Producer Louis Marks originally intended to make a feature film adaptation of the novel but abandoned that plan after a lengthy and fruitless casting process, eventually taking five more years to bring the story to television.

This serial was Louis Marks' final television production before his death in 2010.

John Leonard of New York Magazine compared the production favourably to the same team's earlier adaptation of Middlemarch, though he noted the melodramatic plot occasionally threatened to undercut its otherwise high-minded tone.

The serial won Best Sound and Best Editing at the British Academy Television Craft Awards, and also won Best Drama Series/Serial at the Broadcasting Press Guild Awards and Best Miniseries at the Banff Rockie Award.

Composer Rob Lane won the Royal Television Society Craft & Design Award for Original Score for his work on the serial.