TELEVISION

Life in Squares - Season 1

Series: Life in Squares

3.8

(166)

Episodes

Rating

TV14

Year

2015

Language

English

Publisher

BBC Studios

About

Life in Squares dramatizes the lives of the Bloomsbury Group, an influential set of artists and intellectuals. Told over 40 years, from the death of Queen Victoria to the Second World War, the story centers on the relationship between sisters Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf. As the narrative shifts between the decades, their lives intertwine; by the 1930s, Vanessa has settled into marriage and motherhood, and Virginia is enjoying huge public acclaim. Can the sisters truly escape the pall cast by their repressive parents, or will they ultimately inflict the same mistakes on generations to come?

Related Subjects

Drama

Episodes

1. Episode 1

50m

Painter Vanessa Stephen and her writer sister Virginia embark on a life of unexpected, post-Victorian freedom in bohemian Bloomsbury. But when they are introduced to flamboyant male admirers, their idyll is rocked and the sisters' relationship is threatened.

2. Episode 2

50m

As war descends on Europe, the Bloomsbury friends struggle to build a life outside London. Virginia weds Leonard Woolf and begins a unique, unexpectedly happy marriage, which is in stark contrast to Vanessa and Clive's failing relationship. Vanessa comes to the painful realisation that she is in love with gay Duncan Grant and so begins a life devoted to him, painting and her children.

3. Episode 3

50m

Vanessa and Duncan's daughter Angelica is grown up but still unaware of her true parentage. As tragedy hits the family, Vanessa is finally galvanised into revealing the secret she's withheld for so long. Angelica's horror at the betrayal is painfully damning of her upbringing and threatens to drive a lasting wedge between mother and daughter.