Molly Gibson Justine Waddell Raised alone by her father, Molly Gibson finds her quiet life thrown into disarray when he decides to remarry. At 17, Molly gains a meddling stepmother, Hyacinth 'Clare' Kirkpatrick, and a beautiful stepsister, Cynthia. While Molly and the new Mrs. Gibson remain at odds, she and Cynthia become fast friends despite their different temperaments. Molly begins to fall for Roger Hamley as his affection for Cynthia grows. In approaching the role of Molly, actress Justine Waddell had to learn to suppress many of her modern instincts. "Today's teenagers are a lot more streetwise and independent. I had to forget about the knowingness of modern day young women and play Molly with a sense of purity." Above all, Waddell warmed to the down-to-earth nature of the character. "What's appealing is that Molly's so ordinary. She's completely straightforward and unpretentious. That chimes with the whole piece. Wives and Daughters is a very ordinary story. There's nothing heroic about it. It's like a contemporary drama about an everyday small community filled with everyday characters." Waddell has made a name for herself in period dramas -- on television in ExxonMobil Masterpiece Theatre's Great Expectations and The Woman in White, and on the big screen in Mansfield Park.