Penny For Your Dreams

Cranford - Christmas Special Part One

2010-01-08T14:04:00.001-08:00

It's 1844 and it's been two years since Miss Deborah died, but Miss Matty (Judi Dench) happily fills her time, with great obvious pleasure, tending to Martha and Jem's baby Tilly. Miss Matty happily wheels Tilly along the Cranford high street, nodding to the townsfolk; we spy Mrs. Forrester (Julia McKenzie), now so attached to Bessie the Cow that she takes it on a walk with her. Lady Jamieson (Barbara Flynn) is still cradling a dog and being carried around in a sedan chair and much to my delight by the same hardy extras as last time.

With a screech, Miss Pole, so indignant that even the feather in her bonnet is quivering with anger, accosts Miss Matty, who is urged not to near the 'George' for fear of the ghastly pool of 'effluvia' the Navvies have left behind. Miss Matty looks aghast. It seems that the 'Railway!' is still occupying the thoughts of the Amazons and they are still against it.

Even Lady Ludlow is behind them; her refusal to sell her land for the railway means that it has gotten no further than Hanbury Halt and looks to go no farther.
It's Sunday, which can mean only one thing in Cranford. The ladies hit the church and it says a lot for their standing that they are all squashed into the front pew. However all does not go smoothly, a strange dog gate-crashes the service and baptises the pulpit, much to the disgust of entire congregation, apart from Mrs Forrester, who giggles like a schoolgirl. The Rector (Alex Jennings) isn't allowed to throw his hymn book at the wretched creature, so instead simply grimaces and sings at a slightly higher volume to scare it away.

After the service the ladies gang up on the Reverend, who can't get a word in edgewise and is reduced to umming and erring in between the ladies complaints. The ladies are all quite small in stature and, well, the Reverend isn't. This means that he's surrounded by a semi-circle of ladies craning up to complain and fears losing an eye from Miss Poles bonnet feather.

They are disturbed by Master William Buxton, who is admiringly appraised by Mrs Forrester as having grown broad. She means buff, but she lived in the 'Olden Days' so we'll allow her that. William (Tom Hiddleston) is looking for his dog. The Reverend upon hearing this, who at first seemed to relish speaking to someone that he could actually look in the eye without getting a back strain, excuses himself coldly (presumably to go and mop up the puddle inside).

William Buxton spies his dog Napoleon (and as Mrs Forrester wearily says: 'How could he be expected to behave with a name like that?') and chases him around the churchyard, knocking over the vase of flowers placed on top of the late Mr Bell's grave to the abject consternation of Mrs Bell (Lesley Sharp), the indifference of Edward Bell (Matthew McNulty) and the meek acceptance of Peggy Bell (Jodie Whittaker). William, does of course, apologise profusely, which gives him ample time to notice the grave Peggy, who despite scraped back hair and a scrubbed clean face, has cheekbones to die for and sweet smile.

Jem (Andrew Buchan) arrives at the Railway works for his pay and mindful of his obligations and the new baby on the way, asks after more work. Captain Brown (Jim Carter), tactful yet honest, says that he has none. If the Railway can't get further than Hanbury Halt then there is no more work.

Jem is despondant, he doesn't have enough money to pay Miss Matty her rent; though Miss Matty kindly tells Jem that neither of them shall tell Martha, which while no doubt something of a comfort, is still a bitter blow to someone as proud as Jem Hearne.

Miss Matty goes to call on the newly returned Mr Buxton (Jonathan Pryce), who is effusive in his welcome and wonders why she hadn't come to call sooner.

William comes haring down the stairs after his dog and in some disarray, much to the disapproval of his father, who tells him to 'arrange his linen'.

Um, no, don't.
Ahem. Anyway, just after William goes to let the dog out, Erminia Whyte (Michele Dockery), Mr Buxton's ward, wafts down the stairs, oblivious to the hour (it's noon) and wanders into the morning room to pound out a waltz on the piano, still in her night clothes.

Miss Matty's brain starts to whirr, she decides to bring the Bell's and the Buxton's together.

Harry Gregson (Alex Etel) is about to start school and is being fitted for his uniform by Mr and Mrs Johnson (Adrian Scarborough and Debra Gillett). They are being keenly observed by Miss Galindo (Emma Fielding), who tartly reproves the Johnson's for pushing their more expensive fabric on the impressionable Harry.

Miss Galindo also accompanies Harry to visit the ailing Lady Ludlow (Francesca Annis). Harry has grown quite tall and Lady Ludlow enquires to ensure that tucks to accommodate further growth had been incorporated into his uniform. Harry answers that Miss Galindo has seen to it and then tells her Ladyship that her clock is wrong. Lady Ludlow replies that it was a gift from her absent son Septimus and that it pleases her to have it nearby, despite the fact that it misses beats. The cheap cad has sent her a defective clock.

Harry notices how ill Lady Ludlow is and asks Miss Galindo if it is her heart, Miss Galindo says that the malignancy is in Lady Ludlow's bones and that she has written to Septimus.

Harry is off to school, both Miss Galindo and his mother (Emma Lowndes) come to wave him off. His mother gives him a pen wiper adorned with X's, that he says mean kisses and secretes it safe in his pocket, appreciating the gift with a gravity that belies his age and sets off for school apprehensively. Mrs Gregson and Miss Galindo both watch him go with heavy hearts.

Miss Matty has arranged for the Bell's to attend a tea party at the Buxton's. Erminia is polite and friendly, William can barely tear his eyes away from Peggy and Mrs Bell coughs in warning at the slightest hint of a slouch from Peggy. Miss Matty deftly prevents a social disaster as Peggy suggests that she might like an orange. Miss Matty looks horrified and Peggy quickly develops a taste for grapes instead.

Fun and games in the garden: Badminton doubles. Peggy and Ermina are exceptionally spry for women in crinolines and Edward's competitive nature is displayed by his vicious whacking of the shuttlecock. A particularly rough thwack right at Peggy causes her to fall and rip her clothes, whereupon she's spirited away by Miss Matty to repair her dress. As Miss Pole exclaims: ' Your stays are showing.' Scandalous indeed.

Miss Matty is called away from her dress repairs by a scream from the kitchen: Martha has gone into labour. Miss Pole has arrived to tell Martha that Lady Ludlow is near death, that the Rector is already en-route and that Jem should dust off his undertakers jacket. Martha bustles around preparing for the birth, fetching Jem's jacket and clean linen herself.

The birth is not painless and Martha has no one to help her except Miss Pole's maid, Bertha, who can do nothing except hold Martha's hand. Miss Matty is asked to fetch a doctor, but Cranford doesn't have one: Dr Harrison has moved away with Sophy and Dr Morgan has just left with his wife. In desperation the barber surgeon from the Railway works is summoned, but his expertise is only with broken bones. Neither Martha nor her baby survive and Miss Matty carefully lays out Martha's body, gently brushing her hair and tying a ribbon at the end of her plait. Jem is bereft and heartbroken, as is Miss Matty.

Septimus (Rory Kinnear) is on his way home, but he has to keep stopping on the way as his companion Giacomo, is so disturbed by the jolting of the carriage that he has to vomit every half mile.

Alas Septimus is too late, his mother has already been laid out. He is just in time for the funeral and of course the reading of the will.

Septimus is somewhat louchely trying on his mother's jewelery when he's told that the estate has a mortgage on it by Lord Maulver (Greg Wise). Septimus is shocked even further to hear that he'll have to pay Harry Gregson £20000. Giacomo sits around waiting for Septimus to show him the ha-ha as promised.

Peter Jenkyns (Nicholas le Provost) has returned from Liverpool with all his Indian possessions. The ladies fear that there might be snakes hiding in the folds of all the treasures and Miss Pole, averring that she has no fear of snakes, sets to beating a rug as if her life depended on it. Mrs Forrester's personal fear is of spiders and when Peter mentions that Indian spiders can grow as large as dinner plates, Miss Pole's arm gets very tired and she trots home, as quickly as she can.

Mary Smith (Lisa Dillon) has heard about Martha and has come to comfort Miss Matty. She also has good news: she's engaged to a soap flake manufacturer called Mr Turnbull, which pleases Miss Matty greatly, especially after Mary's 'disappointment' last year. Caddish Dr Marshland I've no doubt.

Septimus can't give away £20000 to Harry Gregson; he has a house in Italy that require repairs and Giacomo's hair doesn't back-comb itself. He summons Harry from school and instead proposes to give only £5000 to Harry immediately, as a bankers draft, if Harry will shake his hand as 'a Gentleman'. Harry is flattered and awed at such a lot of money and not knowing any better, agrees.

Miss Matty has had enough of tripping over the tiger's head rug and the parrot that Peter has brought back is 'dropping lime' all over Miss Deborah's chair. Peter therefore 'gifts' the rug to Mrs Forrester, who is taken aback, but avers that she loves all dumb creatures and the parrot to Miss Pole; who, even when suddenly confronted with a squawking parrot that attempts to eat her collar, her bonnet and will possibly start nipping chunks out of her ear, remains polite and afraid only for the state of her carpet.

A cage for Polly Parrot has to be procured, and at the insistence of Erminia that the best cages are from France, an order is placed. When the package arrives, despite Bertha's darkly muttering that Miss Pole will regret it, the cage is assembled and hung outside the Pole residence, with Miss Pole posing alongside it.

Peter Jenkyns passes by and admires the construction of Polly's new abode. Mrs Johnson joins in the admiration and then baldly informs Miss Pole that she has strung a parrot inside an under-skirt. Miss Pole is mortified and races inside screeching for Bertha.

There is grand announcement to be made at the Johnson's Store. Outside are two men playing fiddles and inside are displays of Nurse Huckaby's Traveller's Friend Elixir, handwarmers and veils to 'Protect your cheeks from smut'.

The grand announcement is made by Captain Brown who states that now that Septimus has decided to sell the Hanbury Estate, that the Railway is coming into the heart of Cranford and he has the model to show the amassed crowd what it will look like.

People are shocked. Mr Buxton seeing the route of the railway states that it actually passes over his land and that he isn't selling. This is much to the relief of Harry, whose Mother lives in the cottages that would have to be pulled down.

Harry has confided in Miss Galindo in Septimus' proposition to him. Miss Galindo realising how slimy Septimus is, rushes to Hanbury Hall and tells him that he hasn't a leg to stand on legally, that his gentlemans handshake means nothing in a court of law and, as she tears the bankers draft to shreds, tell him it was a 'bastard thing'. Miss Galindo is superbly feisty and forceful. She basically tells Septimus to shove it up his Giacomo and shove off. Septimus takes her advice and he and Giacomo leave.

Harry thankfully gets to keep Mr Carter's inheritance, but now he also has to leave and return to school, despite not particularly wanting to.

It seems that people leave in threes. If the railway can go no further, then there is no work for Jem and he decides to leave Miss Matty and take Tilly to live in Bolton where he has family and there is work. Miss Matty's home now feels so empty without Jem and Tilly and she's grateful for Mary's company, even if Mary is writing so much that she wearing out candles at an awful rate.
Jem's leave taking causes Miss Matty to think very hard about the future of Cranford and whether such a small town can afford to lose so many young people. She begins to doubt Miss Deborah's stance against the railway and decides to try the railway out for herself. But she knows that she'll need the support of the Amazons and duly invites them to travel with her in First Class as well.

Mary, Miss Matty and Captain Brown stand on the platform at Hanbury Halt waiting. The train arrives puffing and hooting, but no one else has joined them, until out of the steam, arm in arm, the remaining contingent of Cranford females arrive triumphantly clutching their first class invitations.

Mrs Jamieson has brought smelling salts, Miss Tomkinson states that she mustn't sit with her back to the horse, Mrs Forrester asks if the scenery will move and Miss Pole confidently says that the movement will fray her optic nerve. Captain Brown takes all this with bluff good humour and politeness and fills first class up with the just arrived Erminia and Mr Buxton. This leaves William and Peggy to sit in the third class carriage by themselves. There isn't much difference to first class apart from the cushions.

The train starts jerkily and the people inside are thrown about a little, but the ladies trepidation soon fades, with Mrs Forrester enjoying herself immensely and Miss Pole shading her eyes from scenery to protect her optic nerve.

Peggy and William are delighted with the ride, both of whom stand in the swaying third class carriage and when thrown together by the movement of the train, cling to each other which leads to William to state his love and asks Peggy to marry him.

The only person very affected by the journey is Miss Matty herself, who feels a bit nauseated by the motion and is palpably relieved when the journey is finished. The train ends up back where it started, which seems to suggest that railway will only ever travel in a loop.

Mr Buxton, impressed by Miss Matty's courage in arranging the jaunt, decides to sell his land and not stand in the way of the railway. After he and Captain Brown depart, the ladies decide that is their fortitude that has wrought such a change of affairs and we end on Miss Matty looking pensive, wondering if she has done the right thing and what will come of it all.

The performances were uniformly faultless, the writing sublime and period detail as finely wrought as the last series. The only minor criticism I have is that some scenes were so short and flew by so fast that the episode had a slightly fragmented feel. It could have benefited from some longer and deeper scenes, but that was the only gripe I had. Judi Dench is the moral and emotional centre of Cranford, her acting is so good that emotion just radiates from her. I'm just glad that there was enough Gaskell material for one more episode.

Lost In Austen Episode 1

2008-09-07T09:52:00.000-07:00

Meet Amanda Price (Jemima Rooper), bored with her job, her boorish boyfriend and generally jaded with life. There's nothing she likes better than curling up with a good book (and half a pint of wine) and losing herself in the world of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Then one night after a drunken proposal from her boyfriend, Amanda while chewing on a piece of toast and possibly contemplating moving and not telling her boyfriend, hears a sound in her bathroom, arms herself with rolled up copy of Heat and discovers a night capped young woman pawing her underwear. It transpires that the young lady is Elizabeth Bennet (Gemma Arterton), who has travelled through a door from her house to Amanda's bathroom. Before much more can be discovered Amanda's boyfriend calls out which distracts her momentarily so when she looks back, Elizabeth is gone.
Amanda seems a little obsessed with Pride and Prejudice; in a visit to her Mum's (Pippa Hayward, who appears to have an problem with untidiness and paint pot samplers) she explains that it is the regency period that is so vividly described, the mores and manners, which beguile her. Her Mum sighs and gloomily states that Amanda's ideals probably won't be able to help her into her coat when she's seventy.

When Amanda gets home she discovers a transfixed Elizabeth in the bathroom turning on and off the mirror light. Amanda tries to explain that she is real and Elizabeth is fictional, but Elizabeth proves her that her "fleshly envelope" is as valid as Amanda's by telling her an obscure historical fact and then showing her the door into her world.
Amanda quickly hops through the door into Elizabeth's house, all wooden floors and lit by flickering candles and gasps in wonder at it. A door at the end of the corridor opens and a servant bustles through, Elizabeth smiles at Amanda as the door closes of it's own volition and Amanda is trapped on the other side as the door is closed and seeming fastened shut.
After frightening Mr. Claude Bennet (Hugh Bonneville) into dropping his books by hoving into view on the servants stairs, Amanda is ushered into his study and the story, that Amanda is Lizzie's long standing friend and that she is gone to visit Amanda in Hammersmith, is quickly concocted. Mr. Bennet after a very brief interview then exhorts Amanda to take Lizzie's bed for the night.
The following morning Amanda is woken by of Mrs. Bennet shrieking somewhere in the house and then is startled by the appearance of Lydia (Perdita Weeks) sharing her bed. Amanda gets somewhat overwrought about her situation and displays her "pubic topiary" to an astonished Lydia.

At breakfast Amanda 21st century attire is explained away as an otter hunting outfit which seems to satisfy the rest of the house. Mr. Bennet himself seems to acknowledge that Hammersmith is an "otter strewn thoroughfare".
Breakfast is interrupted by the arrival of Mr Bingley (Elliot Misen) who is being simpered at by Mrs. Bennet (Alex Kingston). All the Bennet girls, plus Amanda are ushered into to meet him, with apologies for Elizabeth's absence. Amanda is alarmed to notice that Bingley seems more enamoured with her than Jane (Morven Christie). Amanda then improvises a story about Lizzie wanting to write a book and travelling to Hammersmith to get the requisite peace and quiet to do so, much to the horror of Mrs. Bennet.

Amanda is loaned a few of Lizzie's dresses, for there are no otter to be hunted in the neighbourhood and Amanda encourages Jane by telling her that Bingley was very taken with her. Upon asking to brush her teeth, Jane points out the Birch twigs, chalk and salt to Amanda's consternation and leaves Amanda bemusedly holding the twigs and wishing she'd brought her toothbrush with her.
Bingley asks his sister Caroline (Christina Cole, who is the actress of choice when you want a bitch in a bustle) if she wants to go to church, Caroline declines and instead manages to get Bingley to stay at home to play cards with her, which he does reluctantly.
Amanda meanwhile traipses to church with the Bennet's and meets Charlotte Lucas who introduces herself shyly and then drops a clanger by mentioning that she speaks to Lady Ambrose, who just so happens to be a pig.
A ball has been arranged and the Bennet sisters and Amanda (who applies her extra bit of lucky lippy in the carriage much to the disapproval of Mrs. Bennet) are overwhelmed by the jollity. Amanda then spends much of her time availing herself of the punch and getting sarked at by Caroline Bingley.
Amanda despite her best efforts, gets asked to dance by the smitten Mr. Bingley and Amanda in a desperate effort to get the story back to its original course declines and says she's already engaged to dance with Mr. Darcy. Bingley calls over to Darcy, and at first a stout little red faced man appears to be about to totter over, when a tall, well dressed man revolves and takes all the puff out out of Miss Price with a single smoulder.
And doesn't he just he just look regency! He might have wandered in off the cover of a Mills and Boon. I don't like the wig though.

Darcy and Amanda begin to dance and Amanda quite reasonably doesn't know how to and doesn't so much dance as copy everyone else while remaining at least three beats out of time. She attempts vainly to engage Darcy in conversation, but he answers only peremptorily and doesn't disguise his dislike of her. At the end of dance he stalks off leaving an annoyed Amanda, who trudges outside for a crafty cigarette and then when Bingley turns up, plants a kiss on his surprised fizzog.

