North and South is a BBC television serial which first aired in 2004. It starred Richard Armitage as John Thornton, and Daniela Denby-Ashe as Margaret Hale. It is based on the 1855 Victorian novel of the same title by Elizabeth Gaskell. It was adapted for television by Sandy Welch and directed by Brian Percival.

The serial also starred Tim Pigott-Smith as Mr Hale, and Sinead Cusack as Mrs Thornton. Anna Maxwell Martin played Bessie Higgins, and Pauline Quirke was the Hale's maid, Dixon.

This series operates on many levels. At the heart of the series is the tempestuous relationship between Margaret Hale, a young woman from a southern middle class family who finds herself uprooted to the north, and John Thornton, a formerly poverty-stricken cotton mill owner terrified of losing the viability of his business. Around them are class struggles between the workers and mill owners and ideological struggles between the industrial North and the agrarian South. After moving North, Margaret's father befriends his student Mr. Thornton. Margaret has already formed her opinion of Mr. Thornton independently after seeing him treat his workers harshly. As the series progresses, she and we the audience begin to learn that his strict treatment is due to an overarching concern for his mill and by extension, his employees. John Thornton, on the other hand, is attracted to Margaret's independence and position in society as a well-educated Southerner. As in "Pride and Prejudice" the marriage proposal comes in the middle of the series and is rejected by Margaret. Contrary to "Pride and Prejudice" it is mirrored in social upheaval as the entire town is brought to its knees by a strike. The latter half of the series is an unraveling of the former misunderstandings ending in a romantic reconciliation which is again mirrored by reconciliation between workers and mill owners. Written by Anonymous