A Wrap Up And A Look Ahead, The Forsytes, Season 1

Released May 3, 2026 28:39

WARNING: This episode contains spoilers for The Forsytes Season 1.

With Season 2 of The Forsytes coming to MASTERPIECE in 2027, we wanted to give you a taste of what to expect from the next installment of this gripping family saga. In this episode, we’re joined by actors Susan Hampshire, Millie Gibson, Joshua Orpin, Tuppence Middleton, Stephen Moyer, Jack Davenport, and writer and executive producer, Debbie Horsfield to look back at Season 1, and peer into the future of the Forsyte clan.

A Wrap Up And A Look Ahead, The Forsytes, Season 1| MASTERPIECE Studio

This script has been lightly edited for clarity.

Jace Lacob: I’m Jace Lacob and you’re listening to MASTERPIECE Studio.

By now, you’re all too intimately familiar with the lives, struggles, and triumphs of the illustrious Forsyte family. You’ve seen how they handle business, romance, and each other. The tensions between tradition and modernity, or following the will of the heart or head, propel this story past propriety and deep into scandal.

But the story isn’t over, far from it. With Season Two coming to MASTERPIECE in 2027, we wanted to give you a taste of what to expect from the next installment of this gripping family saga. But don’t take my word for it, in this episode we’ve brought the cast back to the podcast to share in their own words what’s in store for Season 2 of The Forsytes.

Debbie Horsfield: I think it goes to unexpected places, actually. It takes us into realms that hopefully you couldn't have predicted.

Millie Gibson: I think it's definitely got a lot more drama, a lot more carnage and a lot more tension for sure.

Tuppence Middleton: We feel like we get to know the characters on a much deeper level. I think there are new romances, unexpected arrivals, scandal of course.

Joshua Orpin: Things just continue and continue to escalate in a way that they only can in a show like this, where everyone is so repressed and constricted by the rules of a Victorian society that eventually, they're going to explode. So I feel like we get to see that tension and these little conflicts and that escalation. And yeah, a big emotional crescendo.

In this special episode of MASTERPIECE Studio, we're joined by The Forsytes cast members Susan Hampshire, Millie Gibson, Joshua Orpin, Tuppence Middleton, Stephen Moyer, Jack Davenport and

creator and executive producer, Debbie Horsfield, to peer into the future of the Forsyte clan.

Jace Lacob: And first up is Lady Carteret herself, Susan Hampshire. What can you tell us about where we find Lady Carteret in Series Two of The Forsytes?

Susan Hampshire: I think in a way, Lady Carteret, it slightly comes into her own because she invites all the Forsytes to her country house, her estate in the country. And also we see that she has a son who she obviously absolutely adores. Her focus is really everything to do with her son and her son's happiness.

Jace Lacob: And what can viewers expect from Series Two? Does it feel bigger, louder, different to Series One, or more of what we have come to love and expect?

Susan Hampshire: Oh, I think series two develops in the most exciting and emotional and compelling way. It's thrilling, thrilling, thrilling. It's heart rending. You'll cry. I mean, I'm in it and I'm watching other people's scenes and I'm weeping. I just think the script is amazing, the storyline is amazing, and for the actresses and the actors, it must be so thrilling for them to have done those scenes. They're just wonderful. It just takes off. It's wonderful in Series One, Season One, but in Series Two, wow. It just goes off like a rocket. Fabulous.

Jace Lacob: Susan Hampshire, thank you so very much. And here to talk more about Season 2 of The Forsytes is writer and executive producer, Debbie Horsfield. So, Series One ends on a number of cliffhangers, including Irene asking Soames to fulfil his promise to release her from their marriage, and he quickly denies ever having made that promise. Did you always intend to end Series One on this note of betrayal from Soames? And how did that figure into the story calculus for Series One as a whole?

Debbie Horsfield: I always felt that that was one of the elements from the book, which I loved— the idea that somebody would induce their would-be fiance to marry them by saying, but if it doesn't work out, I promise I will release you. And then for him to do a complete about turn and say, I never said that. I just thought that was dramatically so, so satisfying and such a cliffhanger, that, yes, that always was my end point.

