The Mayor of Casterbridge 2003

Oh, Thomas Hardy...why so tragic? I have had my copy of The Mayor of Casterbridge kicking around my house for about a year now, still with the wrapping on it. I know that Thomas Hardy is a wonderful writer but he can be such a downer that it took until this week for me to get this one into the DVD player. Why did I wait???? It is wonderful!

I should have known with Ciaran Hinds in the title role that it would be good. But this one is really good! Now, don't get me wrong, it is Thomas Hardy and the subtitle of the book is "The Life and Death of a Man of Character" so don't you be expectin' any happy endings. I mean it starts with the main character Michael Henchard selling his wife and baby daughter to a sailor at a country fair after he has had too much to drink.

Then we pick up the story 18 years later, when Henchard has made good and is a respectable grain merchant and Mayor when his wife Susan shows up in Casterbridge as a widow with a grown daughter. And then the story gets complex and really dark as it always does with Hardy.

I have to say, if I knew James Purefoy had such a prominent role in this I would have cracked open the DVD much sooner. My goodness, that man looks good in Victorian clothing! And he does a fairly good Scottish accent as Donald Farfrae, the man who unwittingly complicates Henchard's life over and over again.

Mmmmmmmm....sorry, I got lost in those dreamy eyes and adorable smirk in the photo above.

But seriously all of the actors in this are top notch, from Jodhi May as Elizabeth-Jane, Henchard's daughter right on down to the wonderful Jean Marsh in a small but pivotal role as the Furmity Woman who gets Henchard intoxicated at the fair. You know a production is fabulous when even the tiny roles are perfectly cast. And Polly Walker is captivatingly gorgeous as usual as Lucetta, the love interest of both men.

I think what I liked most about this story is how Thomas Hardy humanizes his characters and doesn't try to make them all good or all evil, which is a refreshing change for Victorian literature. Everyone has depth, even if there seems to be just a little too much coincidental tragedy for my liking.

So, there you are. By all means this has my two thumbs up but make sure you are in a good mood when you decide to watch it. It is quite a roller coaster ride. And of course it makes you want to read the book. I think this will be cottage reading for me this summer!

Cheers!

Upstairs Downstairs on PBS starting April 10 2011

Upstairs Downstairs, on the stairs!

On Sunday April 10, 2011, the long awaited Upstairs Downstairs finally begins. It is just 3 episodes long over the next three Sunday nights, so don't get too attached to this one folks.  It is a lovely revival of the classic 1970s television series. Updated to the 1930s, just before the Second World War began, this is undoubtedly a fascinating time period in which to set this classic period soap opera.

Upstairs Downstairs-Sir Hallam and Lady Agnes in their evening dress

In this episode, Sir Hallam (Ed Stoppard) and Lady Agnes Holland (Keeley Hawes) move into 165 Eaton Place and hire former parlor maid Rose (Jean Marsh) to assemble a staff. The servants are soon put to the test during a party that threatens to destroy Sir Hallam’s career. Dame Eileen Atkins also stars as Sir Hallam's rather "take-charge" mother.  Her monkey is hilarious as is she. Clare Foy plays Lady Agnes' naughty little sister Lady Persie.

Lady Agnes and the servants of Upstairs Downstairs

I quite enjoyed this one, although I freely admit to preferring Downton Abbey. BBC has finally been outdone by ITV (commercial television in Britain) but only just. Since we are not going to get any more Downton Abbey until 2012, savour this delightful miniseries for the little gem that it is.

The two miniseries were so similar in style that Comic Relief did a parody of both of them on Red Nose Day called Uptown Downstairs Abbey.  I am feeling cheeky today, so here is another parody of Upstairs Downstairs by our friends on Sesame Street:

Upstairs Downstairs-The Saga Continues on PBS/Masterpiece

Upstairs, Downstairs is back on PBS starting Sunday April 10th

If you are in withdrawal after Downton Abbey finished this week, fear not! BBC and PBS have combined forces yet again to bring us the continuation of the famous historic soap opera of the 1970s, Upstairs Downstairs.

The story opens in 1936, six years after the Bellamy family moved out of 165 Eaton Place at the end of the original series. Recently inherited by young Sir Hallam Holland (Ed Stoppard, Bridey Flyte from Brideshead Revisited 2008), the house has been long vacant and its considerable needs are taken in hand by Hallam’s vivacious wife, Agnes (Keeley Hawes, Cynthia from Wives and Daughters).

The stellar cast includes the original series creators Dame Eileen Atkins (Miss Deborah Jenkyns from Cranford) and Jean Marsh (Mrs. Ferrars from Sense and Sensibility 2008), with Marsh reprising her Emmy Award-winning role as Rose Buck, now promoted from parlormaid to housekeeper, and Atkins appearing as the aristocratic Lady Maud.  Hopefully we can expect some of the brilliant verbal sparring from these ladies that we have so enjoyed with the "Dames of Downton".

Lady Agnes Holland's first order of business is to hire servants, for which she retains Rose (Marsh), the proprietor of a domestic employment agency, although Agnes is unaware of Rose’s previous association with 165. After lining up a butler (Adrian Scarborough from Cranford), a cook (Anne Reid from Bleak House), a housemaid (Ellie Kendrick from The Diary of Anne Frank), and other staff, Rose realizes she may be of no further use to the new family.  But of course, she is needed once again...

And so it continues, just as it did thirty-odd years ago, with stories of the upper-class and working-class intertwining in complex and interesting ways against a backdrop of world events—in this case, the abdication crisis of Edward VIII, the growing belligerence of Hitler and Mussolini on the continent, and the rise of the British Union of Fascists under Sir Oswald Mosley.

You know where I will be every Sunday night in April.  Will you be joining me, Earl Grey tea in hand?