Jake Ritzema

Based on the novel by Philippa Gregory, the British miniseries A Respectable Trade was what is known in the business as a “bodice ripper.” The story began in 1788, when well-bred governess Frances Scott married her rough-hewn employer Josiah Cole. It didn’t take long for Frances to become disgusted by the fact that her husband was in the slave-trading profession, and to take steps to get him out of the filthy business. Complicating matters was Frances’ ever-increasing attraction to one of Josiah’s “possessions,” a handsome and cultured African slave named Mehuru.

First broadcast over the BBC on April 19, 1998, the four-part A Respectable Trade was telecast in America as part of PBS Masterpiece Theatre anthology, beginning on October 25 of that same year.