Jace Lacob: So, while things are grim between Irene and Soames, Jo and Louisa have a profound moment of connection. And Jo pledges himself to Louisa, saying,

CLIP

Jolyon: I want to paint. I want to be a father to our children. I want to live with you. We’ll be outcasts. We’ll be poor. I cannot give you my name. But I can give you my love. If you will have me.

Louisa: Do you even need to ask?

Jace Lacob: Did you always know that this would be the final image of Series One?

Debbie Horsfield: Yes, because I'm very mindful that actually theirs is a love story that triumphs against the odds. But I wanted that to be the final image because it's an optimistic image. It's one which they've gone through a lot of hardship, a lot of challenges, but I wanted to end on an optimistic note.

Jace Lacob: So, I would take it then that this is a sort of delayed happy ending for these two star-crossed lovers rather than the source of misery to come?

Debbie Horsfield: I can't possibly say what's to come. That's life, isn't it? There are moments of joy and triumph, and it's something that has, I have to say, always fascinated me, the idea; and they all lived happily ever after. What does that happily ever after look like? It doesn't necessarily mean it's grim, but it certainly isn't always just idyllic. But I wanted to leave it on an idyllic note with the possibility that we would get to explore further what the reality was like.

Jace Lacob: What can viewers expect from Series Two of The Forsytes? Does it feel bigger, louder, or different to Series One?

Debbie Horsfield: I think it goes to unexpected places. It takes us into realms that hopefully you couldn't have predicted. It digs in more to relationships like Soames and Irene because of course, they are still together and they still have to find a way to coexist. And there are some very, very real challenges there.

Jace Lacob: Was there anything that you felt like you couldn't get into Series One that you held off introducing until Series Two, in terms of story?

Debbie Horsfield: Certainly the major skeleton in the closet, which is the the result of the rivalry between James and Jolyon Sr. and the the result of their relationship with Alexandra. I think we thought more of that would come into Series One, and we realized there just simply wasn't the room to do it justice. So, that is something that gets played out over the course of Series Two and reaches a climax in the final episode with another cliffhanger.

Jace Lacob: Oh, well, it wouldn't be The Forsytes without that.

Debbie Horsfield: No.

Jace Lacob: So it's all sunshine and roses ahead for the Forsytes is what you're saying?

Debbie Horsfield: As usual, yes.

Jace Lacob: It's just delicious fun, delicious fun.

Debbie Horsfield: Yeah.

Jace Lacob: Debbie Horsfield, thank you so very much.

Debbie Horsfield: You're welcome.

Jace Lacob: And we are joined once again this week by The Forsytes star, Millie Gibson. Series one of The Forsytes ends with Irene asking Soames to release her from their marriage, which he promised to do when he proposed, if it didn't work out between them. But he refuses and denies ever making that promise.

CLIP

Irene: Do you remember the day you proposed?

Soames: Vividly.

Irene: You said to me, if we were unable to make a success of our marriage, then you would release me.

Soames: I cannot imagine saying any such thing.

Jace Lacob: What goes through Irene's head here when he makes this denial?

Millie Gibson: Well, it is total gaslighting and manipulation and it's her worst horrors come true. She's living with a man that has totally betrayed her, made her feel like an absolute idiot. And it's so powerful that scene because we're in a room full of people and you can just feel that depth of loneliness that she has in that moment. It's also such a betrayal because she did find such peace with him at one point in her life. So I think to feel lonely with a person that you once felt that with is the most heartbreaking thing in the world.

Jace Lacob: Irene is not to the manor born. She's an artist. She's the daughter of a professor, and there are small details throughout the first series that show how out of place she is in this new world. I love the fact that she treats her household staff with dignity and friendship. What did you make of that, and does that help to further distance Irene from the Forsyte family?

Millie Gibson: Yeah, totally. To be honest, like I say, she finds solace and connection with other family members that is really interesting for me personally to have, because all of my scenes were with Soames. So whenever I got the scene with Frances when she's like, you basically can't have a mind of your own, you have to make all the men think that everything's a good idea and that you agree. Frances is probably the smartest person in The Forsytes. She's so much smarter than all the men, but she pretends like all of her ideas are their ideas. And I think Irene in that moment, because she's so young she's being taught all of these horrible lessons and in such close proximity of these horrible never ending events. I think she's just really disappointed with this whole new side of the world that she's seeing and being taught. And yeah, June is probably the only youthful connection and rebel that she has at this point.