She then attempts to put right her impertinence by professing that she is a lesbian, leaving the reeling Mr. Bingley in an attractive state of confusion.

Mrs. Bennet corners Amanda at the ball and in no uncertain terms warns her not to scupper any of her daughters chances at matrimony. Alex Kingston who doesn't have much to do but shake her curls neurotically, obviously relished the chance to get her teeth into a scene and consequently Mrs. Bennet is one of the more interesting characters in the programme.
The following day Amanda encourages Jane to visit Bingley and dispatches her in the rain on a horse. Mary relates how Jane almost died of "the Grippe" last time she got a cold and panics Amanda into rushing headlong across country after her. This sets Mrs. Bennet into another flurry as she believes that Amanda is trying to usurp Jane in Bingley's affections and her finger-wagging remonstrations to Mr. Bennet are rebuffed in Mr. Bennet's inimitable way.
We end with bedraggled Amanda dragging herself through some bushes and aiming for Netherfield.
All in all, a fun twist on the story. It's evident that Amanda is an Elizabeth substitute and her astonishment at Darcy's rudeness at the ball a direct comparison to Elizabeth's first encounter with Darcy. Jemima Rooper is a thoroughly modern Amanda and Darcy, so far, is elegantly rude. Mr. Bingley it seems, is genetically mainly spanial and Mr. and Mrs. Bennet are utterly brilliant, as are Hugh Bonneville and Alex Kingston.

Gemma Arterton as Elizabeth is wasted in a minuscule role and though it would be fun to see Lizzie's adventures in modern day otter strewn Hammersmith, the show wisely remains in the Regency period and besides she's probably still in the bathroom playing with the light.

Candide

2008-07-16T11:09:00.000-07:00

Always a girl who wants to try new things (within reason), I thought I wander off to the opera, but could I find anyone to go with me? Well no...most people looked at me as if I were daft in the head. It's not that outlandish an idea is it? Anyway, having enjoyed Alex Jennings in Present Laughter, I thought I'd make the most of a rare singing role and see him in Candide, by Leonard Bernstein at the ENO in London. And yes, I had to go by myself, oh well, it's cheaper I suppose.

Up I get on Saturday morning and wonder why on earth everything seems in such sharp focus at this ungodly time, and then I remember, I forgot to take my contact lenses out the night before! I dimly remember the optician telling me that if I did this I shouldn't attempt to remove the lenses myself, I should either go to the opticians or the eye hospital to get them to do it otherwise my eyeballs would explode and dribble down my face. Not wanting to spend all day at eye casualty (which brings to mind a horrible vision of a waiting room of people with things protruding from eye sockets) I squirted some saline into my eye and rubbed gently, which is all the optician would have done anyway, and out popped the lenses pretty easily, eye ball still in one piece and still in my socket thankfully. Oh well it's a glasses day today then.

The ENO is based at the Coliseum in London and it's lovely, it looks like a proper theatre with gilt and statues.
Yes, I know I'm an idiot, but the surroundings were so lovely that I couldn't gloss over them with no comment. A 360 degree virtual tour of the auditorium can be found here.

The set is a huge proscenium filling 50's TV set, and the overture plays over a jaunty 50's style credit sequence which I loved! Why don't all plays have animated credits? Then the images of booming 1950's America take over, Elvis Presley, JFK, white picket fences, it's easy to imagine the post war optimism of that era and how infectious it was.
Then a Voltaire (Alex Jennings) in 18th century period costume walks out onto the platform in front of the TV and begins the story of Candide (Toby Spence) who was cast out of his home in West Failure (the White House) and away from his true love Cunegonde (Marnie Breckinridge) and forced to trudge the world, but doing so incredibly optimistically, for he slavishly remains true to his tutor Dr Pangloss' (Alex Jennings again) philosophy that "all is for the best in this best of all possible worlds". And er, that's about it. The plot is simply Candide being optimistic and searching for Cunegonde, and no one ever dies properly, they keep coming back to life improbably, but I don't suppose opera's are noted for their true to life verite outlook.
On his travels, he meets Anabaptist's, one buttocked Old Ladies and almost fatally the House Committee on Un-American Activities, with a jaunty chorus of KKK, no really. Cunegonde's family is killed and she is left for dead by the invading Eastphalians, after being nursed back to health by a kindly farmer, she makes her way to the big city where she beguiles, OK, seduces two opposing film producers and they set her up as a starlet in the Marilyn Monroe mould, to the extent that "Glitter And Be Gay" is an homage to Marilyn's "Diamonds Are a Girls Best Friend".

Candide "rescues" Cunegonde by shooting dead the two producers and they then along with an Old Lady with only one buttock, they escape to the New World.

The music is glorious and the lyrics are extremely witty and funny and the singing I did find impressive, Toby Spence has a warm rich voice and Marnie Breckenridge brought the house down with "Glitter And Be Gay", but the thing about operatic singing is that it's sometimes hard to make out the what they're saying, especially as I'm not familiar with the story or the music. By the time you realise you didn't recognise what was said, you've missed the surtitle and then you miss the next sung line because you've only just stopped trying to make out the surtitle.

Beverly Klein (The Old Lady) and Alex Jennings don't have that problem because they aren't opera singers (just plain old normal singers, but even when compared to opera singers, very good singers) so you can make out their lyrics easier.

Toby Spence was lovely, he sang wonderfully, but seemed a little aloof, probably because none of the characters really came to the front of the stage, they mostly stayed quite well back at the middle or back of the stage, which meant that they didn't engage very well with the audience. No doubt why Alex Jennings got such praise for his engaging presence, you have to be if you're teetering on the edge of the orchestra pit.

While Alex was on stage most of the time as either Voltaire or Dr Pangloss it was mostly standing at either side of the TV frame as Voltaire waiting for his next piece of narration. He was a nerdy sounding Pangloss and a snarly, rough comic Martin. His was the most assured performance along with Beverly Klein, who was the funniest character by far.

Her turn as a Vegas showgirl was no doubt funny, but I only saw a few feathers on top of her head, because the director in his wisdom decided to place spectators onstage, unfortunately right in front me.
The front row is a lovely place to sit except because of the frame, you can't see the stage floor, so if any character is lying down, you can't see them. It seemed poor Candide was gloomily serenading his own feet at more than one point. Also I always feel slightly uncomfortable sitting at the front, because I get afraid that the actors can see me.

When Voltaire changed into Pangloss, he would jump up onto the stage and then remove his Voltaire costume to reveal the blazer and tie of Pangloss. Every time Pangloss made an appearance his costume got dirtier and more worn, till by the end he looked quite bedraggled.

The only dull note of the entire show was the five deposed Kings section, nobody interacts with them, they just sing and look faintly disturbing in their masks and swimwear, Pangloss and Candide just shrug at each other after their song as if to say, what was that all about? At this point I got a bit bored and started to stare at the back of Pangloss and Candide's heads, they were watching the Kings, then I moved onto watching the conductor, then the audience, and then if I leaned forward a little I could see into the orchestra pit and watch the musicians. Very interesting. I was relieved when that song was over.

Mark Stone played each incarnation of Maximilian with great relish. He looked like he thoroughly enjoyed every part, from a Mormon, to man dressed up as a character from Some Like it Hot, through to a Vegas policeman.
Marnie Breckenridge sang "Glitter and be Gay" superbly, at least to my philistine ears, I wouldn't have noticed if she mangled every second note, but I came out and hummed it (badly) for days afterwords, so it definitely left an impression. This was the high point of the show for me, the music and choreography were perfect and sentiments of the song were perfectly illustrated by Cunegonde festooning herself in jewels.

The dancers and the chorus also need kudos, the company sang fantastically and danced imaginatively and impressively. Also the Auto-da-fe song is horribly catchy, I hummed that all the way home!

I loved this show and enjoyed the performances and everyone who declined to come with me, missed a treat!

My eye on the other hand is currently red and weeping has a tendency to glue itself shut if I close it for too long, chloramphenicol is being liberally applied.

Much Ado About Nothing

2008-04-18T15:48:00.000-07:00

I went to see Much Ado About Nothing at the National Theatre about a month and a half ago and I've only just gotten round to blogging about it! I blame having to work weekends for the last month.

I'd been quite excited about going and seeing the play until about the week before, when the realisation that it was three hours (!) long and Shakespeare hit me. I'm not clever enough for that! I'll fall asleep, start snoring and get asked to leave, oh why did I book the tickets! My friend managed to catch the theatre-fear from me and both of us were less than enthusiastic about the play by the time we got there. As usual (due to circumstances beyond my control) I'm late and when we presented our tickets to the ushers, they said: "the plays just started" and hared off down the corridor, my friend and the usher sprinting away and leaving me to gallumph along in their wake. The only consolation I had was that another pair of theatre goers arrived at the same time and were directed at a hasty speed in the other direction. I'm at least not the only late comer.

What I hadn't realised was that the cheap seats at the side don't have a Row A, or they were removed for the stage and the seats that I had bought were in fact the front row which just made being late all the more excruciating, at least we were at the end of a row and didn't have to climb over everyone. Didn't stop the looks of disapproval though.

Anyway, the main roles of Beatrice and Benedick are taken by Zoe Wanamaker and Simon Russell Beale respectively and both were marvellous. Beatrice and Benedick love each other, but they don't want to admit it. They meet again after a long period of separation in which time Benedick has become an accomplished and respected soldier and Beatrice has comfortably settled into life living in her Uncle Leonato's house in Sicily and spends most of her time moderately tipsy.

Beatrice's cousin Hero (sweetly played by Susanna Fielding) falls in love with the dashing soldier Claudio (Daniel Hawkford). The soldiers are warmly welcomed and well fed by the generous Leonato (the wonderful Oliver Ford Davies), but the malevolent Don John (a villainous and brooding Andrew Woodall) is sullen and miserable because his brother Don Pedro (Julian Wadham) is an imperious and successful soldier. He envies his brother's power and is bitter at his own illegitimacy and so plots to ruin Don Pedro's most recent arrangement, the romance between Hero and Claudio, by casting aspersions on Hero's good character.

Meanwhile Bendick and Beatrice are sniping at one another at the masked ball and slowly realising that they still have feelings for each other. These are skillful and nuanced performances from both Zoe Wanamaker and Simon Russell Beale: warm, full and subtle. Benedick and Beatrice are both too obtuse to realise that the other still has feelings for them, but the other characters are quick to notice the resurgent emotions and decide to play at Cilla Black. In the morning in the garden by the pool, Benedick is having breakfast when he hears Don Pedro, Leonato and Claudio fast approaching, he hides, but the other men know he's there and besides the portly Simon Russell Beale is hard to miss, especially when trying to hide behind a 3 inch wide wooden pillar.

The Much Ado set revolves and during the ball scenes and the merriment at the end, while the actors are dancing, the floor is moving, not only that, the front row afforded a perfect view of the fact that occasionally the actors would have one foot on the revolve and one on the fixed stage. How did they not fall over? I have trouble even walking in flat shoes, so their admirable ability to frolic in these conditions is to be commended.

The men loudly exclaim that Beatrice is still madly in love with Benedick, all the while prowling about the stage forcing Benedick from one hiding place to another, when suddenly Benedick is stuck, he can't go anywhere without being caught eavesdropping, except one, the pool. So with a mighty splash, he actually cannonballs into the pool, to much incredulity and suppressed mirth from the others. Once the men leave, Benedick emerges from the pool looking like a seal and flops wetly about the stage wondering to himself if Beatrice does truly love him. Finally he wanders off happily to dry off before he dies of hypothermia and leaves the stage open for Beatrice to have the same trick pulled on her by the women of the house, even down to the dousing in the pool.

Poor Zoe Wanamaker has to heave around her sopping wet dress of many authentic layers which has, like a sheet of Bounty kitchen roll, soaked up the entire pool. Off she lurches to get wrung dry by an industrial mangle.

The plot to ruin Hero is hatched by Borachio (robustly played by Daniel Poyser) and has Don John's approval. The plan is for Borachio to canoodle with his lover Margaret (Niki Wardley) and pretend that it's actually the faithless Hero with her lover and on the night before her wedding too.

On the morning of the wedding, Hero twitters about happily and Beatrice sneezes and snuffles about, her cold appears to disappear very quickly as it's totally gone by the time the wedding begins.

All the main players are assembled for the wedding, though you would have thought that a society wedding for Leonato's daughter would've attracted more than a few Italian dignatories, but oh well. Claudio rejects a tearful and screeching hero and storms off followed by the rest of the soldiers bar Benedick who solemnly starts talking to Beatrice after Hero is taken away. The scene culminates in the "Kill Claudio" line, and despite exhortations to murder not being particularly funny, it got a laugh. Benedick is torn between his love for Beatrice and wanting to please her and his own sense of honour and decency.

Dogberry and Verges the Watchmen are played with comic brilliance by Mark Addy and Trevor Peacock. Peacock for example can grunt non commitally and get a round of applause and Mark Addy's circular speeches and constant contradictions bring a much needed obvious humour to the play.

Hero feigns her own death much to the consternation of Claudio who prostrates himself at her fake grave clad in sackcloth, mmm, scratchy, while a concealed Hero watches his distress and is now certain of his love. Their story ends when it is contrived for Claudio to marry Hero's cousin, who looks a lot like her.

Beatrice and Benedick after some more comic sniping kiss and settle down comfortably together on a bench, happy at last.

Cranford Episode Five

2008-01-26T15:26:00.000-08:00

Ok, it is incredibly late, but here is the final Cranford recap. I doubt any breath has been bated over it, but sorry if you did wonder where it was.

For once there a happy ending in sight for a Cranford female: Martha has overcome Jem's slightly less than enthusiastic desire for marriage and has snared her man, not that he minds too much about being snared at last.

Mary and Matty welcome them home from the church with a hail of rice and huge grins! Martha leads Jem into the kitchen and begins to bustle around to get Miss Matty's dinner on, not forgetting her pudding, lest Miss Matty fade away. Jem looks distinctly disheartened by this news having had something else far more traditional for newly weds in mind, instead Martha seats the sulky Jem by the corner of the fire to brood attractively.
Mr Carter visits Harry in the stables to gift him a book of poems, but Harry mindful of his new lower position in the household studiously ignores him and continues to shovel the dirty hay into a barrow. Mr Carter quietly withdraws, but slips the book into Harry's pocket for later.
Mary goes to visit Dr Harrison and finds him in dire straits, not only is he waxy faced and dishevelled, Mrs Rose has left him to fend for himself and she's taken all her furniture with her. All Dr Harrison has left is the sewing table (that caused all the trouble), a small chair and an attractive tea set. The cups are so hugh, they're like troughs! Or maybe the cups are a normal size and Lisa Dillon and Simon Woods are small!
Dr Harrison asks after Sophy, only to be ruefully told that she's gone to visit an Aunt, in Shropshire.

Miss Galindo has arrived for work and cheerily bids Mr Carter a good afternoon! Good afternoon!? Either she's late or that's flexi time gone mad. Despite her tardiness, Mr Carter returns her felicitation and gets on with reading his mail, from which he surmises correctly that Miss Galindo has removed the deeds to the estate and allowed Lady Ludlow to mortgage it, against his better judgement and advice. He angrily storms off to hold Lady Ludlow to account and to suggest that there were better ways of economising: selling some land to the railway, or reducing the head count of her staff perhaps, does she really need one man to wind her clocks?

Lady Ludlow in her imperious and aristocratic manner refutes any such idea of economy, truthfully stating that she has a great many clocks, and besides Will Jones, clock winder extraordinaire is mute and would struggle to find another job and would probably end up in the Workhouse. Lady Ludlow, though cold and haughty, is bound by a sense of duty to her staff and tenants, already evinced by her intercession into Job Gregsons' wrongful imprisonment.
Mary and a select few others have been summoned to Miss Forrester's by a missive marked Confidential and posted by hand. The meeting, presided over by a comically formal Miss Pole, is called to order with a small bell and concerns Miss Matty's dire financial predicament. The ladies have come to the decision that they will secretly ease Miss Matty's grim circumstances by each donating a small amount of money that they each can spare. This money is to be presented in such a manner, with the aid of Captain Brown, that it should appear to be Miss Matty's "proper due", and that she should not know that the money came from her friends. Also the Miss Tomkinsons will settle the Mr Godard, the butcher's bill of 10 shillings as they are also customers of his.
Mrs Forrester rushes after Mary at the end of the meeting and tearfully begs Mary not to think badly of her for her small donation, as she has so little to live on and then goes on to recount why she holds Miss Matty in such high regard. When they were both younger and Mrs Forrester's mother was dying, Miss Matty though having just refused Mr Holbrook's offer of marriage, still had the time and compassion to ask after Mrs Forrester's mother and comforted the young Mrs Forrester when she cried. Julia Mackenzie has brought a finely judged comic edge to Mrs Forrester so far and in this scene her heartfelt sorrow, at not being able to contribute more to the Save Miss Matty fund, gushes out.
Dr Morgan has suggested that Dr Harrison, or the Cranford Casanova as I like to think of him, ought to start his practice elsewhere as due to the scandal of, erm Casanovering, or alleged Casanovering, has had his reputation shot to pieces and in a town like Cranford, such scandal is the death knell for any budding medical professionals.

Miss Matty is being lied to by her friends, for her own good, but lied to nevertheless. Miss Matty is presented with the idea that she might set up a school, but has no confidence in Mathematics, French, Accomplishments (?) or the Globes, at which point Captain Brown states that perhaps she ought to go into trade, and Miss Matty thankful that tea is not sticky (as she has a revulsion of residues) aquiesces. But not before asking Mr Johnson if he minds the competition.
Mr Godard is being exhorted to tell Miss Matty that due to an error in the butchery accounts her 10 shillings are no longer outstanding to which the hale fellow that is Mr Godard agrees, adding that Miss Matty was compassionate when his wife died. Caroline, then asks about Mr Godard's twins and upon the utterance of the word "pork", appears to fall madly in lust with the butcher.
Mary has received a letter from Dr Marshland and upon recognising his doctors scrawl comes to the conclusion that he was the mischievous Valentine sender and goes to the Miss Tompkinsons for corroboration.
Having absorbed some of Miss Deborah's resolve and tenacity, Mary now writes a stern letter to Dr Marshland admonishing him for his humourous wickedness and commanding him to resolve the mess that he has created.

