah Polley, and directed by Mary Harron.

It will begin on Netflix on November 3.