Jace Lacob: Irene seems to have formed an unexpected rapport with the man designing her new home/prison, which is June's fiance, Philip Bosinney, who asks her, how can I proceed knowing what I've been commissioned to build will effectively be your prison? What should we make of this scene and of the unexpected connection between Irene and Philip?

Millie Gibson: I love Irene and Phil's relationship. And I think the audience will too. Like I say, like he's an architect. They're both artists in a way, and he is also a very big black sheep in the family. Every time he comes to a breakfast scene or a dinner, he's always late or underdressed or says the wrong thing. And I think Irene kind of likes that because he's the only person that really challenges anyone. And it almost snaps her back into reality of what is actually normal because she's almost brainwashed at this point. So Phil really reawakens her in a way to say no, remember who you are and remember what's right, and remember what you stand by.

Jace Lacob: Hold fast.

Millie Gibson: Hold fast.

Jace Lacob: Hold fast. What can viewers expect from Series Two of The Forsytes? Does it feel bigger, louder, or different to Series One?

Millie Gibson: I think so. To be honest, it's my more favorite season. I think it's almost like, Season One is the choices everyone's made, and Season Two is the effects of what they've all done. Everyone's storyline kind of comes a bit more to a corrupt halt and everyone's running around trying to fix the mistakes they've made. So I think it's definitely got a lot more drama, a lot more carnage and a lot more tension for sure.

Jace Lacob: Well, I can't wait. Millie Gibson, thank you so very much.

Millie Gibson: Thank you so much. It's been such a pleasure. Thank you.

MIDROLL

Jace Lacob: And we’re back with Joshua Orpin of The Forsytes who plays Soames Forsyte. So Series One of The Forsytes ends with Soames refusing to release Irene from their marriage, breaking the promise he made when he proposed to her. In fact, he denies ever even making that promise. Irene is horrified by this twist, but Soames is unyielding. Was this the realization that Irene is a woman with a mind and a body of her own, the thing that pushed him towards this moment of cruelty?

Joshua Orpin: Yeah, I don't know if he necessarily intends to inflict this upon her as an act of cruelty, per se. I think it's more just it's the only recourse he has left. You know, he's tried to go along with it. He's tried to meet her friends and he's gone to Paris and that hasn't worked. And he's brought her back and she's expressed her disapproval in various ways and through little acts of rebellion and questioning him and this and that. And it's all just escalated to the point where she is reminding him of that initial promise, I'll release you and you'll be free.

And his only recourse in that moment is to say no, that's completely unacceptable to me. I can't let you go. I won't let you go. I have the power to make you stay and I'm going to exercise that power. It's kind of regardless of her feelings. He doesn't want her to be unhappy. I think in an ideal world, he'd love her to be happy. He'd love them both to be happy together, just living the life that he wants as opposed to the one that she does. So, unfortunate, but that's the only choice he has in his mind is to flat out refuse.

Jace Lacob: So looking ahead, what can you tell us about where we find Soames in Series Two of The Forsytes? And how does Soames’ plan to construct a house at Robin Hill serve to further isolate Irene from the life she imagined that she'd have?

Joshua Orpin: Yeah, so these terrifying moments where he's had to consider the possibility of losing Irene, have led him to this plan of action, which now is a premeditated strategy where he will build a country house far away from everyone and kind of keep her there to himself, under lock and key, where he can enjoy being married to her and never, ever have to face the threat of losing her again, essentially. So that is as simple as that. It's his ultimate goal. He wants to build this house, commission this house far away from everyone else. He wants to settle down with Irene and have children. And that is his pretty much foremost paramount goal for the second series I would say.

Jace Lacob: One man's house, of course, is a woman's gilded prison. But that might be quibbling. That might be quibbling at this point.

Joshua Orpin: Might be, yeah.

Jace Lacob: What can viewers expect from series two of The Forsytes? Does it feel bigger, louder, or different to Series One?