When rushing to catch the postman, Mary catches sight of Sophy returning from her Aunt's looking sickly and pale. Though Mary rushes to say hello, Reverend Hutton bundles his unwell daughter onto the carriage and zooms home.
Dr Morgan and his wig have made the diagnosis of love sickness (not a diseased heart as plainly worried Reverend Hutton feared) and claims that it will soon pass as long as the Reverend lavishes not only affection on his daughter, but also plenty of eggs. Reverend Hutton doesn't look very confident of Dr Morgans prescription, but glumly accepts it and walks Dr Morgan out.
Dr Harrison alas has been commanded not to be allowed to see Sophy and the door is shut in his face by the Huttons housekeeper.
Mr Carter comes to call on Miss Galindo, not so much proferring a bunch of flowers, more holding on to them for grim death. Miss Galindo only rescues them by inventing a fear that the flowers will stain Mr Carters spotless cuffs.

This part of the show was when I started to get a bit tearful when rewatching the programme for the screencaps. Mr Carter and Miss Galindo make such a lovely couple, neither in the first flush of youth, but each with an independent mind and cautious heart.
They talk of Lady Ludlow and her obstinance and sense of duty. Mr Carter tells Miss Galindo that the mortgage could have been avoided as he has some money gathering dust and interest in the bank, a fortune amassed by his investment in a cotton mill. The disgust that the mill engendered in him, of young children working in the very dangerous mill, caused him to recoup his investment and now the money lies fallow and he is loath to touch it.

Miss Galindo and Mr Carter understand and cleave to each other, a feeling of solidarity created by their shared concern for Lady Ludlow and the understated attraction of two lonely souls.
Miss Matty has opened her shop and is besieged with customers, though dissuades any customer from purchasing green tea and deftly manipulates a facillating Caroline Tomkinson into buying two pounds of black tea instead, ably assisted by the energetic Mary.
Mary comes to call on Sophy and starts to tell her of Dr Harrison's innocence, when Mary notices that Sophy is burning up with fever and covered in a livid red rash.
Dr Morgan states that Sophy has Typhoid fever and Reverend Hutton is visibly shocked at the news, going so far as to baldly state if Sophy will die, Dr Morgan evades the answer.Dr Marshland has been stirred onto action by Mary's stern letter and has finally appeared to make amends and spends the morning apologising through Dr Harrison's letterbox, not getting a response until he mentions that Sophy is ill and then the door is flung open by a panicked Dr Harrison asking if he is being sent for.
Mr Carter is visiting Captain Brown at the site of the railway to ask if he could possibly supply any building materials for the railway in an effort to ease Lady Ludlow's financial burden, when there is an explosion and both men are injured.

Dr Marshland is explaining that he has confessed all to the Reverend while Dr Harrison perched on a tiny chair is worried that Dr Morgan will mistreat Sophy's typhoid fever.

Then Captain Brown and a badly injured Mr Carter arrive at Dr Harrison's and both he and Dr Marshland spring into action. Miss Galindo has heard about the accident and has run to the surgery, she is asked by Dr Harrison to fetch Mary to assist in the operation on Mr Carter's leg as much ice as she can from Hanbury. Before she rushes off, Mr Carter asks her to come back and to bring a pen a paper also.
Captain Brown has luckily escaped with only a minor eye injury and a bad case of shock, but Dr Marshland applies the stiff drink prescription and he makes a full recovery.

Mr Carter dictates his Last Will and Testament to Miss Galindo who also acts as his witness. She admonishes him for thinking the worst as she steadies Mr Carter's hand while he shakily signs his Will, while fearing the worst herself.

While in the midst of the operation to amputate his damaged leg, Mr Carter's heart gives out and he dies. Lady Ludlow and Miss Galindo are given the bad news by Mary and they both are incredibly affected but portray it wordlessly. Lady Ludlow takes Miss Galindo's hand as much as to give give comfort as to unite them in their grief.
Helen and Lizzie Hutton have run from the Rectory to ask for Dr Harrison's help who immediately agrees to come, pausing only get the leftover ice to treat Sophy.
Dr's Harrison and Marshland arrive at the Rectory only to be refused entry by a furious Reverend. Mrs Rose however speaks up for Dr Harrison and his medical expertise and the Reverend lets the two men through.

They immediately begin work by cooling the room and wrapping Sophy in (very, very fake looking) ice and then a few drops of a potent medicine, which doesn't have much of an effect on Sophy, who stays unconcious throughout, but appears to excite Dr Harrison, who is confident that his treatment has worked.
Harry Gregson reads a poem (Gray's "Elegy Written In a Country Churchyard") from the book of poetry that Mr Carter gave him, which he closes and softly places on Mr Carter's chest. He has come tonight to pay his respects as he fears that he won't be allowed to attend the funeral.
Sophy wakes up to find a pensive and unshaven Dr Harrison sitting beside her bed waiting for her to wake up and she smiles and takes his hand.
Harry is summoned to Lady Ludlows presence, he is mindful of his dirtiness and fears to sit down, but Lady Ludlow tells him to sit as her equal and recounts to him the details of Mr Carter's will.

He is to have £1000 pounds immediately which is to be used for his education and Harry is amazed to learn that he is also to be given the bulk of Mr Carter's fortune, which is upwards of £20000, on the proviso that he lends the money to Lady Ludlow to pay off her mortgage. When the debt is repaid the money should be used to build a school.
The small gathering at Miss Matty's is interrupted by a knock at the door and then Jessie Brown's recital of "On the Banks of Loch Lomond" is joined by a deeper voice gently singing and an astonished Jessie breaks off to greet Major Gordon who has returned from India. He confesses that despite travelling for 3 months he still doesn't know what to say to Jessie. Captain Brown, complete with eyepatch, bluffly comments that he should at least propose again. Ah Captain Brown, even though he was the first to expire in the book, has made it to the end, with most of him intact!
Miss Matty sits serenely observing the happiness of Jessie and Major Gordon and is slightly taken aback to be told that Major Gordon has brought back something for her too.

The door opens and standing there looking tanned (and remarkably like a heartier version of one of my Uncles) is Peter. He proffers the long ago promised Indian muslin for Matty's wedding gown and ruefully admits that he has arrived a little late.
An engagement party is under way for Caroline Tomkinson and Mr Godard the butcher! The table is laden with a lot of meat and the ladies are not slow in steadily filling their plates.
Mrs Rose and Dr Morgan arrive together arm in arm precipitating polite curtseys and gossip inbetween. Miss Pole assailed on all sides by couples, baldly states that she has spinster carved on her bones, but upon being introduced to the handsome Aga Jenkyns is reduced to a girlish flutter.
Dr Harrison it seems has overcome the Reverend's qualms and has been allowed to marry Sophy. They emerge from the church to a shower of rice and congratulations from the entire village (well, the speaking cast anyhow). Sophy has been given the Indian muslin by Miss Matty as it was destined to be worn by a Rectory bride and very lovely she looks too.
The bouquet is thrown and is caught by Harry, who quickly passes it to Dr Morgan who in turn presents it to Mrs Rose. Dr Marshland comments that it was a shame that Harry caught it, to Mary, who laughingly admonishes him.
Miss Matty is complimented on how fine the wedding dress looks, to which she replies: "Such a fine, close weave." And then she contentedly holds Peter's arm a little tighter, finally getting her happy ending.
Sophy and Dr Harrison drive away, waving as they do so and the cast wave back, waving not only to the departing couple, but to us too! Goodbye!

BBC Breakfast Interview with Lisa Dillon

2008-01-04T16:26:00.000-08:00

I know this is late, but due to a really big wiring issue in my house which left us with no electric on one floor of the house over the holiday period and no electrician could be induced to leave his or her turkey to sort it out. Half past six on Christmas Eve, a fuse melted and nearly set the fusebox on fire! It's only just been sorted and I've still got to cap Episode five!

Anyway, here is the interview with Lisa on Breakfast, which completes the Cranford interview set.

Enjoy.

Cranford Episode Four

2007-12-26T16:16:00.000-08:00

After Mr Holbrooks death his inheritor has no desire to live in such a provincial area and his house and possessions are being sold at auction, and while Miss Pole is extremely disgusted with the thought the her dear cousins belongings will be pawed through by all and sundry, this does not prevent her from having a good nose around for bargains, ably assisted by Mrs Forrester. While poking around she finds a silhouette of a young Mr Holbrook and instead of bartering down from 1 and 6p, she imperiously hands him a shilling and and stalks off with the silhouette, leaving the poor assistant auctioneer faced with the prospect of letting her get away with it, or wrestling her to the ground prising the silhouette out of her hand. Sensibly he allows her to walk away quietly, perhaps realising that an altercation with Miss Pole would no doubt leave him the worse off.
Meanwhile Reverend Hutton is bidding on a rather lovely mirror, pleading the fact that a house needs as many mirrors as it has daughters. He probably has to make do with a tiny shaving mirror just to prevent arguments. In my experience, boys spend far longer in front of mirrors arranging their hair, but then I have many brothers each with a serious hair gel fixation.
Dr Morgan and Dr Harrison are also at the sale as Dr Harrison still owns no furniture and is entirely dependent on Mrs. Rose for this commodity. Dr Harrison attempts to assert himself by bidding on a small decorated table against Mrs Johnson of the General Stores and her amazing triangular face. He wins much to the amusement of the auctioneer who inquires if Dr Harrison has a lady in mind of the table, to which he hurriedly answers yes, causing Miss Pole to raise her eyebrows.
Miss Pole has generously given the silhouette of Mr Holbrook to someone who will genuinely cherish it, Miss Matty is wearing her widows cap and says that the silhouette is very like Mr Holbrook. This little scene also portrays a hitherto unknown facet of Miss Pole's character, her deep regard for Miss Matty and her good heartedness in gifting the one thing that Miss Matty would find so comforting.Dr Harrison brings home his table and is dismayed to find that it is a ladies sewing table from Mrs Rose. A slightly disconcerted Dr Harrison entreats Mrs Rose to use it if she likes to cover his embarrassment at his ignorance of ladies accoutrements. Mrs Rose is taken slightly aback but smiles nonetheless.
The railway is slowly encroaching further toward Cranford and Mr Carter along with his newly apprenticed clerk Harry Gregson have come to ask about the progress of the works and Mr Carter gives a letter for Lady Ludlow to Harry to take back to the house.
Unfortunately while reading it, a stray gust of wind rips it from his hand and it is blown away. Harry is faced with the full force of Lady Ludlows icy displeasure when he bravely confesses the loss of the note. However he loses any points he may have gained by then confessing that he has read it and lets her know the contents.
Lady Ludlow takes Mr Carter to task for allowing Harry Gregson to become his clerk and avers that Harry ought to be working in the fields, to which Mr Carter retorts that Harry ought to be in school and that Lady Ludlow has to change with the times.

In a softly candlelit room Miss Matty gently talks about first her father and his habit of getting his children to keep a journal, then Deborah's hopes of marrying an Archdeacon and then she asks Mary if she has ever felt a yearning to have a child of her own when seeing a mother with her child. Mary being only about twenty and having five younger siblings barely out of nappies has no desire yet for children. Matty without stating her own deep yearning, and disappointment, describes a dream she has of a her own child, a girl, who comes to her and her sense of sadness is palpable.
Lady Ludlow has brought a help meet for Mr Carter, Miss Galindo. Mr Carter is disconcerted at the introduction of a lady into his office, but Lady Ludlow merely purrs that Mr Carter ought to move with the times.
Dr Harrison has put on his best flouncy blue flowery cravat and has bravely gone to ask Reverend Hutton for his permission to court Sophy. It took me a short while to realise what was bugging me about this scene, until I realised it was the absence of bonnets and any Cranfordian females!
In an admirable effort and perhaps mindful of the fact that he gets three lines on average an episode, Alex Jennings takes the advantage he's been given and runs away with the scene by managing to run the gamut of emotions from forbidding, stern, conciliatory, wary, grief stricken (and tearful with it) and ending on a menacing note. Simon Woods isn't given much to do but react, wrinkle his brow and look slightly frightened at the end.
With Dr Harrison suitably terrified into behaving honourably, Reverend Hutton goes to find Sophy, who is arranging the worlds most droopy tulips in a vase and smirks at what a lovely couple they both make and shoos them out into the garden.

Sophy and Dr Harrison do make a lovely couple, and in Simon Woods' defence, if he had been a saturnine and romantic hero, he wouldn't have been a suitable match for Kimberly Nixon's Sophy, whose delicate beauty would have been swamped. This pair match!
Despite Reverend Hutton's tentative blessing on Sophy and Dr Harrison's pairing, Sophy says that her father is no doubt watching and Dr Harrison has to settle for a chaste curtsy from his sweetheart instead of a kiss when he takes his leave.
On the way home, Dr Harrison is accosted by Miss Tompkinson and dragged into have a cup of tea and is talked at incessantly, and the prospect of a £4ooo dowry when he marries Caroline Tompkinson is dangled in front of him. Dr Harrison politely sits and listens, slightly bewildered as to why he is being confided in.
Mr Carter is now over endowed with clerks having both Harry and Miss Galindo scribbling away for him. Miss Galindo is so industrious that she has to send Harry out of the room to fetch some more ink, which gives Mr Carter and Miss Galindo to snark good humouredly at each other.
Miss Galindo finally gets to show the sparkiness and sly wit that she embodies in the book and Emma Fielding gets more than one line instead of standing blank faced behind Lady Ludlow. Miss Galindo is quite enjoying her work and discomfiting poor Mr Carter who is finding it difficult working with a woman. She does say she has tried to fit in by perhaps inserting the word "zounds" at frequent intervals and sticking her pen behind her ear, but hasn't had the opportunity.

Mr Carter and Miss Galindo have a certain type of understated chemistry. Mr Carter's bluff facade is slightly softened by his proximity to her. Both are quiet and intelligent (and single) characters and is it easy to see that they are a good match.
Dr Marshland makes a visit to Cranford to inspect Mary's eyes and ascertains that she would benefit from glasses, little round wire rimmed ones!
Meanwhile Dr Harrison has turned up in his pony and trap to pick up Sophy from some May Day dance rehearsals and is disheartened that she is accompanied by her two younger giggling sisters, who have probably been told to stick to Sophy's side by their Dad and efficiently prevent Dr Harrison and Sophy's first kiss. They go for a walk in the most picturesque wood in the world liberally sprinkled with wild bluebells. Unwittingly they interrupt Martha and Jem's tryst at the base of a gnarly tree.
While Dr Harrison and Sophy are content to chastely stroll arm in arm through the wood, Martha has taken the permission to court Jem with both hands and they aren't doing much strolling! Jem bluffly states that this is an awful quiet part of the wood, perhaps a little falsely as the Hutton girls very nearly discovered them and are probably still in earshot, but Martha decides to make the most of it, besides there is still time before she has to get Miss Matty's tea on and Jem gladly makes the most of it.
Lady Ludlow has finally managed to place Harry in a position that she feels is more fitting: cleaning out the stables. As Mr Carter now has Miss Galindo, there is no longer a vacancy for Harry in that role and Lady Ludlow impressed upon Harry the luxury (for him at least) of a regular wage and Harry will be guaranteed a job for as long as he wishes if he takes up the more menial job over the impermanentclerkship with Mr Carter.

Harry mindful of his family's poverty and sense of duty to his Mother and younger siblings, glumly acquiesces and is deaf to Mr Carter's apologies.
The Town and Country bank has gone bankrupt and taken all of Miss Matty's investment with it, she is now penniless but for a small amount of savings. This means that she has to give Martha notice, which Martha resists tearfully. Miss Matty is deeply upset at her newly acquiredpoverty and when Martha states that she will work for free, Mary has to intercede and takes Martha to the kitchen to tell her that Miss Matty will not even be able to afford Martha's food, so bleak are her prospects.

Mrs Rose has been convinced by an excitable Miss Pole and Mrs Forrester that the cumulative gift giving that Dr Harrison has been engaged in: a chimney brush, a pair of purple, ladies gloves and the sewing table, is because Dr Harrison has romantic feelings for her. They then entice Mrs Rose into dying her hair, which transpires to be a dark and unsuitable black.
May Day arrives and Cranford has had its steps sanded into patterns and Jem Herne is released into the community in a large, energetic, leaf covered pot shaped thing as the Green Man (quite apt in the circumstances) and the festivities are full swing, Helen Hutton has been crowned the May Queen by Lady Ludlow and there is dancing and general merriment all round. But not for long.

Mrs Rose turns up in a purple frock to match her gloves and is flanked by a smirking pair of Miss Pole and Mrs Forrester, she is entreated to sit down next to Dr Morgan, displacing Dr Harrison, who takes this higher vantage point to stare at Sophy opposite.

Miss Matty and Mary have their tea disturbed by a Martha and Jem, who is still artfully covered in a few leaves and sprigs from his Green Man costume. Martha has decided that when she and Jem get married, they'll lodge with Miss Matty. This means that Martha can stay and look after Miss Matty and that Miss Matty can stay in her house. All this is news to Jem, who hadn't envisaged getting married quite so soon and is less than happy about this proposal, much to Martha's disgust, who flounces away unhappily, leaving Miss Matty and Mary a little discombobulated to their tea.
Caroline Tompkinson has noticed Dr Harrison's interest in Sophy and is perceptibly disappointed, so much so that she is seated on a bench and her sister goes to fetch a spare parasol and meets Reverend Hutton, to whom she confesses that her generously dowried sister is soon to expect a proposal from Dr Harrison. Reverend Hutton stalks away (perhaps to find a large stick) and Miss Tomkinson flutters back to Caroline.

Dr Harrison sees Sophy and just as they meet a furious Reverend Hutton intercedes and berates Dr Harrison for his mercenary behaviour.

