--- title: "The Way We Live Now" year: 2001 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/the-way-we-live-now" fi1m_id: "the-way-we-live-now" imdb_id: "tt0300879" tmdb_id: 7827 wikidata_id: "Q7773869" fi1m_score: 82 critics_reviews: 1 published: "2026-10-07T13:21:39.160279+00:00" updated: "2026-10-07T13:21:49.935090+00:00" region: "FI" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Way We Live Now (2001) Created by David Yates · 1h 15m · Drama ## Identity The Way We Live Now - **Canonical:** https://film.one/tv/the-way-we-live-now - **Type:** Series - **Fi1m ID:** the-way-we-live-now - **IMDb ID:** tt0300879 - **TMDB ID:** 7827 - **Wikidata ID:** Q7773869 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0300879/, https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/7827, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7773869 **Fi1m score: 82** · Critics: 1 of 6 reviews so far *In a sentence:* Everyone in London despises the fat financier, right up until he offers them a seat on the board > Andrew Davies and David Yates turn Trollope’s novel of a swindler and the society that courts him into four fast, rude, funny episodes, with David Suchet’s Melmotte at the centre. The love story is thin, and that is the only thing wrong with it. ## Synopsis Victorian London. Augustus Melmotte (David Suchet), a financier of unknown origins and enormous apparent wealth, takes a house in Grosvenor Square with his daughter Marie (Shirley Henderson), and the society that despises him queues at his door. Lady Carbury (Cheryl Campbell), a widow writing bad books to cover her son’s debts, decides that her handsome, idle son Sir Felix (Matthew Macfadyen) must marry Marie for her money. Paul Montague (Cillian Murphy), a young engineer back from America, brings Melmotte a scheme for a railway across Mexico; Melmotte takes the chair of the board and the shares begin to climb. Paul loves Hetta Carbury (Paloma Baeza), who is also wanted by her sober cousin Roger (Douglas Hodge). Then Mrs Hurtle (Miranda Otto), Paul’s American past, arrives in London. ## Review Andrew Davies has adapted most of the Victorian shelf, and *The Way We Live Now* is the one where the material meets him halfway. Anthony Trollope’s novel is about a financier nobody can place, who arrives in London with money that may not exist, and the society that decides to hold its nose. Davies writes it fast and rude, David Yates shoots it as if the camera had drunk the champagne, and David Suchet gives Augustus Melmotte a weight the series never has to carry for him. It is good company for five hours, and it has a soft patch where its love story should be. Suchet plays Melmotte big. He pads the voice with an accent from nowhere, lets the lower lip hang, and eats as if the plate might be taken away. He bullies his clerk Croll (Allan Corduner) and his daughter Marie (Shirley Henderson) in the same breath, then turns to a visiting lord with a courtesy so thick you could spread it on bread. What makes it more than a turn is how plainly the man knows he is despised. At his first great party the guests drink his wine and look through him, and we found ourselves on his side, which we had not expected and did not entirely enjoy. Everyone in the room is a snob or a sponger. He is only a thief. The Carburys are the other engine. Cheryl Campbell’s Lady Carbury writes bad history books to pay her son’s debts and flatters the editor Mr Broune (David Bradley) into reviewing them kindly; Bradley plays him as a shy man who knows he is being used and does not mind. Matthew Macfadyen’s Sir Felix is the son, handsome, dim and nearly always drunk, and Macfadyen lets him be funny without once asking us to like him. Lady Carbury’s plan is to marry Felix to Marie Melmotte, and Davies gets his best comedy from a man with no intentions courting a girl who takes every word as a vow. Henderson’s Marie looks like a child and bargains like her father. Yates and the cinematographer Chris Seager shoot it hand-held and close, the frame tipping as the money moves, with none of the usual carriage-and-crinoline stateliness. Gerry Scott builds Melmotte’s house as a wall of gilt and marble with nothing personal in it, and the Carbury rooms as furniture that has been sold once already. Andrea Galer puts Melmotte in waistcoats that announce his income and Marie in frills a size too young for her. Nicholas Hooper’s score is a march that keeps threatening to become a polka, and it tells us the whole thing is a joke before anyone on screen has noticed. Mark Day cuts the railway board meetings against the card tables at Felix’s club, so we can see it is the same game in different coats. The weak strand is the one Trollope thought was the point. Paul Montague (Cillian Murphy), the young engineer whose railway gives Melmotte his scheme, loves Hetta Carbury (Paloma Baeza), who is also wanted by her upright cousin Roger (Douglas Hodge). Murphy is earnest, Baeza is patient, Hodge is honourable, and none of it has the pulse of a single scene with Melmotte. Miranda Otto’s Mrs Hurtle, the American who follows Paul across the Atlantic, livens things up, but the American material is played broad where the English is played sharp. The one review we have read admires the care and doubts that Victorian debts mean much to a modern viewer. We think that is backwards. A man with no visible assets sells paper in a railway nobody has seen, the great and good fight for a seat on his board, and the only question anyone asks is whether the shares are going up. Davies does not underline the parallel and does not need to. Against Davies’s own work this sits near the top; his [*Pride and Prejudice*](https://film.one/tv/pride-and-prejudice) (1995) is the one everybody watched, and this is better written. It runs four episodes of 75 minutes and carries a 15 certificate. The dull patches are short, and Suchet is never far away. *Fi1m score 82, published 7 October 2026.