Joshua Orpin: I think that viewers of Series One who enjoyed Series One, will definitely enjoy Series Two. I think it's very much a continuation and an escalation of the stakes and the relationships that we established in Series One. Does it feel bigger? Yeah, it does. I think the stakes feel higher. I think the emotion feels more intense to me. And I think that yeah, things just continue and continue to escalate in a way that they only can in a show like this, where everyone is so repressed and constricted by the rules of Victorian society that eventually they're going to explode. So I feel like we get to see that tension and these little conflicts and that escalation and yeah, a big emotional crescendo.

Jace Lacob: Joshua Orpin, thank you so very much. And we are back once again with The Forsytes star Tuppence Middleton. So Series One of The Forsytes ends with Frances promising vengeance. She will never grant Jo a divorce. His children will not be legitimized. He will be a pariah.

CLIP

Frances: You will suffer rejection from the family, the firm, from all of London.

Jolyon: I accept that.

Frances: I thought I’d moulded you into something resembling a rational being. I was mistaken. So go. You were once interesting to me. Now you bore me.

Jace Lacob: How does she turn the tables on Jo?

Tuppence Middleton: I think that she has never been as wounded in her life as she is at this moment. And the only thing she can do to protect her heart and to save face in this moment of utter devastation is to wound him back. As childish as that is, or as weak as she may feel that is, she wants to hurt him. And I think she knows how to do that with her words. And so the last thing she wants to do is to show him how much this has hurt her, but she wants him to feel her anger, and she wants him to go through the same pain that she's going through. So I think that she has understood over all these years how to press the right buttons when it comes to Jolyon and how to hurt him the most. And in that moment that's what she wants to do.

Jace Lacob: We see glimmers of a new life for Frances beyond her marriage to Jo, as she donates a property formerly owned by her father to charity. Is this the first step in the reinvention of Frances Forsyte from society wife to philanthropist?

Tuppence Middleton: Yes. I think she realizes she has to do something for herself. And if that's a selfless act, to prove to herself that she can stand on her own two feet and she can make some money for herself, and she can make a new image of herself in society, she can forge a new reputation, then I think she will do that. And she will take her daughter with her, and they will walk away with their heads held high. And I think she understands that now she has to sort of reimagine herself and what her life looks like without Jo.

Jace Lacob: So if in Series One, Frances is very much in control or seems in control until her life goes spiraling out of control, where do we find her in Series Two? Is this a period of transformation for her? Is she looking to regain some semblance of control? Is she looking to completely transform herself into that philanthropist new role or something altogether different?

Tuppence Middleton: I think for me, with Frances, Season Two was about openness. It was about opening up her heart to maybe a softer side of her personality, both with her daughter and elsewhere. I think she wants to embrace her femininity as well as her kind of masculine qualities and her stronger qualities. I think that part of that is the philanthropy and is engaging with society in a way that she hasn't necessarily done before. She's always been at the center of these circles, but in a more frivolous way, I suppose. And now she wants to do something more meaningful and something more selfless. I suppose in a way, she wants to gain more of an understanding about other people and a life that is very unlike her own. And I think that that really does something good to her heart.

Jace Lacob: What can viewers expect from series two of The Forsytes? Does it feel bigger, louder or different to series one?

Tuppence Middleton: I think it feels kind of grander, actually. I think all of these stories and characters really open out. I think we feel like we get to know the characters on a much deeper level. I think there are new romances, unexpected arrivals, scandal, of course. The talk of succession remains. And I think that everything that we had in the first series just grows and that makes it really exciting for us to play. I think with Debbie's take on the story, you never quite know where she's going to take it. So it's really exciting every time you get the scripts and read them for the first time. It's always a surprise in there that you didn't see coming.

Jace Lacob: Tuppence Middleton, thank you so very much. And we are back with Stephen Moyer and Jack Davenport. So Series One of The Forsytes ends with the Forsyte family photograph, though the clan could not be in further acrimony— Jo is absent and Jolyon Sr. asks Ann why she covered Harry Faulkner's losses, only to learn that he's Ann’s grandson. What can you tease about how this revelation tees up Series Two of The Forsytes?

Stephen Moyer: I'm going to let you take that.

Jack Davenport: Oh, God.

Stephen Moyer: He's watched it more recently than I have.

