Series / The Confessions of Frannie Langton

Right to left: Frannie and Marguerite

Frances "Frannie" Langton, a young black Jamaican woman serving as a maid in England, is accused of murdering both her master and his wife, who had been her lover. In prison, she divulges how her life took its course to reach that point, relating a story of tragedy and triumph, but also faces the upcoming trial that will mean Frannie's death if convicted.

A four episode miniseries, it's based on the novel by Sara Collins. Drama Television produced it with Collins adapting the novel herself, releasing it on ITV's ITVX streaming service in the UK December 8, 2022. The miniseries became available in the US on March 8, 2023 via the streaming service BritBox as well.

Tropes:

• Addled Addict: Frannie is addicted to laudanum, like her mistress/girlfriend Marguerite. This explains why she had slept through Marguerite's parents murders without stirring. It's shown Marguerite had increasingly used a lot of laudanum, before long getting Frannie to as well, for coping with everything they suffered and this made her increasingly debilitated.
• Affectionate Nickname:
  • Marguerite is always called Meg by Hepzibah, who's revealed as being her former girlfriend.
  • Hepzibah, in turn, gets called Hep by Marguerite.
• Asshole Victim: George Benham, a slave owner along with an overall cruel, venal man, at last was killed by Frannie in a rage.
• Bittersweet Ending: Frannie is convicted of murder and hanged for it, but she dies with dignity after having denounced the men who wronged her publicly first, which serves to soften it a bit.
• Born into Slavery: Frannie was born in Jamaica to an enslaved black mother, and thus legally enslaved herself as a result of this. She's freed later by being taken to England (where slavery's forbidden) but this doesn't do much to change her state as she only gets changed to a totally dependant servant.
• Child by Rape: Though it's not elucidated, Frannie is a biracial woman, Born into Slavery to a black mother and (it's strongly implied) John Langton, who's a white Englishman (given that she also has his last name), who had run the plantation where they were enslaved. Obviously, her mother could not have refused to sleep with him, though the exact circumstances are left unknown.
• Chocolate Baby: Marguerite became pregnant from a tryst she had with Ouladuh. As she's white, and he's black, with her husband also being white, she's well aware this being publicly known would ruin her. Since he doesn't want this revealed any more than she does, her husband arranged for Frannie (who's also black) to raise the baby off in the country. However, she miscarries, making all this moot.
• Closet Gay: Due to the homophobia of the time when they live, Frannie and Marguerite have to stay closeted. Frannie though laments this, wanting to be proudly, openly with Marguerite. Hepzibah has kept her attraction to women and past relationship with Marguerite secret for the same reason as well. She later publicly says she'd loved Marguerite in court at her trial though.
• Dance of Romance: Frannie and Marguerite's dancing together spontaneously is the first sign they have a mutual attraction, which soon builds up into a secret affair.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Frannie was born into slavery, then forced to help a white doctor (her own likely birth father) perform horrible experiments on black people to prove them inferior and not even human.
• Deliberate Values Dissonance: Even the people who are nice to Frannie frequently see her as a strange, exotic person due to being black in England at a time when the country was far whiter. Others view her as naturally inferior and fit only to be a slave or at best a curiosity. Homophobia and classism are also rampant, so her relationship with her mistress Marguerite is thus condemned doubly.
• Driven to Suicide: Marguerite kills herself by overdosing with laudanum after falling into depression as a result of being trapped in a loveless marriage and miscarrying another baby.
• Emasculated Cuckold: George is coldly infuriated after learning Frannie slept with his wife Marguerite, saying she stole what was his and quickly firing her.
• First Kiss: After they grew close, bonding as a result of their situations, Marguerite kissed Frannie passionately. However, after this she drew back and acted like it didn't happen for a time, but it shows they're closer than friends, another step toward having an affair.
• Fish out of Water: Frannie, who's a black enslaved Jamaican, was taken to England by her master. He put her in the house of a rich man, with no other black people around, which she felt accutely. She is also a lesbian, soon falling in love with Marguerite, her mistress, and they have a relationship, which further alienates her from what's expected. Ouladuh Cambridge, who's a black Jamaican brought to England previously, is put in a similar position.
• Flashback: Most of the story is shown as Frannie's flashbacks when relating what had happened with her (and Marguerite), leading up to the murders she has been accused of.
• Forbidden Love: Frannie and Marguerite, her mistress, were secretly lovers as well. This is deeply forbidden on several levels, being both women in a time of institutionalized homophobia, an interracial couple, along with from different classes.
• Forced Out of the Closet: Frannie's barrister obliquely reveals how Hepzibah was in love with Marguerite when defending Frannie at her trial.
• Frame-Up: It turns out that the doctor who supposedly performed Marguerite's autopsy lied and forged his notes claiming Marguerite's cause of death was stabbing, but it's actually a laudunum overdose which she killed herself with. However, they can't prove this as the doctor who really did the autopsy and found the real cause of death won't testify, with the judge ruling the evidence to be inadmissible while the jury must disregard it.