* ## Straight answers **Is The Way We Live Now worth watching?** *The Way We Live Now* is worth watching for anyone who likes their Victorian drama fast, rude and funny, and we scored it 82. David Suchet's Melmotte, a financier nobody can place, carries four 75-minute episodes with ease. The love story between Paul Montague and Hetta Carbury is the thin strand, and it is the only thing wrong with it. **How long is The Way We Live Now, and what is it rated?** *The Way We Live Now* has episodes of about 1h 15m. It is a drama series. **Where can I watch The Way We Live Now in Finland?** *The Way We Live Now* is not on any streaming or rental service in Finland at the moment. It is available in 3 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily. **How violent or frightening is The Way We Live Now, and is it suitable for children?** *The Way We Live Now* carries a UK 15 certificate and is not violent or frightening; the danger is all in money and bad marriages. It is a drama of swindling, drink and courtship, with Sir Felix nearly always drunk and the comedy often cruel. Older teenagers who can follow a railway share scheme will be fine; young children will be bored rather than scared. **How does The Way We Live Now compare to Middlemarch?** *The Way We Live Now* is the sharper and funnier of Andrew Davies's two adaptations, where [*Middlemarch*](https://film.one/tv/middlemarch) is the longer and the sadder. Trollope's swindler gives Suchet a part that *Middlemarch* has no equivalent for, and the series moves faster. Those who want a town, a bad marriage and six patient hours should take Eliot; those who want a joke about money should take this. **Is The Way We Live Now based on a true story or a book?** *The Way We Live Now* is based on Anthony Trollope's novel of the same name, not on a true story. Davies keeps the book's financier, his daughter and the society that courts him, and plays the love story Trollope cared most about as the weakest part. You do not need to have read the novel; the series explains the railway scheme as it goes. **What should I watch after The Way We Live Now?** After *The Way We Live Now*, try [*Middlemarch*](https://film.one/tv/middlemarch) (1994, Fi1m 78): Davies on George Eliot: a provincial town, a bad marriage, and money again. Then [*Margin Call*](https://film.one/film/margin-call) (2011, Fi1m 82): One night inside a bank as the numbers stop adding up; quiet and merciless; and [*Our Friends in the North*](https://film.one/tv/our-friends-in-the-north) (1996, Fi1m 88): Thirty years of British corruption followed through four friends, and nobody gets out clean. ### Reviews we read (1) - **Evening Standard**, Andrew Billen (60/100, inferred): Billen calls the Trollope adaptation meticulous but questions whether its Victorian obsessions resonate with modern viewers. He contrasts its financial and political ambitions with Cold Feet’s more emotionally relatable focus on relationships. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/hp/front/this-is-the-way-we-live-now-6335652.html) ## Details - **Created by:** David Yates - **Director:** David Yates - **Writer:** Andrew Davies - **Novel:** Anthony Trollope - **Cinematography:** Chris Seager - **Editor:** Mark Day - **Music:** Nicholas Hooper - **Production design:** Gerry Scott - **Costume design:** Andrea Galer - **Producer:** Nigel Stafford-Clark - **Cast:** David Suchet as Augustus Melmotte; Matthew Macfadyen as Sir Felix Carbury; Cillian Murphy as Paul Montague; Paloma Baeza as Hetta Carbury; Cheryl Campbell as Lady Carbury; Richard Cant as Dolly Longestaffe; Shirley Henderson as Marie Melmotte; Tony Britton as Lord Alfred Grendall - **Runtime:** 1h 15m - **Release (Finland):** 11 November 2001 - **Genres:** Drama ## Where to watch in Finland Not streaming, renting or buying in Finland at the last check. Also available in: AU, GB, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Middlemarch* (1994), Fi1m 78: Davies on George Eliot: a provincial town, a bad marriage, and money again. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/middlemarch.md) - *L'Argent* (1928): L’Herbier’s silent Zola: a Parisian swindler and a bank floor the size of a cathedral. - *Margin Call* (2011), Fi1m 82: One night inside a bank as the numbers stop adding up; quiet and merciless. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/margin-call.md) - *Our Friends in the North* (1996), Fi1m 88: Thirty years of British corruption followed through four friends, and nobody gets out clean. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/our-friends-in-the-north.md) - *The Wolf of Wall Street* (2013), Fi1m 82: The same appetite a century on, louder, with no lords left to impress. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-wolf-of-wall-street.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/the-way-we-live-now