A passing Miss Matty and Mary mindful of a "scene" beginning stop to listen.
Both the Misses Tompkinson aver that Dr Harrison had made romantic overtures to Caroline, citing the Valentines Day card as evidence that could be produced in a court of law. Dr Harrison refutes these claims, stating that he has a understanding with another. At which point Mrs Rose enters the fray.
Mrs Rose is entreated to speak up for her fiance, a relationship to which Dr Harrison find himself unaware. The rejection causes instant upset and she is led away sobbing by Miss Pole and Mrs Forrester, while Dr Morgan tells Dr Harrison to come and see him first thing in the morning.
Reverend Hutton reproaches Dr Harrison for failing his trust and breaking Sophy's heart and firmly leads a reluctant Sophy away.
The Tomkinson sisters float away and Miss Matty and Mary leave quietly leaving Dr Harrison alone. He sits humiliated, shocked, lovelorn, devastated and not a little confused in a marquee while he comes to terms with his now disgraced reputation and his by now Sophy-less future.

Cranford Episode Three

2007-12-15T17:29:00.000-08:00

There is mischief afoot in Cranford: Dr Harrison and Mrs Rose hear a noise and leave their (separate) beds to investigate. Dr Harrison is clad only in a nightshirt, (which gives Miss Caroline Tomkinson a heady burst of delight when imagining it later on in the episode) and has nothing to fend burglars off with except quite a miserly stub of a candle. A window is open and Mrs Rose breathily exclaims that someone has stolen the mutton! Yes, they're the worst type of thief, those that go around at night stealing meat.

It seems that Cranford is in the midst of a crime wave, while extinguishing the gas lights outside his shop, Mr Johnson is attacked by a stranger. Meanwhile, to make ends meet and feed his large, quite grubby, although extremely photogenic brood of children, Job Gregson (a heavily bearded Dean Lennox Kelly) takes his son Harry out to poach pheasants from the Hanbury Estate. Harry is reticent, but does as his father asks.
Miss Pole is entreated to buy clothes pegs from her door by a decrepit gypsy lady, who offends her by assuming she's the servant and asking to see the lady of the house. This unsettles Miss Pole who, convinced she'll be murdered in her bed, gathers all her silver plate and other valuables and bundles them up and seeks refuge first with Mrs Jamieson, whose butler takes pot shots out of his window at them and then with Miss Matty, whom she chastises for opening the door to her, claiming that she might have been anybody, adding for good measure, "with a cutlass!" Miss Poles lone gypsy has now become a band of evil men, one of whom "has a hump!". As ever Imelda Staunton is fabulous, her exclamations could be histrionic and over the top, but she judges them exactly right and gives Miss Pole the correct amount of hysterical exuberance without tipping over into pantomime.

Miss Matty generously allows Miss Pole to stay the night in Mary's bed, while Mary will share hers that night. This gives Mary the opportunity to observe Miss Matty's night time routine, which consists of rolling a small ball under her bed to ensure that there are no rogue men hiding under there. Mr Johnson mistakenly fingers Job Gregson for the attack on him and Job is arrested and placed in the town prison, which is a single cell marooned in the middle of the town green with the warder sitting outside balancing his cudgel on his knee. Harry visits his Dad to give him his meal and beseeches his father to tell the truth. If convicted of the attack on Mr. Johnson, Job is facing the prison ship and exile to Australia. But Job, in an admirable effort to keep his son from jail refuses to tell the truth for fear of Harry being convicted of poaching.

Harry in desperation confesses all to Mr. Carter, who is icily angry and sends Harry home. Nevertheless, Mr Carter asks for Lady Ludlow's influence in getting Job released as he is not guilty for anything other than poaching. Lady Ludlow refuses and seems determined not to get involved when learning that the Gregson family are not her tenants and therefore not her responsibility.Dr Jack Marshland (Joseph McFadden) comes to visit his friend Dr Harrison for Christmas. Jack is a charismatic and mischievous fellow and is delighted that he'll get a chance to spend Christmas Eve in the company of ladies. What he doesn't know is that Cranford ladies are a breed apart and would eat him for breakfast given half a chance.

Once at the party and sandwiched between the Tomkinson sisters he realised that his earlier exuberance was unwarranted and realises why Dr Harrison was less than over enthusiastic about attending.
Despite the dismal prospect of spending a long winters evening playing Whist, Jack perks up when he catches sight of Mary and entertains her with scurrilous stories about his and Frank Harrison's student days, somebody put a dog in the others bed. Mary thankfully thinks it is hilarious and there is a genuine spark between her and Jack, something that was missing between her and Dr Harrison.Lady Ludlow has been to see the abject poverty that the Gregsons lived in and has had a change of heart. She summons Lord Maulver (a criminally underused Greg Wise) to inform him that the charge of attacking Mr Johnson be dropped and that herself will pay the fine for the lesser charge of poaching. Lord Maulver isn't happy, but acquiesces and Job returns home free.
It is now February, and Jack Marshland is with Dr Harrison when they meet the Hutton sisters leaving the store. He sees that Frank is taken with Sophy and is enchanted by the younger sister too, so Jack decides to send a Valentine to each of the younger girls. Also in a fit of mischief and devilry, he also sends one to Caroline Tomkinson, almost definitely expecting her to believe it's from Dr Harrison. And it seems that doctor's handwriting has always been awful, at least nowadays we don't have to put up with blotches and spatters of ink as well.

Martha has received a Valentines Day card too, from Jem and she props it up next to the bowl of dirt she got at Christmas, which has bloomed into a fine crop of crocuses. Miss Matty sees it and is shocked that Martha has gotten a "follower". Such a thing horrifies Miss Matty and a tearful Martha resolves to tell Jem that she can't go against her mistresses orders and that she can't see him again.
The postman has been to the Hutton household and Lizzie and Helen are delighted to have received a card each from a mystery admirer, Sophy is handed a box inside which is a posy of snowdrops from Dr Harrison. She looks very pleased and her father asks if she'd like to invite him around to which she happily agrees.
Dr Harrison arrives to eat pancakes and to the admiration of younger Hutton girls manages eight. Pancakes obviously taste better when the object of your affection is cooking them.

Alas when he gets home Dr Harrison, so stuffed already with pancakes, is presented with another pile made by the fair hands of Mrs Rose. He looks slightly sick, but the well bred boy that he is, politely thanks Mrs Rose and sits down to his ordeal.
Matty, Mary and Miss Pole are invited to Mr Holbrooks house for dinner for their own culinary ordeal. They are given a two pronged fork each and a pile of peas. Miss Matty spikes them on a prong and eats them one by one, Miss Pole ignores them with disdain and Mr Holbrook balances a teetering pile on his knife and gulps them down. To prevent any embarrassment Mary does the same. Then Mr Holbrook spends the rest of the evening spouting poetry at full volume at the ladies, despite this Miss Matty is delighted to be there, while Miss Pole complains of sitting in a draught.
Mr Holbrook comes to call on Miss Matty and brings, as was his wont when they were both younger, a small bunch of primroses. Mr Holbrook says that he is going to Paris and that by the time he returns that he hopes that Miss Matty will have made her mind up about their relationship. He mentions that they are not in the habit of making speedy decisions and at their time of life why should they break the habit of a lifetime.
Miss Matty is pressing the primroses (and we catch sight of her first bunch from Mr Holbrook kept all these years) and using the heavy family bible to do so, when Mary catches sight of another name in the family bible beneath Deborah and Matty's and asks: who is Peter.

Miss Matty tells Mary that Peter was a young rogue and after a practical joke in which he had dressed as Deborah and pretended to have had a baby out of wedlock, he had run away. The last that they had heard from him was from India when he had promised to send some Indian muslin for a dress for Matty. The muslin never arrived and Peter is presumed long since dead.Mr Holbrook returns from France, but he is mortally ill. Miss Pole fetches Miss Matty and they both go to visit Mr Holbrook. Miss Pole shows her sensitive side and allows Miss Matty to sit with Mr Holbrook and say goodbye. The programme doesn't flinch from the deaths of its characters and does so particularly un-melodramatically, Mr Holbrook is allowed to expire in a dignified and compassionate way and his death is all the more affecting for it.

Miss Matty has been deeply affected by Mr Holbrook's death, coming as it does so soon on the heels of Deborah's. She comes to a decision, calling Martha, she kindly and carefully states that she "does not want to grieve any young hearts" and allows Martha to take a follower. Martha jubilantly runs to find Jem to tell him the good news. Jem is quite pleased, but doesn't feel that their celebration is quite appropriate right now seeing as he's currently ferrying around Mr. Holbrooks coffin.
Miss Matty goes to Miss Galindo's to get a new cap made, she asks for one like Mrs Forresters, Miss Galindo states that Mrs Forrester wears a widows cap and Miss Matty gently says yes.Another fantastic episode, Cranford is turning out to be a jewel in the BBC's crown. I don't think anyone can deny the fantastic performances all round, from Judi Dench, from whom a solid turn is expected, to the wonderful Lisa Dillon, who gives Mary Smith a quietly sparky personality, imbuing Mary with generosity, good humour and vivacity without being too showy. I'll look out for her in future.

I expected more from Michael Gambon, but was disappointed in the brevity of his part, although it did bring into sharp relief the depth of emotion that Matty felt for him.

One criticism is that the show has no overarching storyline, so without all the sterling performances, it would be in danger of falling a bit flat. Nevertheless it is incredibly enjoyable and one of the best shows I've seen all year, I'm going to miss it when it over!

Cranford Episode Two

2007-12-08T16:47:00.000-08:00

Dr Harrison wakes late for Church and hurries there, only to find the service in full swing and a rousing hymn being sung. Dr. Harrison is trying to make a good impression, especially on Sophy and her father and is extremely put out when he finds that he's late.

Neither the congregation nor the rector himself are best pleased with the late arrival. For his tardiness, Dr. Harrison gets the collection plate shoved in his face and a disapproving look from Miss Pole. But every cloud has a silver lining and Sophy smiles at him and little Walter gives a friendly wave.

On the way home from church the Jenkyns and Mary are invited to dinner at Captain Brown's house as they have a guest, a softly spoken Scot, Major Gordon (Alistair Petrie). It transpires that he had asked Jessie to marry him when they were both younger, but she had declined due to her sisters poor health. Nevertheless, Major Gordon and Jessie sing, a little tunelessly, but at least they both finish at the same time. It is apparent to all the ladies that Major Gordon still has huge affection and love for Jessie, unfortunately Captain Brown bumbles along not noticing any attraction at all between his daughter and guest.

Miss Caroline Tompkinson was overcome in the store, suffering giddiness and palpitations, which necessitates a visit from Dr Harrison who listens to Caroline's fast beating heart (but only when he's near) and doesn't notice that she fancies him rotten.

He doesn't diagnose anything that a short rest wouldn't solve and she and her sister are now under the delusion that he'd be a good match for her.

Miss Matty has bought a new carpet, but to prevent the colours bleaching away in the sun, she and Mary spend time sewing sheets of newspaper together to lay over the patches of carpet that are directly exposed. Jessie arrives clutching a posy of Anemones. Mary consults that book of secret love flower codes (or something like it) and it appears that Anemones signify "love ever steadfast". This delights Jessie and the ladies, because the normally slightly ragged around the edges looking Jessie has suddenly blossomed with happiness and looks transformed.

Harry's Father Job is nowhere to be found and his Mother is sick after having had her baby, and the rest of the children need to be fed. Harry bribes his younger brother (who "doesn't like touching udders") with the promise of a bun of his very own on Friday if he'll milk Mrs. Forrester's beloved cow and take the milk back to his Mother and the baby while he goes to find food on the Hanbury estate.

Harry's nameless brother completes his task, but in his haste to get the milk back home, while taking a few surreptitious gulps himself, he forgets to fasten the gate behind him.

The following morning, Mrs Forrester arrives to milk the cow and to her shock and horror, finds it missing. She jogs into town at quite a fair lick for a lady of her age and rallies help.
Major Gordon and Captain Brown search the fields looking for Bessie the cow and are informed that shouting "Bessie Dearest" is more likely to find the cow than simply Bessie. Swallowing their pride and their dignity, both men screech the offending phrase lustily.

Eventually the poor bovine creature is found, to Mrs. Forrester's dismay, wallowing in a pit of lime and mooing plaintively.

Major Gordon and Jessie return to the village for help in pulling Bessie from her limey pit of doom. Miss Matty remarks that Major Gordon has his arm around Jessie, to which Miss Deborah replies, "that is exactly where it ought to be"!

En route Jessie and Major Gordon stop in a leafy glade and Major Gordon proposes to the delighted Jessie, but due to the fact that he is shortly to leave to go to India, he wants to be married sooner rather than later. As Jessie is still in mourning for her sister and is dismayed that she would have to leave her father, she mournfully declines and both she and Major Gordon are quietly devastated.

As Mrs. Forrester's cow sustained a large amount of hair loss and no doubt chemical burns from the lime, Captain Brown suggests that the best course of action would be to put the cow down. This causes great consternation to Mrs. Forrester, so the second best solution is to dress the cow in flannel pyjamas, to much comedic effect and to the delight of Cranford's children, who wonder how the cow is milked. Answer: it has a flap at the bottom!

The day of Lady Ludlow's garden party arrives and all the ladies assemble in their finery, on the common, to attend. Mary is forced to travel with her quite young, very tiresome and permanently pregnant step-mother (Finty Williams) and is entreated to hold the baby, as she will look so much better with a baby's face next to hers. Mary looks royally pissed off and that being jammed in next to Miss Pole would be far more preferable.
The Hutton sisters are also waiting to on the common to attend, but Sophy is fretting that Walter is a bit hoarse and is on the brink of staying at home to look after him, when she catches sight of Dr Harrison and decides that Walter isn't quite so ill after all.

When Dr Harrison rides up to say hello, he also offers Walter a ride on his horse to the Garden Party, which Sophy allows and Walter clambers up next to Dr Harrison eagerly.The Garden party is in full swing, with Ladies eating Ice Cream, children racing around and Egg and Spoon races to be organised. Miss Matty, after having dispensed some eggs and set the children off on the Egg and Spoon race (which Walter wins!), she is distracted by a distinguished gentleman (a subdued Michael Gambon), who gently shakes her by the hand and then departs, leaving Miss Matty shaken and in a strangely quiet mood that Miss Deborah comments on. Miss Matty doesn't mention the interlude between her and Mr. Holbrook and instead blames her quietness on the "superfluity of dainties" to which she is not accustomed.

Mrs Forrester and Miss Pole have news, they fly across the grass, causing people to look up in fright at the scary sight of two middle aged ladies sprinting across the lawn. Unfortunately while Miss Pole is getting her breath, the slower Mrs Forrester arrives and blurts out the juicy gossip they have just overheard: the railway is coming to Cranford! Miss Pole is annoyed, she'd been building up to that!
A delegation of Amazons search out Captain Brown trying to have a quiet cup of tea and demand to know the truth of the matter. Captain Brown proudly affirms that the railway is to come and that he is to be the manager for the project. The ladies are aghast at the news and his betrayal. It's a wonder that the man doesn't instantly expire with the looks of horror, scorn and disgust being scowled his way.

Gently, Jessie berates Captain Brown about not telling her and when he states that his new job will take him away from town and she will be alone. Jessie realises that this means that her rejection of Major Gordon was a mistake and when she hesitantly claims that she could have been married, the self absorbed Captain Brown dismisses the idea and settles back down to his tea.

Miss Matty and Miss Deborah reach home and Deborah is fuming at the news, claiming that it will bring all manner of undesirables, rather nastily singling out "the Irish" for her particular ire. The anger that she feels has brought on a headache and she goes upstairs, getting a little giddy towards the top and goes into her room.
Mary, Martha and Miss Matty hear a loud thud from Deborah's room and Mary and Martha race up the stairs and find that Miss Deborah has collapsed. Mary keeps calm and tells Miss Matty to fetch the doctor.

Dr Harrison has been called to Reverend Huttons house as Walter is ill. His earlier hoarseness has developed into very nasty bout of Croup. Reverend Hutton is silently devastated and Sophy is distraught at the thought that she could have prevented Walter's illness by staying home instead of going to the Garden Party.

Meanwhile at the Jenkyns household, Dr. Morgan gently tells Miss Matty that Miss Deborah is dead. Miss Matty is utterly shocked and saddened. Judi Dench communicates the utter devastation she feels in a simple silent scene and the audience is also completely saddened by the loss of Miss Deborah. The series will be poorer for Eileen Atkins departure.There is no better news at Reverend Huttons, despite Sophy's, Dr. Harrison's and Dr Morgan's ministrations, as well as Reverend Huttons most fervent prayers, little adorable Walter dies. The doctors leave as the family say good bye to him. Kimberly Nixon was coming across as a bit of a shallow actress, with nothing to do but fuss over Walter and simper at Dr Harrison until now, but her desolation and sorrow at Walters death convinces otherwise.
Miss Matty sits in the parlour gazing at the seat her sister used to rule the Cranford court from as if, were she to gaze long enough, that Miss Deborah would resume her throne and continue to reign once more.

Miss Matty tells Mary that Deborah disapproved of people called her Matty and much rather preferred Matilda and she laments that no one will call her Matilda again.
Mary leaves Miss Matilda to her thoughts and Miss Matty, remains in her chair overwhelmed by grief.

Another fine episode, with the early comedy being leavened by tragedy. Miss Deborah was a formidable character given real depth and affection by Eileen Atkins and will be sorely missed.

Cranford Episode One

2007-12-04T15:38:00.000-08:00

I thoroughly enjoyed Cranford and meant to get this cap up sooner rather than later, but circumstances proved otherwise, but better late than never.

The story starts with the arrival of Mary Smith (Lisa Dillon) to Cranford to stay with the two Miss Jenkyns'.
The eldest sister, Deborah (Dame Eileen Atkins) is imperious, aloof, bossy and snobbish. Her sister Matty (Dame Judi Dench) is the opposite: warm, generous and open, if a little scatty. Both actresses are utterly marvellous, Eileen Atkins can summon up a contemptuous demeanour with a slight purse of the lips and raise of her eyebrow and Judi Dench just glows with generosity, good humour and gentleness.

