Titanic 2012 miniseries by Julian Fellowes

Titanic 2012 by Julian Fellowes

As a Canadian, we are used to getting period drama well after the UK and usually at the same time as the USA. Oddly enough, we are watching this on Global TV this month at the same time that ITV is airing it in the UK (actually we get each episode a few days earlier!). The four episodes air later this month on ABC over two nights- April 14 and 15, to coincide with the actual anniversary of the sinking.

So I am in the rare position of being able to give you my opinion of this before most of you will be able to see it. Overall so far, I kind of like it!

Noah Reid and Perdita Weeks as Harry Widener and Georgiana Grex

These two (Perdita Weeks and Noah Reid) are my favourite characters. Think of them as the Rose and Jack of this Titanic, although Noah plays rich American upstart Harry Widener and Perdita Weeks plays English aristocrat and rebellious suffragette Georgiana Grex. Well, they are just adorable! We have seen Perdita Weeks as Lydia Bennet in Lost in Austen and Mary Boleyn in The Tudors. She also resembles her sister Honeysuckle Weeks, whom I adored as Sam in Foyle's War. We will also see Perdita Weeks as Clara in the conclusion of Great Expectations this coming Sunday.

If I could name one fault of this miniseries, it is the vast number of characters and stories to keep up with. It hardly gives one time to get to know the characters and hence care about their stories. But I love these two. Now I have to keep watching to see if they make it!

Maria Doyle Kennedy and Toby Jones as John and Muriel Batley

It is interesting that we are made aware of 2nd class in this series (in the guise of John and Muriel Batley). Previously we have been shown 1st and 3rd class (steerage) but there were a lot of 2nd class passengers also. If you are interested, there is a Titanic website which lists all of the survivors of the voyage as well as whether they were 1st, 2nd or 3rd class or whether they were crew members. If you click on the person's name it will give you any extra available info on their story. I found it very interesting. Am I being overly nosy at this point or do we all have a bit of morbid curiosity?

Earl and Countess of Manton, with their rebellious daughter Georgiana

And what would a Julian Fellowes miniseries be without an Earl and a Countess? This time the Countess is not American but Anglo-Irish and she is not nearly as likeable as Cora in Downton Abbey. As an aside, the British press have dubbed the series "Drownton Abbey" or "Upstairs, Drownstairs". Groan!!!

Titanic panic

I have not yet decided whether or not I like the way the story is told, with the focus on a different group of characters each week culminating in the panic as the ship is sinking at the end of each episode. It is not exactly relaxing viewing! I have two more episodes to go, and so I shall see how I feel at the end. There is no doubt that it is gorgeously filmed however.

So I hope you enjoy this one as much as I have so far. The reviews were really mixed, so I didn't expect much and was really pleasantly surprised. I look forward to hearing what all my readers think when they see  this one.

P.S. I do like Celia Imrie's social climbing character of Grace Rushton. I hope she and her little doggie make it!

N.B. I just finished watching the entire series, and I can absolutely recommend watching it. It gives a real sense of what really went on that night from many different perspectives and I really got attached to some of the characters. I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see if they made it off. There is so much packed into these 4 hours that I will likely watch it again at least once. Yes, it is heartbreaking at the end of the last hour, but as we all know how it ends this isn't surprising. So go ahead and watch it. You know you want to!