Hard Times (1977)🔸(E2)

♾️ Encouraged by her father, Louisa Gradgrind reluctantly accepts Bounderby's marriage proposal. Enter Captain James Harthouse, a glib Parliamentarian offering Louisa relief from her loveless household. Meanwhile, Bounderby unfairly fires the honest Stephen Blackpool, who resolves to build a new life elsewhere. Before Stephen leaves, Louisa pays him a visit, and her brother Tom throws him a lifeline. ♾️ It features Patrick Allen, Rosalie Crutchley, Michelle Dibnah, Alan Dobie, Barbara Ewing, Edward Fox, Ursula Howells, Jacqueline Tong, and Timothy West. ♾️ Hard Times is a 1977 British period drama four-part series, which originally aired in 1977. Thomas Gradgrind, a wealthy, retired merchant in the industrial city of Coketown, England, devotes his life to a philosophy of rationalism, self-interest, and fact. He raises his oldest children, Louisa and Tom, according to this philosophy and never allows them to engage in fanciful or imaginative pursuits. ♾️ Based on Charles Dickens' 1854 novel of the same name.