Jack Davenport: Well, I mean, obviously only specifically to this kind of lane of the story, what it tees up is that there is even more to fueling the enmity between these two brothers beyond the almost exhausting oh, I'm a better leader than you, constant roundelay that they're on.

Stephen Moyer: Roundelay!

Jack Davenport: There you go. There you go.

Stephen Moyer: Roundelay!

Jack Davenport: Thank you. There you go. And for me personally, what I think what it will drive towards is a place where James’ unbelievably misplaced sense of certainty about more or less everything in his life might start to get a bit shaky. And his, to me, rather loathsome moral superiority, will come home to roost somewhat. So in that respect, I think that's what the Alexandra, Jolyon, James storyline possibly will unspool.

Stephen Moyer: I think it ignites a sense of adventure and excitement in Jolyon Sr. that he has not… we certainly have not seen him feel for a long time. It starts him off on a quest to find Harry, but also to find Alexandra.

Jace Lacob: Is there any sense in Series Two that the two brothers might be able to put their past behind them and forge a new path together, or that it will erupt into a bare knuckle brawl?

Stephen Moyer: I think that occasionally one of them without the other one kind of realizing, slightly puts an olive branch out there and it's pushed away without the other one realizing that it was even offered.

Jack Davenport: Don't forget, self-knowledge is not a big trait of the Victorian mercantile class. No one's doing any therapy. It's just kill or be killed.

Stephen Moyer: Yeah.

Jack Davenport: And so, they just don't have the tools really. So in a way, for there to be a kind of real rapprochement, I think was certainly in James's case, it requires him to be a person who he just isn't. He's never going to get over his perceived injustice at having been born second. And it just forces him into a death spiral of repetitiveness, which he just can't get out of. So maybe? I don't know.

Jace Lacob: So this is basically William and Harry and Harry sort of the heir and the spare and the eternal battle betwixt the two?

Jack Davenport: Of course.

Stephen Moyer: Eternal battle. It's the story of the last 400 years. If you look at King John, or if you look all the way up to Lion King, I think Jack would be a wonderful Scar. I'd like to see your animal work that led to your Scar.

Jack Davenport: Absolutely. Well, you’re Mufasa, as we've established with your hair in Ultraviolet.

Stephen Moyer: Yes. Well, I was already working.

Jack Davenport: Yes, yes.

Stephen Moyer: I started very early.

Jack Davenport: Yeah, well done.

Jace Lacob: So what can viewers expect from Series Two of The Forsytes? Does it feel bigger, louder or different to Series One?

Jack Davenport: This sounds rather unenticing, which is not my intention, but when, as the Forsytes do, you have the means that they have, life is a kind of oddly repetitive sequence of the opera, the polo, Henley. It's all about see and be seen. And so, I think what's interesting about the show is how more and more characters are starting to push against that repetitiveness and trying to get out of the straitjacket, the social straitjackets that they find themselves confined in, be that Justine's character, June, obviously Jolyon Jr. So in a way, it's like the framework is the same, but the behavior of the people in it becomes increasingly unpredictable, which I suppose is stronger, faster, better. No?

Stephen Moyer: And I think that Debbie also as a writer is not constrained, and I really mean this in the best way possible, by staying within a Victorian framework in that she has those female characters pushing those boundaries and characters making choices that they wouldn't necessarily have made at that period of time. Which I think is good because because our show sort of exists in a world that's somewhere between the original Forsytes or Downton Abbey and Bridgerton in that there's an element of fantasy to it because Debbie has taken a historical work and written Debbie Horsfield's version of it and not John Goldsworthy's.

Jack Davenport: Thank God.

Jace Lacob: Stephen Moyer and Jack Davenport, thank you so very much.

Jack Davenport: Thank you.

Next time, in a town roughly 76 km away and 76 years in the future, we check in with Grantchester’s premier crime-solving duo, Reverend Alphy Kottaram and Detective Inspector Geordie Keating.

CLIP

Geordie: It’ll be to do with your mum.

Alphy: What will?

Geordie: The dream.

Alphy: Mira.

Geordie: Mira, sorry. You have a big day coming up.

Alphy: Ah, it’s not that big.

Geordie: You must be nervous.

Alphy: I’m excited.

Join us on Sunday, June 14th for the final season premiere of Grantchester.

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