Squire Allworthy was a decent widower, who raised Tom Jones as his own, when he discovered the foundling mysteriously left in his chambers. Frankly, he might be a little too upright, but Jones always appreciated his kindness. In contrast, Jones’ legitimate cousin, William Blifil, and the heir to the estate always hated him, with visceral intensity. That is partly is so determined to be matched with Sophia Western, with whom Jones is clearly smitten. It is quite mutual, but Squire Western is not about to marry her off to a man of Jones’ dubious lineage.
In this adaptation, Miss Sophie is the Squire’s granddaughter. Her father recently passed away on the family’s Jamaican plantation and her mother, a slave, died in childbirth. That was not in the original Fielding. Sophie Wilde (who previously played another Sophie namesake in The Portable Door) is one of the brightest, most watchable members of this ensemble, but her character’s acutely tragic backstory conflicts with Fielding’s original bawdy mock-epic tone, which Hughes still tries to preserve.
Hughes also largely dispenses with the ironic narrator, which was the whole point of Fielding’s novel (and a major reason why post-structuralist literary critics are drawn to Eighteenth Century literature). There are brief voice-overs, recorded by Wilde, at the start and close of each episode, presumably conceived as a means for Sophie Western to “reclaim the narrative,” but they have little wit.
