Tom Jones on Masterpiece

Key Art

Credit: Provided by PBS

This four-part television miniseries that reimagines “The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling,” Henry Fielding’s classic novel.

Tom Jones on Masterpiece premieres Sunday, April 30 at 9 p.m. on WXXI-TV. A picaresque story of the title character’s complicated journey to find real love, Tom Jones has delighted and scandalized readers since it was originally published in 1749.Solly McLeod (The Rising) stars as the hero Tom, alongside Sophie Wilde (You Don’t Know Me) as the heroine Sophia Western.Written by Gwyneth Hughes (Vanity Fair, Miss Austen Regrets), Tom Jones is directed by Georgia Parris (Mari) and produced by Benjamin Greenacre.

When banished in disgrace by his adoptive father, Tom leaves for London. Not far behind him, Sophia heads there to escape a forced marriage to Blifil and seek the protection of her aunts. Along the way, Tom meets disgraced schoolmaster Partridge (BAFTA winner Daniel Rigby, The Witchfinder), Mrs. Waters (Susannah Fielding, Wallander), and the irascible soldier-of-fortune Fitzpatrick (Julian Rhind-Tutt, Oliver Twist).

Humor is a hallmark of Fielding’s novel, which has been a bestseller for nearly three centuries and was famously depicted in the exuberant Academy Award®-winning 1963 movie adaptation starring Albert Finney as Tom and Susannah York as Sophia.