PBS Masterpiece’s new period drama The Forsytes arrived on March 22, 2026, introducing viewers to a wealthy Victorian family where business ambitions and personal desires collide. The premiere episode sets up a world of power struggles, secret pasts, and women who quietly control the family’s future.
Set in the late 1800s, the six-part series follows the Forsyte family, a powerful stockbroking clan in London. The first episode jumps between a flashback wedding and the present day of 1887, revealing how past choices ripple through the lives of the family’s younger generation.
The Forsyte Family Power Structure
The episode opens with a wedding. Jo Forsyte (Danny Griffin) returns from Europe to marry Frances (Tuppence Middleton), a wealthy widow with an eight-year-old daughter named June. The marriage is not just about love—Frances brings social connections that will lift the Forsytes into London’s elite circles.
The family matriarch Ann (Francesca Annis) narrates the story, making it clear that while the men run the business, the women understand how the world really works. Ten years later, in 1887, June is turning 18, and Frances has spent a decade planning her daughter’s debut into society.
Jolyon Sr. (Stephen Moyer) runs the family investment firm and wants his son Jo to take over. But Soames (Joshua Orpin), Jo’s ambitious cousin and son of James (Jack Davenport), has his own plans for the company. James openly favors his own son over Jo, setting up a rivalry that drives much of the episode’s conflict.
Soames Makes a Risky Business Move
The central business plot involves Durham Mining Company. When word spreads that Sir Roger Armstrong is dying and his son Charlie will take over, Soames sees an opportunity. He convinces his father James that they should sell all their Durham Mining shares—and their clients’ shares—before the stock price drops.
Jo disagrees strongly. He argues that selling in large amounts will panic the market and hurt their clients, some of whom have their life savings invested with the firm. But Soames and James move forward without telling Jolyon Sr., selling the shares behind everyone’s backs.
This decision has serious consequences. When Professor Heron dies later in the episode, Soames discovers that the man’s entire estate was invested in Durham Mining. The shares are now worthless, leaving his daughter Irene (Millie Gibson) with no money to pursue her ballet dreams in Paris.
Soames says they cannot afford to be sentimental. Jo fires back: “Can we afford to be human?” before storming out of dinner.
Soames Meets Irene
Irene Heron first appears when her father suffers a heart attack in the park. Soames rushes to help, giving the family his business card. After Professor Heron dies, Soames attends the funeral, and Irene’s opportunistic stepmother Clarissa (Fiona Button) asks him to look at their finances.
When Soames realizes his own business actions ruined Irene’s inheritance, he feels a sense of responsibility. He writes to her, and Clarissa pushes Irene to meet him at a polo match. Soames eventually asks Irene to let him be her friend—a request she accepts, unaware of his role in her financial ruin.
Frances Takes Control
While the men scheme about business, Frances works behind the scenes to secure her family’s position. She pushes her husband Jo toward taking over the firm and carefully selects potential husbands for June from the most powerful families—the Latimers (tea), Pallisters (railways), and Carterets (land).
Frances also arranges for June to get a gown from a Soho dressmaker named Louisa (Eleanor Tomlinson). What Frances does not know is that Louisa and her husband Jo share a past.
Jo’s Hidden Past With Louisa Returns
When June spills wine on her birthday dress, Louisa is called to the Forsyte house to fix it. There, she comes face to face with Jo for the first time in a decade. The tension is immediate.
Flashbacks reveal that Jo met Louisa during his European tour. They fell in love, but their different social classes made a future together impossible. Jo expected Louisa to write to him, but she never did. Now she lives in Soho as a widowed dressmaker with two children.
Louisa tells Jo: “Our lives are very different now.” She believes nothing could have come of their relationship because she was “just a lady’s maid.”
The next day, Frances visits Louisa’s shop. She meets Louisa’s children, including a son named Jos—short for Jolyon. Frances puts the pieces together and realizes the truth about her husband’s past.
June’s Coming-of-Age Story
June (Justine Emma Moore) wants freedom. She tells Louisa she dreams of going where she likes and meeting who she wants. At her 18th birthday ball, she refuses to dance with the dull Horatio Carteret and instead pulls her stepfather Jo onto the dance floor.
Jolyon Sr. uses the ball to announce that he is stepping down from the firm and passing leadership to Jo. The news shocks everyone, especially Soames and James, who see Jo as too emotional and impulsive to run the business.
June later introduces Louisa to Jo at the ball, unaware of their history. But Frances watches closely, her suspicions confirmed when she sees how the two interact.
What Makes This Adaptation Different
Showrunner Debbie Horsfield (who also created Poldark) focuses more on the female characters than previous adaptations of John Galsworthy’s novels. In earlier versions, women like Irene and Frances had less detail in their stories. Here, they have their own ambitions and desires that shape the plot.
“In the books, the male characters are drawn in quite a lot of detail,” Horsfield told TV Insider. “But the women are drawn with less detail, and one of the key things that attracted me was looking at some of the female characters in an era where women were beginning to see the possibility of having more agency over their lives.”
The series also serves as a prequel to Galsworthy’s original novels, showing events that happen before the books begin.
How to Watch ‘The Forsytes’
The Forsytes premiered on March 22, 2026, on PBS as part of the Masterpiece series. New episodes release every Sunday at 9/8c on PBS. Viewers can also stream the show on the free PBS App and pbs.org, available on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Samsung Smart TV, and Vizio devices.
In the UK, the series aired on Channel 5 starting October 2025. Australian viewers can watch on ABC beginning November 9, 2025.
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