Mary is inducted into the etiquette of Cranford, no visiting until noon which runs until three o'clock and then the visit must be no longer than fifteen minutes. And upon the consumption of oranges, one must repair to her bedroom to partake of the "sucking" of this fruit in solitude. Miss Deborah sensibly cuts hers into segments, while Mary and Matty both prefer to suck theirs dry through a single hole in the rind.

The ladies first visitor of the day is Dr Morgan (John Bowe) who informs them of the new doctor, Dr Harrison, that has been employed to deal with the sick of Cranford, 'cos he's getting on a bit. Dr. Morgan not only has the requisite period drama sideburns, he also has wig that he wears on the occasion of (medical) house visits. Dr Morgan in deference to Miss Deborah's status as queen of the Cranfordian Amazons has come to tell the Misses Jenkyns' in person about this development, however the rest of the village must make do with Miss Pole, whom Dr Morgan has already appraised.
Miss Pole (Imelda Staunton) is more than just the village gossip, she takes it upon herself to impart her knowledge and all other pertinent village developments with such determination and diligence that she, with scant regard for her own safety, even flings herself in front of travelling sedan chairs to spread the news.
Imelda Staunton is a wonderful actress and Miss Pole is a genuine comic revelation. She bustles about Cranford imparting and spreading news and finds herself often in the midst of things, occasionally mischief of her own making. She lives to purvey a lively story and exaggerates enormously, rarely letting her companions get a word in edge ways. In some ways she is the most pantomimic of the characters, being larger than life and always in the thick of it!

She is aided and abetted by the rest of the Amazons: the Tomkinson sisters Caroline (Selina Griffiths, the one that has a hairstyle like someone put a mop on her head) and her elder sister Augusta (Deborah Findlay). Caroline hasn't yet given up hope that she might find a husband and Augusta encourages her, but they are both devoted to each other and are played by two fine actresses. Selina Griffiths is suitably fussy and a tad neurotic, while Deborah Findlay is more reflective and stoic.

Julia McKenzie as Mrs Forrester, a lady who doesn't have the best luck with animals completes the group and works very well as Miss Pole's foil.
Dr. Frank Harrison finally arrives, with his top hat well rammed down and looking all of about twelve. He attributes his lateness to his horse requiring to be shod and is shown in by Dr Morgan to his spare, to the point of emptiness, lodgings. It seems that he is to see patients perched on a tiny stool in the middle of the room, as it's the only furniture in the place. Despite this he seems happy enough.

St. John Rivers turns up and asks Jane to go to India, oops sorry wrong period drama. Andrew Buchan, (who was St. John in last years Jane Eyre) arrives. He is Jem Hearne, carpenter, joiner and general odd job man. He is here to measure the surgery for all it needs, but he warns Dr Harrison, very matter of factly, that if there's a funeral, he'll have to wait as he's to make the coffin.
The following morning, Dr's Harrison and Morgan visit the rectory to call on the housemaid and her sore knee, while there, Dr Harrison meets Sophy Hutton (who's played by Carey Mulligan, no wait, she's actually played by Kimberly Nixon, who bears a striking resemblance to Carey, but without the dimples). Sophy is playing with her beloved brother Walter, who she has raised since her mother died six years ago. Dr Harrison is immediately smitten, understandably as Sophy is undeniably pretty.

Sophy and Walter lead Dr. Harrison to the garden where they begin to beat cherries off a tree with a rake, well it gets the job done I suppose. In the original short story, Sophy picks pears, but just to ram home the fact that Sophy and Frank fancy each other, they have to pick cherries together. Yes, actually we noticed that, thanks, but isn't June a bit early for cherries?
While illicitly knocking down cherries, Sophy and Frank are observed by Sophy's father, a stern looking Reverend Hutton (Alex Jennings, a hundred years and a couple of dressing gowns away from Garry Essendine. Coincidentally both Alex and Lisa Dillon are still in Present Laughter, which is on at the National Theatre, in which Alex, as Garry, is irresistible to women and Lisa is nearly unrecognisable in a virulent red wig, playing vampish Joanna, a very funny play, as I've blogged about below, get tickets while you can).

Anyway, Reverend Hutton doesn't like the look of his daughter cherry picking with a complete stranger and interrupts on the pretext of young Walter's education. Sophy spotting her father rushes off too, leaving Dr. Harrison under a tree clutching some cherries. Reverend Hutton is described by Elizabeth Gaskell as being dignified and commanding respect and Alex Jennings manages to convey all that, despite having only two lines.
Meanwhile Jem Hearne is up a tree in the Tompkinson sisters back garden, he's been employed by the women to lop off some branches. When Jem states that he'll need help, Augusta vehemently disagrees, no doubt because it'll cost more and they aren't rich. Jem acquiesces and then in a moment that starts out comically, Jem falls out of the tree, turns quite gory as it appears Jem has broken his arm very badly and lurches out of the garden for help, dripping blood like a nineteenth century zombie, but with less of an appetite for human flesh.

Jem manages to make quite an entrance in the middle of Cranford's main street and faints clean away. He's taken to Dr. Harrison's by the authoritative Mr. Carter (the wonderful Philip Glenister) and a young poacher Harry Gregson (Alex Etel) is press ganged by Mr. Carter, into obtaining some ice to pack around Jem's arm to give Frank Harrison enough time to ride to find some curved needles so he can save Jem's arm. The village is agog with the news of Jem's accident and ghoulish Miss Pole is a little disappointed that it wasn't instantly amputated and the stump covered with tar. It transpires that when Dr. Harrison returns with his needles, he discovers that he has no candles and that when he asks Mr. Johnson (Mayor and storekeeper) for candles ("Four candles, y' know, 'andles for forks" - copyright the Two Ronnies) that he doesn't have the right sort.

Frank sits despondently clad in a black coat on the store steps and originates the rumour that Jem has died and that he is distraught. Eventually the reason for his despondency is revealed and the ladies of Cranford rally around and arrive en masse to donate all their candles (subject to a substantial candle tax) to the doctor for Jem's operation. Well if Jem expired, that would be the end of the hot handyman and they'd only have Dr Morgan's sideburns to lust after. On a more serious note, if Jem's compound fracture can't be fixed, he would lose it or at least the use of it and would not be able to work anymore, no doubt leading to the poorhouse.

In any event the operation, on a still conscious Jem (!), goes ahead with Mary as Frank's assistant. The ladies of Cranford then send Jem jelly and other food for invalids with Martha (Claudie Blakley) who just so happens to have secret relationship with Jem, even though she's been forbidden "followers" by Miss Jenkyns. It's touching to see their close and tender relationship and it's nice to see that writer Heidi Thomas hasn't ignored the working classes in her adaptation as Jem and Martha's experience is just as valid as that of the far more middle class Cranfordians.

A new family arrives in Cranford, Captain Brown (Jim Carter) and daughters Jessie Brown (Julia Sawalha) along with a sick sister Mary, who doesn't say a word and expires quite silently a little later on.
Captain Brown has a magnificent set of sideburns. Many of the Cranford side burns have me itching to lean through the tv and give them a tug, to see how real they are. Dr. Morgan's and Captain Brown's are of special note.

Julia Sawalha , looking much older than her Pride and Prejudice days is filmed in unflattering and unfair close up shots, in which the poor thing looks quite haggard and washed out. Lord Charles Maulver (Greg Wise) arrives as a friend and the landlord of Captain Brown and stays for awhile. His lack of facial hair is noted and I have come to the conclusion that he is a cad, although this may be due to his previous acting roles. He can do smug and self satisfied with his eyes shut.

Lady Ludlow (Francesca Annis) is holed up in her mausoleum of a house,
waited upon by Mr. Carter in the capacity of an estate manager and Miss Galindo (Emma Fielding) as her ladyships milliner. Lady Ludlow is opposed to the lower orders educating themselves as evidenced by her interrogation of a new maid. When told that the maid can read, write and cast accounts, Lady Ludlow spits that she is no good for anything but trade. Her servants are taught to obey her, do their jobs and learn their prayers and nothing else. This rankles with Mr. Carter and he is quite clearly annoyed by Lady Ludlows stance. Miss Galindo doesn't appear to care and may as well be made of stone for all the emotion Emma Fielding gives her.

Meanwhile back in Cranford, after setting a valuable lace collar in bowl of buttermilk to bleach, Miss Pole and Mrs. Forrester turn away to pass comments on Mrs Forrester's well fed maid. Taking its opportunity for some fresh delicious buttermilk, Mrs. Forrester's cat scoffs the buttermilk, lace collar and all. The ladies spring into action and begin a wild dash to the store to purchase a "compound". The procession gathers participants in the manner of Mrs. Jamieson, (Barbara Flynn plus sedan chair and carriers) who is attracted by the no doubt unusual sight of "some ladies running". The procession runs, somewhat out of breath, through the centre of Cranford, scattering inhabitants in their wake with Miss Pole's cry, "this is a matter of lace!" The lace in question residing in the cats stomach, but as it was woven by silent French nuns, is extremely valuable and must be retrieved.

When in the possession of the emetic compound, it is administered to the cat, which is placed in a boot that fought at Waterloo. The looks on the faces of the actresses as the cat evacuates it's bowels are wonderful and just goes to show fart jokes work!
The lace is washed out of the boot by a disgusted looking maid and held up now brown and worse for wear, though intact much to the delight of Mrs. Forrester.

Mary Brown dies while Captain Brown is away on business and the funeral has to be arranged by a distraught Jessie, who states that if her father does not return then she will walk behind the coffin, so that her sister will not be alone. This horrifies Miss Deborah, as women are not permitted to attend funerals. She retires to her room to meditate on the matter and in the morning appears at Jessie's side to walk alongside her behind the coffin. The consensus now being that if Miss Jenkyns is allowed to attend a funeral, then it must be ok, as she is the arbiter of all Cranford etiquette and thus Miss Deborah ensures that the scandal of a woman at a funeral is averted.Dr Harrison gains a full house of furniture, and a housekeeper, the recently widowed Mrs. Rose (Lesley Manville) who in one short scene and a few lines develops Mrs. Rose into a vulnerable and fragile woman, though kindhearted and gentle.
Jem's arm is healing well and he is able to use it well enough to fix Frank Harrison's plaque to the door, meanwhile Sophy and the rest of her family pull up outside to deliver some cherries, which is just an excuse to reiterate that Sophy and Frank are attracted to one another.
Cranford is stuffed with fantastic characters and even better performances, Eileen Atkins and Imelda Staunton nearly steal the show, but with great restraint don't steam roller every other performance in deference of their, they generously allow the other actors to shine and do their best also. From Captain Brown who emanates generosity and good humour, to Jem Hearne's stolid and everyday charm, to Mary Smith's patience and shrewdness, to Harry Gregson's youthful resilience. One especial mention must go to Heidi Thomas's script which retains almost all of Gaskell's original humour and is successful in melding all three sources into one very satisfying whole.

BBC Breakfast Interviews With Imelda Staunton and Simon Woods

2007-12-01T12:20:00.000-08:00

Imelda Staunton (Miss Pole) and Simon Woods (Dr. Harrison) were interviewed about Cranford on BBC Breakfast, not together, I hasten to add, but on two separate occasions and both were lively interviewees, especially Imelda, whose spotty jacket I somewhat covet.

Imelda'a Interview:

and Simon Woods (who looks so much better with stubble than clean shaven, but still quite young) :

And does anyone know what "wink murder" is, please?

Cranford RadioTimes Scans

2007-11-27T11:08:00.000-08:00

Courtesy of the wonderful VerityNorth of the C19 messageboard, who supplied these scans of the RadioTimes, please find below a veritable treasure trove of Cranford related loveliness.

Yes, I am a bit late, sorry. Hopefully now I've managed to get my screencapping software to stop making people look either like pygmies or giants, I should also be capping (and snarking) each episode.

Any way, the first three scans are the fold out front cover.

Look it's St.John Rivers nonchalently leaning on a light, I knew he hadn't gone to India!

The following is the main article and the behind the scenes special. Enjoy.

The RadioTimes minisite has lots of cast video interviews and the behind the scenes video for the photoshoot.

Ruth Wilson BBC and Guardian Interviews

2007-11-14T14:51:00.000-08:00

Ruth was on BBC Breakfast last week talking about "Capturing Mary" and "A Real Summer", both written by Stephen Poliakoff and neither of which I've had time to watch yet! I will do, hopefully this weekend. I found the following video on YouTube, I unfortunately missed it as I had to go to work.

Ruth was interviewed in the Guardian and talked about the Poliakoff dramas and about how she makes her own luck and if it all goes wrong, opening The Jane Eyre Tea Shop!

More Present Laughter

2007-11-06T15:07:00.001-08:00

I went to see "Present Laughter" on Saturday, starring Alex Jennings as Garry Essendine, the vain, womanising ageing actor and I loved it!

Anyway, having gotten to London early (for once), I decided to go and have a look at the crack in the floor of the Turbine Hall at the Tate. It's quite impressive, for a crack in the floor. Not sure I'd want to dig up the floor to put it in, but it's a talking point and people were flocking around it. I think it's a pretty audacious piece of art: either it would have been a hit (as it is) or a total flop ("why go to see a crack in the floor, when my bathroom ceiling has plenty of it's own").

Then off I trot to the National Theatre to see the play, which is about twenty minutes walk from the Tate. Of course as usual, I leave it a bit late and end up half jogging to make it in time, meaning that I end up a bit flustered, sweaty and have to climb over knees to get to my seat. To be very honest, when I looked around the matinee audience and was faced with room full of grey hair and little old ladies with zimmer frames, and realising I was one of the youngest people there, I was slightly scared that perhaps I'd picked the wrong play, maybe I should have booked to see "Hairspray" instead (Michael Ball in drag, what's not to like?).

Just before the play started a late comer walked past two rows away, I wouldn't normally mention such an common occurrence, but when I recognised him I gasped involuntarily: it was only David Walliams! I think he was with his Mum. A little flutter went round the audience, along the lines of: "ooh, look it's David Walliams." I kept quiet, for one, he knows who he is, and secondly, he's on a day off, it must be a bit galling to go everywhere with people going: "ooh, look who it is"! At the end of the play while waiting patiently to leave the auditorium behind an old lady with two walking sticks and a man to hold her upright, I realised I was actually right behind him! Within arse pinching distance. This observation came unbidden into my mind, but don't fear, I kept my hands to myself, I have no desire to be arrested.

The play starts with Daphne Stillington wondering out into Garry's flat wearing his dressing gown and pyjamas and in a wordless scene Daphne ambles around the flat looking at photo's, kissing Garry's and turning face down the one with Garry and his wife Liz, this isn't in the text and is wonderfully in keeping and comic. The entrances of the stolid and matter of fact Miss Erikson, Fred and finally Monica all compound the evident fact that they've been here before and this is anything but an uncommon occurrence. Monica is fantastically played by Sarah Woodward, she brings the dry and caustic wit that Monica needs to be Garry's foil. She's a counterpoint to all the fawning and adoring debutantes that otherwise fill Garry's world and Sarah Woodward can wring a line dry to extract every single drop of comic potential. If only she didn't sound a bit like Ann Widdecombe.

Once Daphne's been promised a bath and some orange juice she retreats into the spare room, whereupon Garry makes his first appearance having been woken by the commotion. The energy level increased quite dramatically once Alex Jennings made his entrance as Garry. His huge stage filling presence really lifts the production and from that moment, you miss Garry when he's not on stage, because he is making the play tick and providing the intensity and dynamism that's required to make the play work.

Garry makes short work of getting rid of Daphne, with help from a well practised poem by Shelley and after going over a few letters with Monica, he wafts away to have his bath. Liz, his not quite ex-wife drops in to leave a dressing gown for Garry, who is something of a connoisseur of dressing gowns and to make Monica party to her plan to get Garry to behave himself after being confronted by Daphne.

Upon the presentation of his gift from Liz, Garry scampers, rather elegantly, onto the grand piano in the centre of the room and preens in the mirror. Liz then proceeds to remind him of his advancing age and his responsibilities and drops in a little gossip about Joanna and Morris being lovers, which is news to Garry. Then Roland Maule makes his entrance. Roland is besotted with Garry and is blessed with the firmest handshake this side of Superman, causing all to either squeal in pain or contort their faces at the agony of his herculean grip. Once Roland is convinced of his deficiencies as a playwright, he leaves to sit weeping (off stage) on the stairs, whereupon Henry (Joanna's husband) and Morris, Garry's business associates, make an appearance.

Henry is ignorant of his wife, Joanna's, dalliance with Morris and once Henry leaves for Brussels, Garry rounds on Morris asking him what he's up to. Morris is played by Tim McMullan with a nervous and slightly neurotic comic lightness. He's good and brings the right amount of fluster to a minor character, and makes Morris memorable by the level of talent he brings to the character.

After the scene setting of the first act, the play moves on and Joanna's seduction of Garry is accompanied by both actors prowling around the stage after one another. While I thought Lisa Dillon, as Joanna, was pretty good, her voice sounded strange, until I realised that it only sounded odd because she appeared to be channelling Queenie circa Blackadder II. It was as if she was playing at being coquettish, and that took a little of the danger out of the scene. Joanna shouldn't be flirty and coquettish, for real energy it needed a far more predatory Joanna. It seemed as if Garry was directing the seduction and it should have been the other way round.

The following morning, Joanna flounces around Garry's flat in one of his dressing gowns, frightening the staff and lording over them while demanding breakfast and acting superiorly. Liz turns up and appraises the situation carefully and blackmails Joanna into keeping quiet about Garry and ending the affair after one night by threatening to spill the beans to Henry and Morris. Joanna agrees hurriedly after believing that Morris is at the door and retreats to the spare room to hide while Liz gets rid of Morris. It transpires to be Roland Maule at the door who insinuates himself into the flat by lying that he has an appointment with Garry. Monica dispatches Roland to the office, while Morris bumps into Garry who's trying to sneak out.

Morris is distraught, he can't find Joanna and is desperate to find her. Garry knows exactly where she is but is horrified that Morris might find out. Morris realises that someone has been staying in the spare room, but both he and Garry are amazed when Liz walks out saying that she's just been powdering her nose. Liz phones the spare room in a ruse to get Morris to believe that Joanna spent the night with her. Roland Maule exits the office and Henry turns up early demanding to know where Joanna is. Garry in his exasperation smashes himself over the head with a plate showering the stage with porcelain.

