Shopping, Seduction & Mr Selfridge- The Book is Better than the Miniseries!

Sometimes the book is better, sometimes the film adaptation is better and sometimes they are both great. This time, for "Mr. Selfridge" vs "Shopping, Seduction & Mr Selfridge" the book has the slight edge in my opinion. It is not a novel, but a non-fiction account of the evolution of shopping on both sides of the Atlantic.

The story of Harry Gordon Selfridge is a true American rags to riches and back to rags story of which few of us were previously aware. I have been to the Selfridges store which transformed the "wrong end of Oxford Street" when my family visited London just after the bombings in July 2005. I just thought Selfridges was a very nice department store in 2005, and a welcome reprieve from a summer downpour. I should have looked around a bit more instead of just shopping. Although I did get some lovely lingerie there! Thanks Harry! :)

Although Harry himself is interesting, it is the history of modern shopping and fashion which have really caught my imagination. Mr. Selfridge started out with Marshall Fields in Chicago, and anyone with an interest  in the history of Chicago would also find this fascinating. I could have used more pretty pictures of the merchandise. Oh, those gorgeous Victorian and Edwardian dresses!

I was fascinated to hear that there was a outdoor rooftop terrace where they held fashion shows and demonstrations of all kinds. And of course those fabulous window displays live on...

Yes, that is a gingerbread version of Selfridges with corgis in Santa hats on top and Pearly Kings on each side! Even though Selfridges has been owned by Canadian food retailer Galen Weston for a decade now, it seems to have retained it's modern British feel. It certainly isn't anything like Harrods in any case!

So even if you, like many, were left underwhelmed by the miniseries, the book is worth a look.

PBS Update- The Bletchley Circle, Call the Midwife and Mr. Selfridge

I just wanted to give two of these series currently running on PBS a big thumbs up (or a 5 teacup rating, whichever you prefer) and the other one a resounding meh!

The Bletchley Circle is soooooo awesome that ITV can't possibly leave it at just one 3 episode series. Oh, please, please, please make this a recurring series. We need more mysteries solved by these brilliant code cracking females!

If you haven't yet seen this amazing series, you were able to catch up online at the PBS website: The Bletchley Circle until they took the first episode down, the stinkers.

Someone has uploaded all three episodes to YouTube. The link is here: YouTubeBletchley. Enjoy it while it lasts!

My other 5 teacup rating goes to the second season of Call the Midwife. I was a bit skeptical of whether the BBC could keep up the amazing quality of the first season but wow, they sure have. One really gets the feel of the emerging improvements in medical care in the second half of the 20th century when you watch this show. And it always seems to make me cry and yet not seem depressing somehow. I gotta read the book when this series finishes!

Just be careful when you are watching this. Inevitably, someone either male or under the age of 18 will walk into the room just as you are watching a delivery with the midwife between the poor mother's legs!!!!

Haven't been following? Catch up here: Call the Midwife Season 2

So here comes my lukewarm assessment of Mr. Selfridge. It's okayyyyyyyyy....

Two and a half teacups (with the tea running out of the half cup)? I have been watching it. I haven't been enthralled or enthusiastic but I leave it on after Call the Midwife. A friend of mine used to work out in the same gym as Jeremy Piven and described him as "very small and squirrely".  Perhaps that is part of it but the scripts must be at least partly to blame. I love the main character Agnes Towler (played by the marvelously named Aisling Loftus) and Frances O'Connor is her usual luminous self as Harry Selfridge's wife Rose.

I will give it a few more weeks however as I did enjoy the latest installment with the Suffragettes. They are dear to my heart and you will find my post devoted to the Suffragettes here: Mary Poppins and the Suffragettes.

What do y'all think of these three PBS series?

Mr. Selfridge and Call the Midwife Season 2 starting March 31 on PBS

It will be another month before we in North America get to see the new ITV/Andrew Davies series Mr. Selfridge, about the flamboyant American retailer Harry Selfridge who founded his namesake department stores in the UK in 1909. It stars Jeremy Piven playing the lead and Frances O'Connor as his wife Rose Selfridge. I was able to preview the first two episodes and I can absolutely recommend this for great Sunday night viewing. However, I think PBS missed the opportunity to retain it's Sunday night audience by delaying the airing of Mr. Selfridge until the end of March!

