Peter Weir's beguiling film adapted from Joan Lindsay's novel is turned to a six part television series. The novel is framed as a true story, about four young women vanishing from a picnic at Hanging Rock (also known as Mount Diogenes) in Victoria, Australia on Valentine's Day 1900, but it is fictional.
The first episode starts with Mrs Appleyard (Natalie Dormer) buying a grand house in the Australian bush, she has plans to run it as a girl's finishing school. We get the impression that Mrs Appleyard has reinvented herself as a widow, more refined than she was in her past which she is running away from and certainly rewriting. The natty shades she wears betrays something more bohemian in her and also something more dark.
As this is a six part story the backstory is fleshed out more, we are introduced to the schoolgirls, some of them who will go missing later on. We are also introduced to the staff of the school and colonial attitudes of turn of the century Australia. One of the girls is Aboriginal and another is Jewish.
The girls are decked out in colourful costumes and their passions underneath are hinted at. The first episode has a sense of eeriness and enchantment but I fear it might be overlong at six parts.
The first episode starts with Mrs Appleyard (Natalie Dormer) buying a grand house in the Australian bush, she has plans to run it as a girl's finishing school. We get the impression that Mrs Appleyard has reinvented herself as a widow, more refined than she was in her past which she is running away from and certainly rewriting. The natty shades she wears betrays something more bohemian in her and also something more dark.
As this is a six part story the backstory is fleshed out more, we are introduced to the schoolgirls, some of them who will go missing later on. We are also introduced to the staff of the school and colonial attitudes of turn of the century Australia. One of the girls is Aboriginal and another is Jewish.
The girls are decked out in colourful costumes and their passions underneath are hinted at. The first episode has a sense of eeriness and enchantment but I fear it might be overlong at six parts.
