A Passionate Woman

After years spent as a pop singing diva and a sci-fi cultural icon, for her work as Rose in the Dr. Who series, Billie Piper needed to find a grown-up role to prove she was more than just a pretty face, and that’s just what this BBC mini-series gives her. In it, she plays Betty, a young mother and housewife circa 1950s London. Trapped in dull relationship, Betty finds passion with a downstairs neighbor named Craze (Theo James), whose marriage to a local girl is equally troubled. Piper is captivating as the young woman discovering her passionate side, and there’s real chemistry between her and James. She also has a knack for making the domestic suffocation of her character palpable to the audience. Betty’s youthful indiscretions are only half the story, though, as the series also lets us see what her life is like as an older woman (played by Sue Johnston). The second part of the story stands on its own, but it’s ten times as effective to watch because of the strength of Piper’s performance.