Stars speak about the Essex Serpent ahead of release

Adapted from the best-selling Sarah Perry novel, the six-part limited series – exclusive to Apple TV+ – follows Cora, a widow who moves from London to a small Essex village intrigued by the idea that it might be haunted by a mythological sea serpent.

Cue a clash between science and religion as the keen naturalist (played by Golden Globe winner Claire Danes) meets her match in village vicar Will (Tom Hiddleston), with whom she forms an unlikely bond.

“I’ve worked on quite a few period dramas and this one is different in that it is incredibly contemporary in its take on love and friendship,” offers screenwriter Anna Symon of the sweeping tale.

“It doesn’t feel like it’s set in Victorian England and it doesn’t feel like a constrained buttoned-up drama. It feels exuberant, liberating and incredibly fresh.

“While Cora Seaborne is a Victorian woman, in many ways the challenges that she faces in that period still exist for women today. We see a woman who is struggling to find her place as a widow, as a wife and mother.” 

But it was an intentional move from Perry, who stands by her stance that “historical novels are not about the past, they are about the present”.

Undated Handout Photo from The Essex Serpent. Pictured: Claire Danes as Cora. See PA Feature SHOWBIZ TV The Essex Serpent. Picture credit should read: PA Photo/©Apple TV+. WARNING: This picture must only be used to accompany PA Feature

“Choosing to set it in the nineteenth century was a philosophical choice as I have never been interested in the differences of the past, but in the similarities, and in the idea that they were no different from us in their desires, their fears and their senses of humour,” she elaborates.

“I thought if I wrote a novel set in the nineteenth century showing it as being a contemporary era with radiators, anaesthetic, socialism and feminism, it would be exciting for the readers.”

It certainly ticked the boxes for Homeland actor Danes, 43, who says she “inhaled” the book having been gifted it by her actor husband Hugh Dancy some years earlier.

Much of the filming of the series was done on the mud flats at Alresford and along Maldon’s historic quayside.

Undated Handout Photo from The Essex Serpent. Pictured: Claire Danes as Cora and Tom Hiddleston as Will. See PA Feature SHOWBIZ TV The Essex Serpent. Picture credit should read: PA Photo/©Apple TV+. WARNING: This picture must only be used to

Danes said: “The environment is so evocative and an extension of the characters’ internal lives,” referencing the windswept Essex landscapes.

“Anna did a wonderful job of realising that, visually. It’s this very heightened, thrilling story.

“I got immediately lost in it, so when it came my way I was thrilled to inhabit that story and learn about Cora from the inside out.”

For Hiddleston, 41, the historical saga – directed by Ali & Ava’s Clio Barnard – was brand-new territory.

Undated Handout Photo from The Essex Serpent. Pictured: Tom Hiddleston as Will. See PA Feature SHOWBIZ TV The Essex Serpent. Picture credit should read: PA Photo/ Apple TV+. WARNING: This picture must only be used to accompany PA Feature SHOWBIZ TV The

“I read it very quickly as soon as I read the screenplay, and I really loved it,” said the Loki star. “It’s so atmospheric and it’s so beautifully written. The prose is so elegant, it’s so evocative and it was a gift to us.

“In terms of the serpent, I love that the story works on so many levels,” he follows. “There’s something in the water and we don’t know what it is – or it seems as though there is – and that’s immediately thrilling as a mystery.

“Yet it’s also a symbol of something beneath the surface, things that we don’t yet know, or we don’t yet understand. Ideas or feelings or instincts.

Undated Handout Photo from The Essex Serpent. Pictured: Tom Hiddleston as Will. See PA Feature SHOWBIZ TV The Essex Serpent. Picture credit should read: PA Photo/ Apple TV+. WARNING: This picture must only be used to accompany PA Feature SHOWBIZ TV The

“Something about ancient myths appeal. We’re always intrigued by these old folk tales; they have a hold on our imagination in a very powerful way.”

He’s not wrong. One of the key themes within The Essex Serpent, Perry states, is “the conflict between faith and reason, and being afraid of things we can’t predict or understand.

“Both the novel and the series examine this idea through various lenses,” she teases.

Star - Tom Hiddleston in The Essex Serpent premiering globally May 13 on Apple TV+. Photo: Apple

Joining the duo is Harry Potter star Clemence Poesy as Will’s wife Stella, Frank Dillane as Dr Garrett, Hayley Squires as Martha and Jamael Westman as Dr Spencer.

Reflecting on the script-to-screen journey, Symon says her hope is that viewers simply “fall in love with it in its own right”.

“I’m hoping that the two things exist together as companions,” Perry said.

Behind the scene on the set of the Essex Serpent in The Hythe, Maldon (John Guiver)

“That the novel is different from the series and the series is different from the novel, and that they can exist together in this lovely symbiosis, influence each other and amplify each other.”

The Essex Serpent launches on Apple TV+ on Friday, May 13.