The prison birching

Pandora wrote a lovely post a few days back about Sarah Waters’ book “Affinity”, and I was delighted when ITV gave me an additional birthday gift with Andrew Davies’ adaptation of the book. I must share a few highlights…

It was set in a Victorian women’s prison.

An early scene showed a group of women who’d been sentenced to imprisonment, arriving at the gaol.

The next minute, one of them was pictured having her long hair cut short by a warder.

A moment later, all of the new prisoners were shown in a bathhouse. Naked. Being sprayed with buckets of cold water.

The name of one girl was called out. The prison officers took her firmly by the wrist – still naked, wet, sobbing – and led her down a corridor and into a whitewashed cell.

A uniformed gentleman was waiting, birch in hand. She pleaded for mercy, but none was forthcoming: they tied her to the whipping frame, and reminded her of the court’s sentence: “Thirty strokes.”

(I fear I must confess to having played with the plot just a little, after the bathhouse scene which was genuine. But the programme was still remarkable for its kink potential).