Marchlands

Marchlands is a British television series that aired on ITV in 2011. It was adapted from the American pilot *The Oaks*, written and created by David Schulner. A follow-up series, *Lightfields*, aired in 2013. Each five-episode season follows three families who live in the same house across different time periods, all troubled by the ghost of a young girl.

The story unfolds in three eras. In 1968, Ruth and Paul Bowen live in Marchlands, a house in a fictional Yorkshire village, with Paul’s parents Robert and Evelyn. Six months earlier, their eight-year-old daughter Alice drowned in what seemed an accident, but Ruth believes there is more to it and is determined to find the truth. In 1987, Helen and Eddie Maynard rent the house with their two children. Their daughter Amy starts talking about an imaginary friend named Alice, which they initially dismiss. After strange events, including Amy blaming Alice for a kitten’s death, Helen and Eddie take Amy for medical tests. In 2010, Mark Ashburn and his pregnant partner Nisha Parekh move in and find a photo of a young girl, whom the audience recognizes as Alice. Nisha suspects Mark is hiding something about their move. Elderly Ruth, who never accepted her daughter’s death, returns to Marchlands after Mark hires her as a housekeeper and childminder when Nisha breaks her ankle falling from a step-ladder.

The series was filmed in and around London, as well as on the Ashridge Estate, the village of Aldbury, and nearby Little Gaddesden. The house used for the main story is in Tadworth, Surrey. Marchlands was the first commission from a creative collaboration between ITV and Twentieth Century Fox, with *The Oaks* writer David Schulner heavily involved.

The 1968 characters include Ruth Bowen (Jodie Whittaker), grieving her daughter and suspicious about the death; Robert Bowen (Denis Lawson), the local mill owner and Alice’s grandfather, who was the last to see her; Evelyn Bowen (Tessa Peake-Jones), Robert’s pragmatic wife who wants to move on; Paul Bowen (Jamie Thomas King), the accounts manager struggling with his marriage to Ruth; Liz Runcie (Jennifer Hennessy), the next-door neighbor and Ruth’s friend; and Alice Bowen (Millie Archer), the eight-year-old who died in November 1967 and remains as a spirit.