SWEETHEART
Angel of the moor
🎬 Logline
In 1858 Yorkshire, 21-year-old Mary-Jane Skaife is murdered on Stumps Lane, Darley. Her spirit does not rest, it lingers on the moor, haunting the man who killed her and the justice system that refused to see her.
🎬 Project Status: In Development
🎬 Synopsis
Sweetheart: Angel of the Moor is a historical drama inspired by the true story of Mary-Jane Skaife, a young woman murdered in rural Nidderdale by her lover, James Atkinson. Declared insane under the M’Naghten Rules, Atkinson avoided responsibility for his actions, a legal evasion that denied Mary-Jane both justice and voice.
The film reimagines Mary-Jane’s final hours with stark realism and haunting folkloric imagery, drawing on regional myth and landscape to expose the power structures that silenced her. Through its blend of grounded history and spectral presence, Sweetheart becomes a meditation on control, complicity, and the echoes of injustice that persist across generations.
By restoring Mary-Jane’s agency, the film challenges the narratives that erase women from their own stories, revealing that some voices do not fade.
They wait to be heard.
“Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you:
But when the leaves hang trembling,
The wind is passing through…”
Christina Rossetti (1872)
Rossetti (1830–1894) was one of the most celebrated poets of the Victorian age. Her deceptively simple verses carry deep undercurrents of faith, loss, and longing. Who Has Seen the Wind? evokes unseen forces moving through the world, much like the silences, erasures, and voices at the heart of Sweetheart: Angel of the Moor.
Rossetti also wrote powerfully about women’s inner lives, their hopes and struggles within Victorian society. Her words echo through Mary-Jane Skaife’s story, giving poetic voice to what history tried to silence.
Stills photography © Nidd Films 2025. Photographer: Angus Chau. All rights reserved
Sweetheart: Angel of the Moor is currently in development with Nidd Films in collaboration with Teesside University.
A short historical drama inspired by true events from 1858 Yorkshire, the film explores the life and death of Mary-Jane Skaife, a story of love, loss, and justice set against the haunting beauty of Nidderdale.