Doesn't Jeremy Piven look thrilled to be surrounded by those gorgeous women?

In the UK, the BBC rushed their very similar offering The Paradise (loosely based on Emile Zola's department store novel The Ladies' Paradise) to the small screen in the fall of 2012 whereas Mr. Selfridge didn't start on ITV until January 2013. 

It seems that the BBC didn't want to be burned again like when Upstairs Downstairs was pipped at the post by the superior Downton Abbey from ITV. This time the viewers and critics are torn, so there seems to be no clear winner yet in the UK. There is no word yet on when we in North America will see The Paradise.

I will admit that I am besotted with Call the Midwife, so I have also previewed the first episode of Season 2 for you (what a sacrifice I make for my online friends!). I loved it, as usual. This show is so charming and it really is "Girl Power" circa 1957. You go girls!

If you haven't seen Season 1 of Call the Midwife, many PBS stations are replaying it (Sun March 10 and 17 8-11pm) so you can catch up. Unfortunately not my local station out of Buffalo, but perhaps you will be luckier. Remember...Check Local Listings!

My review of Call the Midwife Season 1 is here. And my sister's review of the Christmas episode of Call the Midwife is here! Have fun with your Sunday nights in April my friends!

Ripper Street, Parade's End, Mr. Selfridge and more

Any fans of Matthew Macfadyen out there? You may want to check out Ripper Street, a BBC production coming to BBC America this Saturday January 19th at 9 pm. Called CSI Victorian London by The Telegraph, this is apparently a fairly gory but interesting and well produced crime drama, which just happens to be set in the 1880s.

There seem to be mixed reviews on this one. Some are really loving it, others are not so impressed. It is airing on Sunday nights in the UK right now and Mr. Selfridge, the much lighter-hearted story of the great retailer (ITV and Andrew Davies) is beating it out in ratings for the after Sunday dinner crowd. Any Brits out there who can weigh in on Ripper Street?

Parade's End, which airs on HBO on Tuesday February 26th is another one which is hard to make out. There are fabulous reviews and others ones which are lukewarm. Sumptuously filmed by the BBC, this adaptation of a classic English novel about the Great War may draw a few of us viewers just to see the gorgeous chameleon Benedict Cumberbatch. Apparently his fans in America (The Cumberbitches) will be thrilled. It is also packed with other stars such as Rebecca Hall, Rupert Everett, Miranda Richardson, Rufus Sewell, etc, etc. Too many to list!

I caught a snatch of this on YouTube before it was yanked and I liked it. However one viewer called it Parade Never Ends, so perhaps it drags toward the end. Again, anyone seen this and like to weigh in?

I am going to stick my neck out and predict that Mr. Selfridge, an ITV production written by the wonderful Andrew Davies (Pride and Prejudice, Bleak House, Sense and Sensibility) will be a little more universally appealing than the previous two offerings. Described as Downton in a department store, this one follows Harry Selfridge (Jeremy Piven) "The Showman Behind the Retail Empire" of Selfridges.

This one airs on PBS in March in 10 episodes (!!!) so all of a sudden, the winter looks shorter to me. Lots to look forward to.

The Bletchley Circle doesn't air until April 21 on PBS, but this story of 4 former code cracking ladies from Bletchley Park who find post-war Britain very dull and so move into solving a murder sounds like fun. Anna Maxwell Martin (Bleak House and Becoming Jane) is always wonderful to watch. We get the second season of Call the Midwife around the same time in the spring as well.

Not a period drama (but truly my cup of tea), Quartet is a light dramedy about the residents of a "retirement castle" (it is truly sumptuous) for classical musicians. The entire supporting cast are actually talented retirees and the stars are some of the best "experienced" actors that Britain has to offer. Dustin Hoffman directed this one and apparently had his hands full keeping Maggie Smith in line. I will be seeing this soon and will post a review.

Anyhow, there you have a sneak peek at some coming attractions. Anything else you are looking forward to that I neglected to mention? Or opinions on the above? Please comment below. We ALL want to hear from ALL of you!