Lady Saltburn arrives with her niece Daphne only to cause more consternation. Alex shows how good he is by imbuing the word "yellow" with more comic emphasis than it's ever had before. I loved the anguished double take Garry does when Lady Saltburn divulges that Garry knew Daphne's mother years ago. A sick little joke for a rather frothy little comedy. After Henry and Morris leave, Daphne begins her audition for Garry by reading the same poem that Garry recited for her at the beginning of the play. When Daphne stumbles over a word, the rest of the cast in unison correct her, Miss Erikson even deigning to leave the kitchen to do it. Succinctly and hilariously highlighting how common it was for Garry to recite that poem to his one night stands. When Joanna finally exits the spare room in her frock, the shock makes poor Daphne faint clean away.

The final act opens with Garry pensively going through his post with Monica and then trying to find reasons for her to stay once she decides it's time to leave for the night. She leaves and then Fred goes off to spend one more night with Doris and then before Miss Erikson leaves to go to a spiritualist meeting in Hammersmith she steals all of Garry's cigarettes quite blatantly. Once alone in the flat, Garry puts on the gramophone and sits quietly, he looks bereft and lonely and quite sad. When the door bell rings, he wipes away a tear before he goes to open it.

Daphne is at the door and informs Garry she's coming with him to Africa, then Roland appears and also claims he wants to come to Africa and demands a biscuit. Both of these irritations are dispatched to the office or the spare room when the door bell rings again, this time Joanna flaunts in, also announcing that she is going to accompany Garry to Africa.

This time, Garry realising he not going to be able to cope alone, phones Liz and using their ingenious code of "I'm terribly sorry," Liz knows to rush straight round.

Eventually Morris and Henry turn up, both angry at Garry as they've read Joanna's note confessing the affair with Garry. Garry gives them all a piece of his mind and it transpires that neither Morris or Henry really want to fall out with Garry as they've just bought a theatre and want to Garry to act in it. Garry had previously been quite damning about it and when he finds out is just as coruscating. Joanna finally realises that Garry isn't interested and slaps him across the face in lieu of goodbye. Garry takes the blow and instead of commenting on it, turns round and begins to berate Morris and Henry about the Forum Theatre. After blustering on for a while, Liz tells the pair to leave and that she'll take care of Garry. After a few medicinal brandies, Liz informs Garry she's here to stay, but Garry remembering the twin horrors of Roland and Daphne still in the flat, puts on his coat and says he's coming back to her.

Overall the play was incredibly funny, with great performances. Liz was played by Sara Stewart and you can understand her irritation with Garry at times, but the character is played with warmth and the underlying intimacy between Garry and Liz is apparent. Her solicitude in returning with presents and her labours to prevent Morris and Henry finding out the truth about Joanna, all prove her obvious and deep feeling for Garry. And Garry likewise depends on Liz, she's the first one he calls when he needs help and, in my mind the most telling gesture of his love for Liz comes in the first scene. Daphne had turned face down the picture of Liz and Garry, but almost the first thing Garry does in the scene is to turn it face up again.

The minor parts of Miss Erikson and Fred were well played, with Miss Erikson ambling around in house coat with a cigarette hanging out of her mouth one of the abiding images of the play. Henry was anaemically acted and didn't have much impact unfortunately, Morris was better and far more comic character, though you did want to pat him and give him a cup of tea for his nerves.

Sarah Woodward was great and of course Alex Jennings was utterly marvellous as Garry. He brought out the inherent comedy in lines that are barely comic in the text and is so charismatic that you forgive Garry his womanising, vanity and self importance. He shows you the human under the handsome veneer, the lonely man in his ivory tower (though it leaks a bit in the rain).

The play appears quite frothy and light on the surface, with plenty of one liners and laughs, but ultimately it's about friendship, love, trust and responsibility. It's a stylish play hiding quite a sensitive heart, rather like Garry himself.

Ruth Wilson In "The Times"

2007-11-04T13:32:00.000-08:00

There is a lovely interview with Ruth and her brother Matt in The Times' Relative Values column. Most likely because of Ruth's upcoming role in Stephen Poliakoffs "Capturing Mary" to be shown on November 12th.

Also there is an article about the Poliakoff trilogy in The Times here.

The Country Wife Review Roundup

2007-10-30T12:04:00.000-07:00

Well, unfortunately this has been a long time in coming, but I've finally managed to get time to post some links to the reviews of "The Country Wife".

Toby plays Horner a "notorious womaniser" who feigns impotence as a way of getting close to the married ladies of his aquaintance and succeeds. The Country Wife of the title is one of the young ladies he seduces. The play looks wonderful, I like the mix of jeans and regency frock coats, and above all I rather like the devilish smile Toby is wearing in practically every still of the play!

The Telegraph liked it, praising the actors, Patricia Hodge and David Haig in particular and states that: "Shows don’t come much more disgracefully pleasurable than this".

The Times' reviewer seemed to get confused by the cow he had to pass to get into the auditorium and is a little tepid about the play, but again he praises the performances!

The Sunday Times reviewer enjoyed it more and describes Toby as appearing "with a snarling smile, a wolfish flash of teeth and an exaggeratedly thrusting gait that makes his crotch appear on stage several moments before the rest of him." Eh?! Wow, that must be one hell of a codpiece.
Hopefully, I'll add some more to this post later!

The Country Wife

2007-10-10T15:19:00.000-07:00

Ooh , I'm running short of time, so I'll tide you over with this picture of Toby surrounded by gorgeous women, until I get a summary of the reviews up (which are gratifyingly positive).

It's not wrong for my eyes to get drawn inexorably to that bunch of grapes, is it?

A Little More Present Laughter

2007-10-04T15:09:00.000-07:00

A few more Present Laughter links and then I promise I'll stop. Whatsonstage.com has a lovely little video (click on the picture) of the first night with interviews with all of the main performers. The set looks impressive, but as it is a rather peculiar green colour, it does look like Garry's flat is covered in mould. Weird.This is Pip Carter, who plays Raymond Maule, looking distinctly ungeeky.

Sarah Woodward looking glamourous, as all actors tend to, praising Noel Coward and Alex Jennings' performance as Garry. Sara Stewart looks very sparkly in her sequined frock, in contrast with Alex Jennings, whom I greatly admire, but whose outfit can be generously described as "lively". The shirt by itself, I can just about take, but where did that waistcoat come from? I hope he kept the receipt.

And finally here's a review of the play in Variety: "In a role he was born to play, Jennings makes ease look, well, easy. Despite peacocking about in a series of dressing gowns, Jennings never confuses charm and smarm; he sweeps about the stage like a cross between Rex Harrison and a well-bred wolf" and "Jennings' timing is so flawless he even finds space to stretch punctuation to delicious comic effect. Attempting to extricate himself from last night's love-struck ingenue, he trots out the line, "Don't love me too much, Daphne." But he halts momentarily on the comma to search for her name, indicating just how common an occurrence this is."

Present Laughter

2007-10-03T16:41:00.000-07:00

Lots of reviews of "Present Laughter" for you, which I'm going to see, so I'm enthusing beforehand. Unfortunately the reviews are uniformly tepid about the play, but uniformly complimentary about the performers, Sarah Woodward and Alex Jennings in particular.

I don't quite know how you can enjoy a performance and then not like the play, but what do I know, I'm not a theatre critic!

The Times, said it was funny, but not funny enough, the Evening Standard is similarly cool towards the play, but does include my favourite line about it so far: "Alex Jennings, who clearly adores flouncing around in one dressing gown and several piques".

The Guardian states that: "Alex Jennings offers a superbly executed re-interpretation." and is a "richly funny performance".

The Telegraph hated it apparently, calling it "Impossible to like or laugh at " and a "botched attempt at an overated play". Ouch! But heaps praise on Alex Jennings. It appears that the problems may be with Coward's play rather than the performers.

Whatsonstage.com call the play "oddly brusque and charmlessly monumental", which seems incredibly harsh! And includes my second favourite quote: "Gary should not resemble a tramp with a bad haircut and an ugly dressing gown worn over day clothes that might have come from an Oxfam shop".
On the other hand The Independent gives the most positive review: "a marvel of comic brio and farcical panache" and praises Alex Jennings, who "draws on similar talents and surpasses them. There's the electric wit and stage-filling charisma, as well as the boyishness that makes people want to mother and strangle him".

Better stop now, but I'll stick the weekend reviews on as well later.

Restoring His Humour

2007-10-03T14:10:00.000-07:00

I found an interview with Toby in the Metro, but couldn't find it online, because for reasons known only to the lucky few, it was on the Evening Standard website instead?! Enjoy.

New Plays In the West End

2007-09-27T15:01:00.000-07:00

I had to link this, as I was immediately grabbed by the picture of Toby, though small and bit grainy, being gazed at longingly by Patricia Hodge. The woman's mesmerised I tell you!

There's nothing much in the story about Toby, rather it's a story about the ongoing struggle between plays and musicals in London's West End, but it's a good list of what's coming up if you fancy a trip to the theatre.

Ruth in Suburban Shootout

2007-09-07T14:44:00.000-07:00

Ruth is reprising her role as Jewel Diamond in Suburban Shootout and there's a cast bio for Ruth here. The photo is taken at a bit of an odd angle though!

The website for the show on Five is quite fun and the show is actually quite a little bit bonkers.

Toby in The Times

2007-09-07T14:09:00.000-07:00

"Great things have always been expected of Toby Stephens. He is the son of two great actors: Maggie Smith and Robert Stephens. He has already notched up a mesmerising Coriolanus and a formidable Hamlet, not to mention a brooding Rochester in the BBC’s Jane Eyre. So which great cultural figure is he playing next? “I suppose I’m Sid James,” he laughs."

That is the first paragraph of an interview with Toby, which was in The Times recently, along with a rather nicer picture than last time!

According to the interviewer, Toby is "annoyingly handsome"! Not a sentiment I would disagree with!

Philistines - Cast Interviews

2007-08-08T16:15:00.000-07:00

It does exactly what it says on the tin!

You can find a short film of four cast members talking about Philistines on YouTube, or on the Philistines page at the National Theatre site.

Why they filmed Ruth and Rory in Black and White, I have no idea!

Enjoy!

p.s. I did finish that script writing assignment in the end, and I got 86%, very chuffed!

Philistines Workpack

2007-07-29T16:23:00.000-07:00

There is a lovely interview with Ruth, among a lot of lovely, detailed and interesting information about Philistines, in the National Theatre Workpack for the play. That is where the above lovely photo comes from.

Click here to open or download (it's a pdf document): Philistines Workpack.

First Among Sequels

2007-07-16T11:12:00.000-07:00

I ought to be writing the short play for my writing assignment, but I can't think of anything to write, or a theme, or any decent characters, or a plot that is anything other than half baked. So I've been reading instead. I should be writing, it's due in less that two weeks....

I've been reading the new Jasper Fforde, First Among Sequels, aka the further adventures of Thursday Next. In this book, Thursday is now a 52 year old mum, still gallivanting around the Bookworld and engaging in furtive SpecOps work, all the while trying to get her recalcitrant and supine son to join the Chronoguard. Add into this, illegal cheese smuggling, a devil in disguise, two fictional Thursdays, the ghost of Mycroft and the added burden of carpet laying and you've got an enjoyable story.

I won't spoiler the book as not everyone is trying to avoid doing work like I am and has already read it. There is no Rochester in this one, apart from a few fleeting mentions, but there is a little bit of Pride and Prejudice, but Fforde wisely doesn't introduce Darcy into the narrative. The Bennet sisters attempts at Mother control however raise quite a chuckle.

While the book is enjoyable, it's not as good as the previous books. There doesn't appear to be a solid central plot, in fact the book almost seems like it's made up of sub plots, some of which are criminally unresolved by the end of the book. Which is both good as there will be more Thursday, but also bad, because I'll now have to wait two years for the resolution. Dagnamit. And my footnoterphone dialogue is missing due to a printer's mishap. Grrggh.

A few highlights of the book were: the unfortunate piano mishap in Emma (there are apparently only 15 pianos in the whole of the Book World and only one elephant) and towards the end the way in which Fforde depicts the Big Nothing is really quite audacious and satisfying. That last sentence will have made no sense unless you've read the book, but it's is one of my highlights.

I missed Mrs. Bradshaw and Thursday's father in this book, and I really wanted Thursday to go booksploring for a way into Sherlock Holmes (because he died falling off Reichenbach Falls!) instead of her more moribund cadet training. Oh well.

If you've never read any Thursday Next novels, start at the beginning with the Eyre Affair (Jane Eyre get's kidnapped and plenty of Rochester) and work your way towards this one, take your time, you've got two years.

Now back to gazing at a blank screen wondering what to write....

Betrayal Reviews

2007-06-12T15:37:00.000-07:00

The wonderful Jellybean (thank you!) has found a whole load of Betrayal review links on her blog and I'm linking to it because I'm too lazy/busy (delete as you find applicable) to find them all myself. But I did find the pictures all by myself, ok, ok, I googled them....but they are nice!

Enjoy!

Philistines Review and Online Trailer

2007-06-04T15:11:00.000-07:00

I was going to do a roundup of the reviews for Philistines, but as jellybean has done this, I urge you to check out her blog, which also has many lovely photos of Sam West, which you can never have too many of really.

The National now has the Philistines trailer up, in which Ruth does appear and I have made a few screencaps:

Enjoy!

Toby Stephens Interview in The Guardian

2007-05-31T11:10:00.000-07:00

There's a great interview with Toby today in The Guardian, ostensibly to talk about his role in Betrayal at the Donmar Theatre. And congratulations to Toby and Anna-Louise as they are the proud parents of baby Eli!

Toby is asked about having been asked to play Bond, his answer was: "I don't know where that came from," he laughs. "I mean, Christ, there was enough fuss about [Craig] being blond. Can you imagine if they'd given it to a ginger? There'd be assassination plots."

Bafta 2007 Awards and Philistines

2007-05-21T12:02:00.000-07:00

Alas Ruth didn't win the Best Actress award at the Bafta's last night, but she will be in Philistines at the National Theatre and she gave an interview to whatsonstage.com, which you can read here.

And here are some pictures of Ruth looking lovely at the Bafta's!

Backstage at the National Theatre

2007-05-18T12:55:00.000-07:00

I went on a backstage tour of the National Theatre on Friday and I very much enjoyed it!

It was very interesting to see the three very different performing areas that the National Theatre has.

The Cottesloe theatre is basically a small black box with a very adaptable stage (in Goldilocks terms, this is Baby Bear), the Lyttleton has a proscenium arch (Mummy Bear):

And the grand and impressive Olivier Theatre (very much the Daddy bear).

You get to have a look at the some of the props that were used in previous performances, and a feel of a severed head, which I was reliably informed by the well informed guide that was the exact weight of a real severed head! I'll have to take her word for it. And we were introduced to Pat the tortoise, whose animatronic twin nearly upstaged Simon Russell Beale during a play.

To get a chance to go, if only fleetingly, backstage of a working theatre it's pretty good. While in the Olivier auditorium, I saw some of the set for A Matter of Life and Death and a man started to play a double bass for some reason while we in there and we saw Gisli Örn Gardarsson, who plays the Norwegian Conductor, but he's actually Icelandic.

They are still building the set for Philistines, which looks very sleek. I was very impressed that one enterprising set builder managed to keep hammering for about fifteen minutes straight with out a break while we were there. The set for Rafta, Rafta was glimpsed tucked away behind the Lyttleton and it looked phenomenal. It's like a huge dolls house that has been cut in half and dressed like a real house.

Philistines of course stars Ruth Wilson as Tanya, and the website has a little bit of blurb about it here.

The flytower of the Lyttleton theatre not only has a teetering Anthony Gormley statue balanced on top of it, but it is currently covered in real, growing grass. I saw a man watering it. If your click on the link above, you'll be able to see a video of how they did it: lots of grass seeds in clay basically.

I recommend the National Theatre (http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk) website as a great site to go to for info on plays at the National, but it does also have workpacks for some productions, where the plays are discussed a little which are very interesting and informative.

Persuasion

2007-04-30T15:17:00.000-07:00

Well, this post is better late than never, I suppose! Apologies for it's tardiness.

Persuasion starts with Anne Elliot, our main protagonist, rushing about her large stately house, making notes, which transpires to be an inventory of the household goods. Her house is to be rented out, as her vain and foppish father Sir Walter Elliot, played by the marvellous Anthony Head, had frittered it all away after his wife's death. That he is fond of spoiling his eldest daughter Elizabeth (Julia Davis) with strawberries and extravagant ringlets, has nothing to with being broke. Anne, who we have already guessed from her plain clothes and scraped back hair, in contrast to her flamboyant relatives, is the sensible one.

She pleads with her friend and confidante Lady Russell (the wonderfully nuanced Alice Krige) to stop her father and sister from being so free with their money and settle quietly in a rented house to save money. The house is to be rented to Admiral Croft and his wife, who as soon as they move in are taken aback at the number of mirrors, all belonging to Sir Walter, who is so vain, he carries a small mirror fastened at his wrist lest he go five minutes without seeing his own reflection.

As both father and elder daughter are set on glamorous Bath instead, Anne eventually waves them both off, in an ostentatious carriage and instead lodges with her sister Mary Musgrove (Amanda Hale), who is a hypochondriac bore. Mary professes ill health and then contradictorily proceeds to inhale the contents of the tea tray in one vast inward breath. Anne is saved from a fate worse than her sisters company all afternoon, by the arrival of her brother-in-law Charles Musgrove (Sam Hazeldine) and his cousins, Louisa and Henrietta Musgrove (played respectively by Jennifer Higham and Rosamund Stephen). Both of whom are willowy and pretty, but at the same time appear far plainer than Anne.
Both Anne and Mary are asked to tea up at the big house and when they get there are told that Captain Frederick Wentworth will be arriving soon. A successful and handsome naval officer who is the brother of Mrs. Croft, Anne's tenants. At this news Anne is upset, and Sally Hawkins, a fine and talented actress, displays all of Anne's dismay, repressed excitement and suppressed love in a scene not lacking in vast amount of tears and snot.

