"[1] In the Victorian period, Jude Fawley is a bright young working-class man who dreams of a university education.

Circumstances conspire against him, and he is forced into a job as a stonemason and an unhappy marriage to a country girl, Arabella.

During this period, he encounters his cousin, Sue Bridehead, who is beautiful and intelligent, and shares his disdain for convention.

Sue and Jude are forbidden a permanent rental lodging because their living arrangement without marriage is considered scandalous.

The next day Sue and Jude return to their lodging to find that Juey has killed his half-siblings and committed suicide, hanging himself.

The Kent and East Sussex Railway was used as a film location for the scenes where Jude (Christopher Eccleston) and Sue (Kate Winslet) are on a train which was intercut with scenery from the North of England.

The consensus summarizes: "Superb acting from a beautifully matched Christopher Eccleston and Kate Winslet make Jude well worth watching even as it struggles with its source material.