She was assisted in this lie by Ambrose, a boy John had hired to help out after Missus died. Fearing what might have happened if she told the authorities they were alone, Adeline pretended Charlie was merely on holiday in Peru. Though it looked like an accident, Adeline could tell the ladder's safety catch had been tampered with. Both Missus and John-the-dig fell to their deaths Missus over three flights over a banister, and John off an insecure ladder. Adeline discovered Charlie's body in the woods, where he had apparently shot himself, but she said nothing to the others. Missus and John-the-dig agreed not to tell anybody, so that they and the girls could continue as they always had. Isabelle had died in the asylum and soon after that, Charlie also disappeared. Vida tells Margaret it's thought they went to America.īy the time the twins were seventeen, they were all alone at Angelfield. Hester and the doctor are caught kissing by the doctor's wife, and they both disappear from the village. Adeline will not speak and Emmeline weeps constantly.

It doesn't, as they are both heartbroken at their forced separation. Hester speaks to the local doctor about the girls and proposes they are separated as an experiment to see if their behaviour improves. The only adult supervision they had came from the two servants, nicknamed 'Missus' and 'John-the-dig.' A governess is hired, Hester Barrow, who has little effect on the girls' behaviour. Their mother Isabelle was distracted by the abuse she suffered at the hands of her unhinged brother, Charlie, and eventually taken away to a mental asylum, so the girls were mostly left to their own devices, becoming unruly and anti-social. She grew up at Angelfield, the decaying family estate, with her identical twin sister Emmeline. With Margaret satisfied that she is telling the truth this time, Vida begins to tell her the events leading up to the fire. Vida tells her that her birth name was Adeline March and the local newspapers wrote about a fire that burned down her family home when she was seventeen, of which she bears proof in the form of a key-shaped burn on her palm. Margaret is hesitant, as Vida is known for telling a different story each time she is asked about her background in interviews, so she requests some verifiable information from public record. She has been invited to stay there and help Vida write her biography before she dies of cancer. It is an adaptation of Diane Setterfield's 2006 gothic novel The Thirteenth Tale.īiographer Margaret Lea ( Olivia Colman) arrives at the country house of famous novelist Vida Winter ( Vanessa Redgrave).

The Thirteenth Tale is a British drama television film that first broadcast on BBC Two on 30 December 2013.

The thirteenth tale review