• High-Class Call Girl: Frannie worked as one for a while at the School House brothel with Sal, wearing beautiful dresses and her quarters being very nice. It's also unclear if she even has sex with any johns, as those seen only want to be flogged by her. She's still quite miserable since she'd only gone there due to being forcibly separated from her girlfriend Marguerite, whom she misses deeply.
• How We Got Here: The series starts with Frannie being arrested for supposedly murdering her mistress and her mistress' husband, then via flashbacks it's revealed what led to that point.
• Insanity Defense: Frannie's barrister proposes using her experience of enslavement in Jamaica by saying this unhinged her mind when she's charged with a double murder. Frannie firmly rejects this angrily. Later though he uses a different variety, through claiming she might have committed both murders in a state like sleepwalking but wasn't really aware of her acts. Frannie herself at first fears she did this and doesn't remember it.
• Lady-In-Waiting: Benham had Frannie be his wife Marguerite's lady's maid so he could look good and dispel reports of cruelty on his slave plantation in Jamaica, where Frannie's from.
• Lipstick Lesbian: Frannie and Marguerite are both feminine women. They have long hair, and wear the elaborate dresses which were expected. Anything else when this was set (1820s' England) would have been shocking and scandalous. As it is, they have to keep secret that they're lovers. Marguerite sleeps with a man by choice once, but this was indicated to just be for comfort in a moment of weakness.
• Longing Look: The first sign in the flashbacks showing Frannie's attraction to Marguerite is her intent, interested looks at her when doing her work in the house.
• Mad Scientist: John Langton performed experiments, first using corpses of dead black people and then living ones, to prove they weren't really human so he could justify them being enslaved.
• Miscarriage of Justice: Frannie is convicted of one murder she didn't commit at all (which actually was a suicide) since evidence was fabricated. The other at most was probably manslaughter, with her being hanged for them both.
• Mixed Ancestry Is Attractive: Sal tells Frannie customers frequently desire biracial women like her, so she begins working with her at the School House brothel flogging them for their pleasure.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Frannie's mother tried to spare a little black albino boy from being experimented on by Langton and get him away. She was hanged for this.
• Secretly Gay Activity: It's apparently common for a maid to sleep in the same bed as her mistress. This is used by Frannie and Marguerite to hide their relationship.
• Secret Relationship: Frannie and Marguerite, her mistress, were secretly lovers. It was kept a secret due to the homophobia, racism and classism which would forbid it. Some people though suspected that she had an "unnatural attachment" with Marguerite. Frannie would actually like them to be open about it, but Marguerite tells her that it's impossible. She agrees to stay with her in the dark.
• Sexy Discretion Shot: Frannie and Marguerite undress each other. As they begin to have sex, Marguerite going down on Frannie, it then cuts to them lying together after naked.
• Slave Liberation: Frannie is legally freed by being taken to England (as no law authorized slavery there, with a previous court ruling deciding this), though it's rather empty as she's got no place to go and is effectively stuck as a maid for her former owner.
• Slut-Shaming: Frannie resorting to prostitution so she could survive after Benham fires her is used at her trial painting her as an immoral person who would commit murder too.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: Even if Marguerite (a rich white woman) was not murdered, the fact she's married (with no prospect of divorce at the time) along with the homophobia and racism of the time means that her relationship with Frannie, who's her black maid, was always doomed.
• Suicide is Shameful: It's suggested that one reason (apart from to frame Frannie) that Marguerite's suicide was covered up and fabricated to supposedly be murder is because of the shame having this in the family would bring.
• Suicide, Not Murder: Marguerite killed herself with a laudanum overdose, it's revealed, and wasn't actually murdered.
• Surprise Pregnancy: Marguerite became unintentionally pregnant from Ouladuh, which leaves her in a terrible position since she's married, while having their baby would reveal her adultery due to being mixed race.
• Sympathetic Adulterer: Marguerite is unfaithful to her husband by having an affair with Frannie, while she'd done this before with Hepzibah as well. She's sympathetic as society forces her into a loveless opposite-sex marriage with a cruel man who cares nothing about her, only wanting Marguerite to give him children (she can't).
• Sympathetic Murderer: Frannie actually did kill George Benham, but he was such a massive evil asshole that likely no viewer is going to care, and she only did it while at the end of her rope.
• Tragic Stillbirth: Marguerite has lost two children already in the past who were stillborn, which her husband faults her for saying she can't give him children. She gets pregnant a third time by her tryst with Ouladuh, though this baby is stillborn too. Marguerite kills herself afterward, and this is implied to be a factor in her choosing suicide.
• Uptown Girl: Frannie became lovers with her aristocratic white mistress Marguerite, though a poor black Jamaican servant herself who was Born into Slavery.
• Woman Scorned: Hepzibah is not at all happy that Marguerite pretends they weren't ever involved, and deeply jealous of her being with Frannie. As a result, she tells George Benham, Marguerite's husband, and has Frannie fired to get rid of her.
• Would Hurt a Child: Langton planned to medically experiment on a black albino boy. It's unclear whether he ever did.