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The Forsytes’ Season 1 finale revealed a new character, Harry Falconer, signaling a departure from the source material.
Showrunner Debbie Horsfield breaks down the finale and teases what’s next for significant relationships.

Forget the marital tensions between the cousins and their wives. The biggest surprise in The Forsytes’ first-season finale on PBS was an end-of-episode revelation. Warning: Spoilers for The Forsytes’ Season 1 finale ahead!

Elderly matriarch Ann (Francesca Annis) announced to her son Jolyon (Stephen Moyer) that she has a grandson named Harry Falconer! It suggests the possibility of a major digression from the show’s source material, John Galsworthy novels, and its previous TV adaptations, in the already shot second season of Masterpiece’s Victorian-era costume drama, since the character of Harry, who had the money he lost due to a bad investment covered by Ann, is a creation of The Forsytes’ showrunner, Debbie Horsfield. We may learn more about him next season.

Overall, the series’ maiden outing was filled with an abundance of visual splendor, from the costumes to the scenery to the often shirtless hunks who filled the screen. (That’s not surprising, since Horsfield was also the creative force behind Masterpiece’s popular Poldark remake, which featured Aidan Turner frequently baring his chest.)

The outcomes of the show’s two major storylines weren’t unexpected to anyone familiar with past iterations of The Forsyte Saga, even if they didn’t play out exactly as they had in the past. Instead of leaving his wife and young daughter for the governess, artistic-minded Jo (Danny Griffin) moved out on spouse Frances (Tuppence Middleton) to live with first love Louisa (Eleanor Tomlinson). Jo fell for the dressmaker in Italy a decade ago and fathered twins he only recently found out about.
 

Tuppence Middleton and Danny Griffin (Sean Gleason/Courtesy of Mammoth Screen & MASTERPIECE)

“I thought there was more potential for drama if this woman came out of left field,” Horsfield says. “She’s left him alone for 10 years because she knew he was married. I wanted to give everybody a dilemma and then [explore] how they navigate it.”

Life without Forsyte money, however, may prove to be more challenging than Jo anticipated. “Jo doesn’t necessarily think through the consequences of what he does,” Horsfield previews. “We kind of assume if you follow your heart, everything’s going to be great. That’s not always the case.”

Newly married Soames (Joshua Orpin), meanwhile, followed through on his plan to keep close watch over Irene (Millie Gibson), his free-spirited, ballet-dancing spouse. He commissioned Philip Bosinney (Jamie Flatters), the architect engaged to Soames’ cousin June (Justine Moore), to build them a house in the country, far away from her London companions.

“This relationship is a study in what we now know to be coercive control,” Horsfield says. “Soames likes to own and possess things. Irene’s hoping to evoke that better person, and sometimes she does. That’s what keeps her hanging on.”

 
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Unlike other versions of their story, Horsfield’s demonstrated that the Soames-Irene pairing had potential before it devolved. “I wanted to understand her thought process of getting into it in the first place, and I also wanted to suggest that he didn’t just go into it for the wrong reasons,” she explains. “He genuinely was in love with her. There was hope for that relationship at one point.” Expect the most traumatic moment of their marriage, a spousal rape incident, in the second season, the writer adds.

As for the sophomore round, Richard Rankin of Outlander fame, Sarah Alexander, and Nia Ashi join the cast. Details about their characters haven’t been released, but Rankin does not play Falconer, according to a Masterpiece rep. Horsfield says it will pick up about five to six months after the finale. “Enough to let the dust have settled after the quite seismic events at the end of Season 1,” she previews. “And enough to then join them at a particularly crucial point in their story.”

The Forsytes, Season 1, PBS app (with Passport) and PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel