BBC Suggestions

[feaito]

Hi there Wendy! What left I little dubious was Amelia Warner in the role of Lorna; sometimes I felt that she a was a bit insipid...What do you think?

[JackFavell]

I felt that the action revolved around her, but she was not of it and she was just sort of vapid. But that was ok with me, because I really liked the men best anyway.

I wasn't sure if that was an intentional choice on the part of the director or not, she was certainly good looking.

[feaito]

I agree with your point of view, and I liked Lizzie and Mrs. Ridd...Barbara Hale played Lorna very differently in the 50s film.

[JackFavell]

I'll have to watch it again, I just remember being terribly impressed with the menfolk and their long hair.

[stuart.uk]

Spoiler

I just wathched a tv series called Land Girls. It's very compelling, but it was more like The Godfather than life on a country Estate in WW2, whith 3 seperate life threatening incidents going off at the same time.

Nathaniel Parker from The Inspector Lynley mysteries was in season one to be killed off in the last episode, leaving a harsh unloving wife Lady Hoxely as played by Sophie, daughter of Simon, Ward. However, in season's 2 and 3 she's become a more sympathetic character, who's unlucky in love, but whose also fairer with her staff comapred to earlier in the show and patrotic in the needs of her Country

In the show we have an ex gangsters moll, now a reformed character in the land army, who marries the village vicar. However, one of the best characters is the slighlty crooked but loveable farm Manager Fred Finch, who has a soft spot for married older land girl Esther and her teenage son

[JackFavell]

I like Nathaniel Parker. It's too bad that you gave away the end of the first season!

[stuart.uk]

Wendy

Sorry, but I did highlight a spoiler. As it's in season 3 I don't think it'll each America, but here's a trailor of season 2

http://youtu.be/TzbdVpMuvN8

[JackFavell]

Oops! Sorry, didn't see your spoiler heading.

[stuart.uk]

Just found this opening episode of The Duchess Of Duke Street with Gemma Jones, over 20-yrs before she played Bridget Jones' mother

http://youtu.be/WNHT3SMppXA

[JackFavell]

I really enjoyed that show, Stuart, thanks for the link! And so sorry bout missing your spoiler warning.

[JackFavell]

I went back and watched the first season of Downton Abbey , catching up on parts I missed. I found that knowing what I know now of the characters, I enjoyed the first season even more than the first time I saw bits of it. It's really quite enthralling, and I prefer Edwardian settings anyway. I've got to give it to Maggie Smith, she can play deluded grandeur better than anyone, except maybe Joan Plowright.

[stuart.uk]

Wendy

What about Edith Evans in The Importance Of Being Ernest A Hand Bag!. Judi Dench has also done the play.

[JackFavell]

Oh of course! Edith Evans was a master at it. There was every sense of entitlement, no doubt about it. Estelle Winwood was another who was always able to portray grandeur with some wistful deludedness. Peggy Ashcroft is amazing at it in The Cherry Orchard (1961). Maggie Smith in Downton Abbey combines irony in all it's glory, with grandeur, and a kind of deluded, lost confusion. It's a very pleasing combination.

[JackFavell]

Downton Abbey fans, here's a little oddity on a fashion show at Highclere from the early 1960s (?).

http://vimeo.com/38994238

[feaito]

The look of those ladies suits me just right...they look so elegant and classy! Must have been around 1965-1966, when my parents got married.