Wentworth (the incredibly gorgeous Rupert Penry-Jones) is Anne's lost love, he had proposed eight years ago, but was refused by Anne's family and Lady Russell as he was only a lowly naval officer then, but now after a short and successful career has returned, as a man of substance and means. And of course, in the words of Jane Austen herself, "a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife", and so he becomes the neighbourhoods most eligible bachelor.

Anne it seems is fated to meet Captain Wentworth when asked to dinner, but a small child with a dislocated shoulder, which is popped back into it's socket by Anne herself, puts paid to that; however the child's parents both think they ought not disturb their own plans for the evening!

Eventually Wentworth comes to visit and catches sight of Anne, whereupon both he and Anne try to avoid each other as far as common courtesy and politeness will allow, but on a walk during which Louisa flirts outrageously with Wentworth and launches herself off a stile straight at his head, Anne manages to trump her and flings herself off a tree and into a river. She is rewarded with Wentworth tenderly gazing down at her bedraggled form as she comes round now that they've pumped all the water out of her lungs.

Anne and the Musgroves now decide to go to the seaside, but not for them sandy beaches, ice creams and deckchairs, no, they go on holiday, in what appears to be winter and stroll up and down the wettest, slipperiest and bleakest looking seafront in Britain.

I can only imagine that Wentworth's ulterior motive was to lure everybody to the end of the walkway, let them get washed off and carry Anne off on his horse. Alas this doesn't occur as Louisa Musgrove in a vain attempt to get Wentworth to notice her ability to fly, attempts her now patented stile vaulting routine, 10 feet in the air from the top of a flight of steps, onto concrete. Wentworth, ever the sensible fellow, realises that the weight of girl, corset, bonnet and ringlets from that height would squash him quite flat, moves imperceptibly out of the way, hoping that the girl's petticoats will act as a parachute and she'll glide safely down to him. Unfortunately Louisa decides to launch herself head first and manages to sustain a serious injury. Anne resists the temptation to throw herself in the ocean in an attempt to get attention and instead inspects the inside of Louisa's bonnet which appeared to be the only thing holding her brain in.

Wentworth, Anne and Henrietta travel back home to break the news of Louisa's accident to her parents and Wentworth and Anne exchange smouldering looks, while Captain Benwick and Captain Harville, friends of Wentworth, stay with Louisa, Mary and Charles.

While at the seaside a man later known to be William Elliot (Tobias Menzies), who it transpires is to inherit Sir Walter's estate after his death, is seen to observe the party and Anne in particular. More of him later.

Anne now travels back to Bath to rejoin her father and sister, who have been making the best of society and ingratiating themselves with distant relative, who has the distinction of being a Viscountess. They both practically prostrate themselves when she is in the room.

Anne of course is far too sensible and intelligent for such nonsense and she spends more time in the company of her friend Mrs. Smith (Maisie Dimbleby), who is not in the best of health. Her father takes great exception to these visits and berates her quite vituperatively.

While in Bath, William Elliot pays a visit to Sir Walter on the pretence that he wants to make amends for their previous falling out. Sir Walter labours under the impression that William wants to marry one of his daughters. William's actual aim is to prevent Sir Walter from marrying Mrs. Clay, Elizabeth's widowed companion. As Mrs. Clay is young and still capable of childbearing, he's afraid that a wedded union would strip him of his inheritance.

William makes himself agreeable to Anne and appears quite an honest and good man, the benefits of her marriage to him, especially at her advanced age would, mean that she would get to live back in her beloved house, but despite his kind and charming manner her obvious love for Wentworth, she finds her resolve being assailed by the persuasive remonstrations of her father and Lady Russell, and Anne feels that she could marry William and be tolerably happy.

Meanwhile back at the seaside, Wentworth and Benwick are walking in a field and discussing Wentworth's tangled love life. Wentworth knows that he doesn't want to marry Louisa, and Benwick, who was heartbroken when his first love died, tells him to seize the day, i.e Anne. Wentworth misunderstands and seizes a horse instead and rides away, but he rides in the direction of Bath, so all is not lost.
Once Wentworth reaches Bath, he hears that Anne and William Elliot are close, this disheartens him and he follows Anne around several Bath functions in a lovestruck manner, all the while trying to avoid Elizabeth's creative hairstyles and trying to get Anne alone with him.

Anne is being steered towards marrying William, and Wentworth fearing that he is too late, sends Anne a passionate love letter. Anne upon reading it finally realises that Wentworth still loves her as constantly and as passionately as she has loved him and waits for Wentworth to visit as he promises in his letter. At the appointed time, the door is knocked upon and instead of Wentworth, in walk the Musgroves.

Anne eventually tires of waiting and decides to go to find Wentworth herself, on the way she meets Mrs. Smith, who informs her that William Elliot is a scoundrel and a knave, he never wanted to marry Anne out of love, he just wanted to secure his inheritance and had managed to persuade Mrs. Clay to be his mistress. The scales fall from Anne's eyes and she decides to spurn Elliot and to run the length of Bath twice, (without her bonnet, the hussy) in an attempt to find Wentworth.

Eventually she gets tired and returns home to find Wentworth calmly standing on the doorstep talking to Charles about guns. Eventually Charles leaves them alone and love is professed, which ought to be sealed with a kiss, which takes about half a hour. Just kiss him love, you've waited eight years for this moment and now you just stand there. He's just as bad, she's short, she can't reach up that high, but he just stands there ramrod straight smirking down at her. Perhaps the kiss took so long she was just trying to catch her breath after running so far.

And what better way to end this film, but with a kiss.

Sally Hawkins and Rupert Penry-Jones were both marvellous, Sally demonstrated Anne's enormous wealth of feeling for Wentworth even after such a long separation and Rupert aptly implied all of Wentworth's pent up emotion and longing for Anne. The production was beautiful and the adaptation was faithful without being slavish. Adrian Shergold, the director, brought out the best in the cast and the locations and the drama was accented with slivers of humour and wit without resorting to the campiness that affected Mansfield Park. All in all, it was a fine end to the Jane Austen season.

Northanger Abbey

2007-03-25T17:06:00.000-07:00

After last weeks disappointing "Mansfield Park", I sat down to watch Northanger Abbey with not a little trepidation. Thankfully, I enjoyed it a lot more than the previous film, which is somewhat due to the fantastic writing of Andrew Davies (yes, he of "Pride and Prejudice" fame). He understands what is entertaining, and more importantly doesn't stifle Austen's innate, wry wit, a crime committed by Maggie Wadey in "Mansfield Park". The script stuck to the story with fidelity, with only few oddly stricken notes.

Felicity Jones played Catherine Morland, who was imbued with the wide eyed naivety required, who having been brought up on a diet of lurid novels, is quite ready for an adventure. As the mysterious voice-over told us, at which point my heart sank: not another blinking voice-over. Mercifully the voice-over only reappeared at the end and didn't impinge on the story at all.

Catherine's daydreams certainly put mine to shame, but then mine tend to revolve around confectionery, usually pastry based, and occasionally, violent acts of retribution towards my co workers. I also tend to steer clear of books of the ilk of "The Mysteries of Udolpho" and have a sneaking suspicion that I have led too sheltered a life. Catherine spends her reveries in fleeing saturnine and glowering men around dark, Gothic castle, complete with flowing locks and a floaty dress.

Catherine gets her chance at an adventure when Mr and Mrs Allen ask her to accompany the Bath as Mr Allen is somewhat gouty. Mr Allen (Desmond Barrit), though old and slightly infirm, shows himself to be quite a heroic person, as when Brigands attack the coach she and the Allen's are travelling in, he starts to fight them off with his crutch. Alas this all transpires to be one of Cathy's fantasies and Mr. Allen eventually reaches Bath with nary a hair out of place.

Bath was well created, with plenty of rampaging carriages, out of whose way the pedestrians must leap to safety as they barrel along at quite a lick. Anyway, once Mrs. Allen and Catherine have hit the shops for a new dress, or twelve, they make their entrance in the Assembly rooms, which are packed. Cathy and Mrs. Allen have to fight their way through the throng until they get to the tea room and have to race for the final two seats at the tea table. Which they have to quit, as there aren't any tea things and people are looking at them funny. The problem transpires that Mrs. Allen can't talk to anyone without first being introduced and as she doesn't know anyone, she can't just walk up and start chatting.

This impasse if only ended when Henry Tilney brushes past the ladies and apparently sticks Mrs. Allen with a pin. He transpires to be extremely knowledgeable about muslin, is complimentary toward both ladies and with a twitch of an eye manages to get two seats vacated for the ladies. To prevent any impropriety he then arranges an introduction from the Master of Ceremonies to allow conversation and the invitation of a dance with added devilish smirk, but only the one mind you, with Miss Morland.

JJ Feild was Henry Tilney and he is the other reason I found this film so satisfying; he's definitely easy on the eye, and portrayed Henry with charm, wit and intelligence. More importantly he can act and he looks good in britches. Though if I were him, I'd ask my agent to get me some modern dress work, I've seen him in three films: "Mrs. Beeton", "The Ruby in the Smoke" and now this. All good solid period drama, but very heavy on the tight trouser front.

I don't blame Catherine's subsequent fantasy of a devilish Henry interrupts her bath, which must have been incredibly draughty as it took place in wood. This is one of the scenes that I found slightly too modern, Catherine imagining Henry in her bath chamber was racy enough, but having her stand up in all her nakedness was just too much. Henry on the other hand looked entirely happy.

His sister Eleanor is played by Catherine Walker, and is the embodiment of sense, manners and kindness. She is the complete opposite to Carey Mulligan's dimpled, man-hungry, simpering Isabella Thorpe.

Her sweet face and demeanor mask a shallow and scheming soul, despite plighting her troth to the plain and good hearted James Morland, she then courts ruin by consorting, in a most un-Austen like way with lusty, chisel jawed Frederick Tilney (Mark Dymond). Scandalous.

Isabella is probably the most interesting character in the film, she's capable of sweetness, kindness and is friendly, but dig a little deeper and she's venal, greedy and scheming. Despite that, you can't help but to warm to her when, after she and Catherine have been spotted by two young and handsome men in a bookshop, they haughtily exit like duchesses, only to speed into a jog up an alley to catch up with them, so Isabella can flaunt her impressive decollete at them.

Several times I feared for that girl's bosoms, she was squeezed into frocks that were so low cut that nipple-skimming is an apt word.

As wolfish John Thorpe (William Beck) is sweet on Catherine and they are soon to be related by marriage, the Thorpe's make claims on her time and conspire to get Catherine to go on carriage rides by deception. The Tilney's have already made plans with Catherine, for a walk, but John insists that he saw them heading in the other direction on a different excursion and manages to get Catherine to come with them on a carriage ride.

If this were a modern day adaptation, John would drive a souped up Audi with tinted windows, bling hub-caps and the type of sound system, with bass so deep that it causes tectonic shifts. He drives so fast that Catherine needs two hands to keep her bonnet on and he doesn't stop, either, when he nearly runs over Mr. Allen, who angrily shakes his crutch at them, or when she spies the Tilney's walking along and wants to get off. His lame excuse is that he wanted to get to know her and that his sister couldn't possibly be left on her own with her brother, it wouldn't be proper.

Needless to say, with such an inauspicious start, the excursion does not end happily, they end up stuck behind a flock of recalcitrant sheep, in the pouring rain. William Beck makes an interesting and charismatic John Thorpe, but unfortunately has little to do and never for a moment does he pose a serious threat to Henry Tilney for Catherine's affections.

Catherine makes her peace with both Henry and Catherine at the opera and comes to the attention of their father, the stern and strict General Tilney (Liam Cunningham), who makes enquiries about her and is told by John Thorpe that she is an heiress, soon to inherit from the infirm Mr. Allen. With his interest piqued, the General asks Catherine to stay as Northanger Abbey, their home.

Catherine's imagination now goes into overdrive, imagining rugged men tying Isabella to a bed in a diaphanous nightie and being pursued by persons unknown through a dark and forbidding castle.

Once at the castle, after conversations with Eleanor, she becomes strangely convinced that General Tilney, murdered his wife and decides to investigate the nefarious actions of that forbidding man. She finds some papers one night in a chest in her room and when the light is extinguished by a gust of wind, scuttles quickly off to bed. The following morning, she finds that the papers are only laundry lists, but this doesn't deter her and she goes off to search for Mrs. Tilney's bedchamber.

One thing to note about Catherine's bedroom is the size of the wardrobe, it was so large that not only could it house all of Catherine's family (all ten children!), you could probably squeeze Narnia in there as well.

Meanwhile, back in Bath, while wearing a symbolic red feather, Isabella is deflowered by Frederick Tilney and piteously asks if they're engaged now. Doh! Haven't you seen the length of his sideburns love? Sideburns like these only grace the faces of dissolute, rakish reprobates. Next time take a ruler with you.

When Catherine is found snooping in Mrs. Tilneys dusty room by Henry, she confesses her theory and is castigated by him for entertaining such a stupid notion. That night she is woken by Eleanor and told that she has to leave immediately as they have a hitherto forgotten engagement. So poor Catherine, believing that Henry has told his father her assumptions, is sent away and is forced to share a coach with unwashed rustic types, who offer her what looks to be raw tongue as a repast, which she declines politely and one man who travels with a pot of liquor in one hand and live goose in the other.

Once home, Catherine burns her copy of "The Mysteries of Udolpho" as she has realised that life is not a Gothic fantasy and gets on with teaching her adorable little brothers how to read.

Soon after, Henry comes to call to apologise and after politely drinking the proffered lemonade, he asks Catherine to accompany him to see the Allen's. An annoying sister pipes up that you can see the house from here, evidently believing Henry to be a dunce, but Mrs. Morland shushes her and practically shoves Catherine out of the door with him.

Of course this is a costume drama, so a proposal is now offered and accepted and all is happy ever after. Apart from Isabella who desperately tried to get James back via Catherine, and General Tilney, who is estranged from Henry and apparently now spends most of his time grumpily striding through grounds of his estate alone.

All in all, a fabulous adaptation, not a classic, but a distinct improvement on "Mansfield Park" and it was witty, funny and enjoyable. With fantastic performances from all concerned, who said their lines believably, lush locations and many women with feathers in their hair (there must be some mighty cold ostriches somewhere), I thoroughly enjoyed it. And especially, kudos should go to Andrew Davies, whose script was funny, raunchy and very, very good!

An interview with Andrew Davies can be found here.

Northanger Abbey RadioTimes Article

2007-03-25T12:44:00.000-07:00

From the wonderful Austenblog (courtesy of Janeite Kathleen) comes a scan of the Northanger Abbey article in the RadioTimes.

Let's see if this JA adaptation is better than the last...

Mansfield Park

2007-03-19T13:02:00.000-07:00

I like Jane Austen, I loved "Pride and Prejudice" (with added wet Colin Firth, who didn't?), I loved the film version of "Sense and Sensibility" and I love the books with out question. So when ITV announced an series of Austen adaptations I was excited, but also a bit nervous, because the BBC do costume dramas a lot better than ITV. But I sat down, to watch Mansfield Park with a large cup of tea and big hopes.

The cast was youthful, with two very recognisable faces in prominent roles: Billie Piper as Fanny Price and Michelle Ryan as Maria Bertram. In addition to whom, Hayley Atwell played the scheming Mary Crawford and Catherine Steadman played Julia Bertram.

The boys in breeches were: Rory Kinnear as Mr. Rushworth, Blake Ritson as Edmund Bertram, Joseph Beattie as Henry Crawford and the delicious but sadly little used James D'Arcy as Tom Bertram. Adding some age and gravitas to the cast were Maggie O'Neill as Aunt Norris, Jemma Redgrave as Lady Bertram and Douglas Hodge as Sir Thomas Bertram, who were both far too young to be the parents of such aged children, did they start popping the sprogs out when they were 12?

Mansfield Park is the story of Fanny Price, a poor relative taken to live with her rich Aunt and Uncle as their home and is brought up alongside her cousins Maria, Julia, Tom and Edmund. Out of all her cousins only kind Edmund takes any notice of her and is kind to her. We are told this in Fanny's voiceover, which is never a good sign. I'm not a fan of voiceovers. As I'm familiar with the novel, I tend to find them patronising. In this case it was used as exposition, but it did feel a bit clunky.

After beginning with the brief introduction of young Fanny at Mansfield Park, the story speeds forward to a now grown up Fanny Price and her cousins. Maria is a vain woman, engaged to be married to Mr. Rushworth, who is a silly man and infatuated with Maria. Julia her sister is Maria's twin in all but years and Tom is a layabout, drunk and gambler. Only Edmund is steadfast and good, and is just about to be ordained as a clergyman.

While Sir Thomas is away on business in the West Indies, trouble comes to call in the shape of brother and sister Henry and Mary Crawford, a handsome pair of siblings, with flowing locks on one side and the obligatory period drama bosoms on the other.

You know they are going be bad news, his cravat is unnecessarily flouncy and she wears very fancy hats. Their plan is to marry Henry off to Julia, while Mary sets her sights on Tom. Things do not go to plan, Henry catches the eye of the already engaged Maria and Mary has to make do with Edmund as Tom is out carousing and betting on horses. Both Henry and Mary are shallow but calculating characters and they are portrayed very well by the actors. Unfortunately neither of them is entirely capable of speaking in regency grammar and sounding authentic. Almost all the characters are unable to make the period dialogue sound convincing and realistic and it shows.

The Crawfords convince the Bertrams to put on a play, how racy! Which eventually comes to nothing as Sir Thomas returns from the West Indies and shows his disapproval by glowering and burning the scripts, by which time Mary has beguiled Edmund, to the disapproval and disappointment of Fanny.

Maria foolishly marries Mr. Rushworth, who was brilliantly brought to life by Rory Kinnear (an actor who I think will go far) as a vain, foppish and silly man. Sir Thomas in a fit of insight, plainly asks Maria if she is happy to marry Rushworth, as he has noticed her attraction to Henry. Maria replies that she is very happy to marry Mr. Rushworth and so they are married and Maria leaves the family home for her own in London.

