BBC Two · Ended

Life in Squares

Drama · 2015

Last aired: S1 E3, Episode 3 · 2015-08-10

The three-part serial centres on the close and often fraught relationship between sisters, Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf, and Vanessa's sexually complicated alliance with gay artist Duncan Grant as they, and their group of like-minded friends, navigate their way through love, sex and artistic life through the first half of the 20th century.

Cast

James Norton Duncan Grant (younger)

Phoebe Fox Vanessa Bell (younger)

Andrew Havill Clive Bell (older)

Rupert Penry-Jones Duncan Grant (older)

Eve Best Vanessa Bell (older)

Lydia Leonard Virginia Woolf (younger)

Sam Hoare Clive Bell (younger)

Lucy Boynton Angelica Bell

Guy Henry Leonard Woolf (older)

Ben Lloyd-Hughes David "Bunny" Garnett (younger)

Jack Davenport David "Bunny" Garnett (older)

Al Weaver Leonard Woolf (younger)

Catherine McCormack Virginia Woolf (older)

Season 1

E1 Episode 1 2015-07-27 · 60 min 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.

E2 Episode 2 2015-08-03 · 60 min 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.

E3 Episode 3 2015-08-10 · 60 min 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.

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