Now Henry deprived of Maria and the younger Julia turns his attentions to Fanny, he seems quite taken with her sweetness and in his pursuit of her affections arranges to get her sailor brother William a commission on a ship.

Unfortunately when Henry comes to propose, Fanny turns him down, she only has eyes for Edmund; this makes her Aunt and Uncle unhappy. Aware that Fanny is poor and therefore not particularly marriageable, they are horrified that she refused. As punishment they leave poor Fanny all alone in the house while they go to visit Lady Bertram's sister. This made me quite angry, the writer deviated from the book considerably by entirely writing out the rest of Fanny's family, whom she goes to visit (in the book) instead of rattling around a house on her own. Regardless of that deviation, this treatment of course has no effect as, Mr Crawford is again rebuffed when he comes to call.

By this point Edmund is a certified clergyman and Mary Crawford is pleading with him to take up law instead to of the church, despite her attraction to Edmund she doesn't want to even dance with a clergyman, let alone marry one.

When Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram return home, they bring Tom back with them. He is gravely ill, as his drinking and carousing have left him very ill. But you'll be glad to know after the icky application of leeches (ew) and bed rest, with Fanny reading the Racing Post to him, he's soon better. Edmund is also home to check on his brother, and this is when the news reaches them that Mr Crawford, reeling after Fanny's cruel rejection, retreated to London where he visited Maria Rushworth and was comforted by her ample bosom. Scandalous. Of course Aunt Norris avers that it's all Fanny's fault, if she hadn't refused Mr Crawford, Maria would never have been in that situation.

Mary Crawford, trying to salvage something from the now extremely awkward situation, tries to get Edmund to intervene and get Henry and Maria married, so that the path to Edmund and her own nuptials be smoothed. Edmund finally sees Mary for the scheming gold digger she is and sends her packing.

Edmund eventually sees that Fanny is the girl for him, in the most hammy acting I've ever seen. The realisation that he loves Fanny dawns over his face in a second and he practically does a double take of Fanny. He may as well have stood up and said: "Why Miss. Price, you're beautiful!" Before you know it, they're married and are waltzing on the lawn.

The problem with the film was not the cast, they were uniformly good, with extra kudos, from me at least, going to Jemma Redgrave and Douglas Hodge playing the indolent Lady Bertram and the slightly tyrannical Sir Thomas respectively. They were such an engaging couple that I wanted the story to focus more on them than on the younger cast. This is never a good thing especially when they aren't the main focus of the story.

Setting aside the changes made to the story, the cast were good, who were unfortunately not entirely able to carry off the period dialogue realistically and this was a big problem. I didn't see them as the characters and Billie as Fanny Price was sweet, toothsome and winsome, but that just wasn't enough. The writer Maggie Wadey managed to take the story and iron nearly every piece of wit and humour out of it. Aunt Norris should've been a figure of ridicule and humour, instead when she finally leaves to live with Maria, you're glad to see that back of the old bat!

It's impossible not to measure this production up against the juggernaut that was "Pride and Prejudice", which just isn't fair, on it's own merits it was perfectly fine, but compare it and the lack of humour, uneven script and a relatively young cast, mean that it although it was enjoyable, it's not going to go down as a classic. Despite this, when Fanny and Edmund dance on the lawn at their wedding, I had a huge grin on my face, what can I say, I'm a sucker for a happy ending.

Jane Austen Article Scans

2007-03-19T11:14:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I've posted, sorry, that's just down to complete laziness ( and the worst sore throat ever!), I promised some Jane Eyre DVD snark, but it's been so long since I watched the extras, I've forgotten what I wanted to write. Which means that I'll have to watch them again! Oh the hardship...

Any way, while I rewatch, I bring you another Jane: Jane Austen that is. ITV have just started their Jane Austen season, which include films of Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. I've scanned in the Radio Times articles for your perusal. Click to make them big!

The lovely leading ladies.

Page one.

Page two.

Billie Piper blurbette and finally (below) the preview.

And if that's not enough Jane Austen for you, please check out ITV's flash tastic Jane Austen website and the RadioTime's interviews with the three leading ladies, in which Billie very candidly describes the hardship of peeing in costume...

Toby Stephens in The Wild West - Custer's Last Stand

2007-02-26T16:20:00.000-08:00

If you missed this on Friday, I've got a few screencaps to brighten your day.

The programme explored the story of General George Armstrong Custer's final battle against the Native Americans who had settled on land that was thought to be gold rich. As the Indians would not either sell or relinquish the land to the American government, the decision was made to reclaim the land by force; with disastrous consequences for Custer and his men as well as ultimately the Native Americans.

The programme is actually a drama-documentary, which means that the reconstruction- dramatic scenes are broken up by historical experts explaining the situation, the historical context and why the actions of the army and the Indian braves had the outcome that it did.

We start with Custer and his men mounted and searching for the nomadic Indians who they were to later fight. The sky is leaden and overcast and the soldiers look drawn and nervous as does Custer.

The casting of Toby Stephens as Custer really shouldn't suprise anyone when you consider that Toby does actually resemble Custer in a small way. They share the same colouring and despite the sepia picture, Custer looks like he had freckles too! While they both have high cheekbones, Custer has a slightly bigger nose and far more verdant facial hair than Toby does. It is also apparent that Toby's moustache is stuck on. Oops. And he's wearing a wig. But hey, at least it isn't hair extensions.
Custer is leading his small band of men into battle and along for the ride is a journalist called Mark Kellogg. It is his journalists notebook that probably provides the clearest account of what occurred at Little Bighorn. Custer despite being given orders not to talk to journalists, invites Kellogg to come along for the ride. This behaviour is attributed to Custer's self publicising nature.
And if the glory and excitement of writing a sensational story about a famous Civil War hero wasn't enough, Custer both smirks and then tries the old Rochester trick of beguiling Kellogg with his tightly clad thighs. (Sorry, couldn't help myself).

Meanwhile, Sitting Bull, the head of the Indian tribe, performs a ceremony that results in a vision of the attack and he ominously warns of the impending attack and also states that no plunder or booty is to be taken from the bodies of the fallen or bad luck will befall them.

The ceremony is particularly bloody, in Native American belief, all that you own is your body, so therefore to be granted a vison, you must give something that you own to the greater power, in this case flesh was incised over two days (!) before the vision was forthcoming. Sitting Bull's arms ran with blood.The soldiers got ready to do battle and many of them had fine and luxuriant facial hair as you can see. It's nice to see a decent beard on TV occasionally.
Toby meanwhile decided to get rid of his. I like his little smirk here.
Toby has an American accent in this programme and while I'm not qualified to say whether or not it was entirely authentic, to my British ears it sounded quite solid. There were no odd vowel sounds that occur when you assume an accent, and I didn't hear his British accent break through. And Toby also does not sneer at all.

This is Custer and his scout Fallon serveilling an Indian village, Custer's plan being to kidnap the women and children and hold them to ransom. While this sounds like a slightly dishonourable act, it makes a great deal of sense when you think it through. Major bloodshed should be avoided on both sides, the Indians do not attack as they are afraid of harming their sisters and wives, who are venerated as life givers and are protected at all costs, and the soldiers do not attack the Indian Braves as the situation should now be solved by negotiation of the hostages. And this mode of attack payed dividends for Custer previously, and he was very happy to try it again.

(Toby (looking through telescope): "Hey I can see Jane from here...")

A couple of Toby looking good in a hat.

Custer doesn't smile much in the programme, but when he does, Toby looks great and it's a lovely moment.

After the battle, lost in some part due to bad luck: Custer and his men couldn't ford the river to take the hostages and partly due to Custer splitting his band into four sections and not having enough men to fight the Indians. And then when the message came to the remaining men to hurry to his aid, the commander, who was not Custer's greatest fan, instead of riding fast to back up his comrades, ambled along leisurely and arrived too late to save Custer and his section of men.

Thus Sitting Bull's premonition came true and the Indians won, but his warning that nothing be taken from the dead men was not adhered to and the subsequent action taken by the American government meant that despite the victory over Custer, he sadly ended his life in a reservation instead of open land.

In summary: I am not really a history buff, and I wasn't really aware of Custer, but the show was very informative and the actions scenes were suitably gory and despite the small scale, absorbing. The drama of the reconstruction was somewhat diluted by the interjections of the experts, Michael Donahue and Ron His Horse Is Thunder (fab name!), who is a descendent of Sitting Bull. And the narration was beautifully read by Michael Praed.

Note: I have now added tags to all my posts!

Toby Stephens In "Heroes of The Wild West"

2007-02-18T12:12:00.000-08:00

For all you Toby Fans, here are the scans of the listings magazines of Toby in full on Western mode. Enjoy!

First the RadioTimes article on the production, I love how Toby gets the biggest blurb on his character (as well he should!):

This is the listing for the show in the RadioTimes:

And this is Toby eloquently (and humourously) discussing the foibles of his horse:

And finally, this is what the TVTimes had to say about the show, though it is not clear if that is the same horse that had to be sedated:

Edited to make the pictures actually open in a new window (duh!)

Ruth Wilson Interview On BBC Breakfast

2007-02-12T13:09:00.000-08:00

Hope you enjoy this video of Ruth On BBC Breakfast this morning. I had to snip out the clips of the programme to make the video fit on YouTube!

A Picture of Toby.

2007-02-10T15:53:00.000-08:00

(Click it to make it bigger)

Not to leave Toby out of this recent Jane Eyre renaissance, I came across this photo of Toby and had to share it. It's one of a character in a play he did called "The Royal Family".

I love it! He looks totally scrummy.

It might be a while before I can post anything else, I have to pick myself off up the floor.

Make That Bonnet Work For You! Or Ruth Wilson's Guide to Surviving a Costume Drama

2007-02-10T15:21:00.000-08:00

To mark the DVD release of "Jane Eyre", Time Out asked Ruth to give her top tips for anyone suceeding her as Jane Eyre.

Here they are!

1. Don't do the typical posh thing with your voice. Wilson says that she did her first audition in received pronunciation and the second one in broad Yorkshire. After some debate, the team decided to go with a mixture. "I put a bit of Yorkshire in the vowel sound, which shows she's different from the rest."

2. Remember that once you enter the loo in your voluminous costume, you may not be able to turn around, so go in facing the right direction. "I was wearing layers and layers of petticoats and thermals underneath, so it wasn't very easy. Luckily I managed to go to the loo without needing assistance."

3. Don't overdo it at lunchtime. "If you've got a corset on, you have to remember not to eat too much, or it just won't go down. But if you don't eat enough, your stomach will start rumbling mid-afternoon, which is not funny when you're miked up."

(Not actual corset)

4. If you have to suffer for your art, make the most of it and use the constriction to inform your performance. "I had a corset that was moulded to my body and used to think of as a shell that was holding her in while all those emotions are bubbling away inside her."

5. Jane doesn't have many lines, so know the book backwards and understand the emotions, "I went through the script and cross-referenced it with the book, so I knew exactly what Jane's reaction was to everything, even if she wasn't saying anything."

6. Make that bonnet work for you! "We were very lucky because we had these nice open ones which are like a halo around your head - sometimes with period drama they're a bit like a tunnel around your face."

Sorry I couldn't scan the article in, but there was niece with a nose bleed and well things got a little messy! Don't worry she's fine now.

Jane Eyre DVD

2007-02-05T10:15:00.000-08:00

Yay and double YAY! I got my DVD of Jane Eyre today! Oh that rhymes, it wasn't meant to...

Here it is:

Sorry it's a bit blurry! And why am I getting so excited over a DVD?

Talk about a palaver when I was buying it. Being unorganised I didn't preorder and get it delivered, and seeing as I have a week off (that I categorically did not schedule to coincide with the DVD release, it's just a coincidence) I decided to buy it on the day.

Anyway, I ended up buying it from Sainsbury's because I wanted to use some Nectar points up. I don't recommend it. I go to the kiosk to get the DVD's put into the empty case and I get the case back. As I walk out, being incredibly hasty to get my first look at the discs I open up the case and am incredibly confused to see only one DVD in it. Yes, only one DVD that is marked as "Disc Two". Eh?

I go back to the little old lady in the kiosk and ask for both DVD's please. "But there's only one," she replies. I point out the fact that my DVD says Disc Two, so presumably there must be a Disc One to go with it musn't there? As further proof I show her the cover that says: "2 Disc Set". She then decides to shout "Kelly!" for some unknown reason, as Kelly resolutely refuses to appear. She goes back to her little tray and rummages around for a bit before returning and giving me my missing disc. I suspiciously check to make sure she hasn't actually given me two disc 2's or something like that, but I can happily report that I now have a full set of DVD's. As I leave the little old lady screeches "Kelly!" again at quite a loud volume and I scamper off with my DVD a happy bunny.

The special features are ok: a picture gallery, so I expect to see a lot of fan art soon. Audio commentaries on each episode, I haven't had a chance to listen to yet, but expect it to be quite informative. Only about 20 minutes of deleted scenes, I had a quick flick through them and they look quite promising. The only gripe I have is that they look like rushes with the editing timecodes beneath and they are a smallish picture, I would have preferred full screen with a menu at the start, as by the looks of it you can't choose which deleted scene you want to watch, you have to just watch them all. I will watch them all, but it would have been nice to have been able to choose which order to watch them in. The cast interviews look like extended interviews from the ones that were featured in "Reader, I Married Him" which were done by Daisy Goodwin.

There are also the trailers for the series, which makes me wonder, while bashing my head against a brick wall, why I bust a gut transferring them from the tellybox to my laptop, and then sat around for ages while they uploaded to YouTube. I will never do that again. Of course if the producers thought, hey people want to see the trailers because I uploaded them, then great, but I will never know.

These are my first impressions, I'll probably do a longer entry once I've watched all the extras.

And for all the people who were asking why the BBC hadn't released the DVD earlier, say at Christmas, I believe it's due to the fact that a few shops, HMV in particular, are promoting it as one of their range of "Romantic DVD's" in time for Valentine's Day. As a stone hearted cynical pragmatist, I say bleurgh. I'd have preferred it earlier rather than later, especially as the extras aren't that special.

The Thirteenth Tale

2007-01-02T10:26:00.000-08:00

I kept reading accounts of this book, very Bronte-esque was the most common adjective. Not suprising as the author Diane Setterfield bludgeons you over the head with "Jane Eyre" the book, all the way through the novel. The narrative, I feel, could have been immeasurably improved if one of the characters had in fact been bludgeoned over the head with it.

As my sour introduction may have alerted you, I did not like this book. Both the two principal characters Margaret Lea and Vida Winter, were unsympathetic, unrealistic and just plain dull. Margaret lives above and works in her father's bookshop. She is a shy and quiet woman, content to potter about the book shop, feed the crusts of her sandwiches to the ducks and read in her spare time; she also writes the small biographies of barely known personages and her drink of choice is cocoa. The publication of her small biographies brings her to the attention of famous Vida Winter, a reclusive author renowned for her many successful novels and is also infamous for never telling the truth about her life, now dying she decides that her life story must be told and chooses Margaret to write it for her.

Margaret is one half of a pair of twins, her sister having died shortly after her birth, she feels the loss of her sister keenly and pines for her. She becomes interested in Vida Winter's tale when her letter of introduction mentions that her story is about twins. So Margaret travels and stays with Vida in her gothic mansion of a house and writes down the story that Vida tells her...

The book is written well, but the characters were so unlikeable and unrealistic. At one point we are introduced to a hulking character, who it transpires bakes cakes for a living and is called Aurelius. Yes, quite. Margaret corresponds by letter(!), the period in which this book is set isn't stated, but if it is set in the present, surely Margaret would have used a computer at some time in her life. Also if the book is set in the present day, then the governess in Vida's childhood is about thirty years out of date and thirty years out of her time. Did governesses roam the world just after the turn of the century?

The constant reiteration of "Jane Eyre" in the novel was a mistake, intelligent readers could have figured that out by themselves and in any case, I felt that the tone of the book was far too heavy handed at the best of times. The book was well plotted and I suppose successful in that, I was just too annoyed at lazy characterisation of Margaret and Vida. Margaret is a plain mousy woman (remind you of any one?) and Vida appears to be a caricature of Barbara Cartland; as a Rochester figure, she is sorely lacking. There are no strong male figures in the book, apart from kindly John, the gardener in Vida's story.

When taken ill, Margaret is asked if she has read much Austen and Bronte, when she replies yes, the doctor tells her that she is afflicted with the same nervous malady that the women (in the novels) succumbed (which appears to have been being female) and she should read some Conan Doyle to restore her spirits. As Margaret has never read any Conan Doyle, she is hardly a worthy bibliophile is she. I have read both Austen and Bronte and I have never taken it into my head to lay in bed with the vapours. By the doctor's logic, I who have devoured many a story about Sherlock Holmes should now be either, a raving criminal hellbent on murdering my way around the South of England, or a cocaine injecting supersleuth. Or maybe I could be both, eh doctor?

The tone of the novel was strained to be gothic and suspenseful, some passages did have a real ring of muffled menace, but in my opinion, the book wasn't a patch on any Bronte novel and despite the author's undoubted love for Bronte, she has tried to write an homage and not entirely succeeded.

If you have read the book, please let me know what you thought of it, if you haven't read it, I haven't given away any major plot points so hopefully if you read it, you may enjoy it more than I did.

His Girl Friday

2006-12-11T15:50:00.000-08:00

I had a spare hour and a half (very unlike me, I must say) and decided to watch a movie, but what? I sit for a while and ponder my options, I still have Monsoon Wedding sitting on my shelf, what about my DVD of Kath and Kim? More Arrested Development (on which subject, more in the near future), but finally I decide on my copy of His Girl Friday, because Cary Grant, yes he IS a reason all of himself.

Billed as a screwball comedy, the film stars Cary Grant, as a machiavellian newspaper editor Walter Burns, in whose veins printers ink most probably runs and Rosalind Russell, as his star reporter Hilde Johnson, who is also his ex wife and is just about to marry Bruce, an insurance salesman from Albany.

Hilde comes to see Walter to let him know about her impending marriage to the stolid and reliable Bruce, but Walter seeing his star reporter about to become a wife and mother, starts to scheme and knowing Hilde's curiosity and sheer newspaper acumen, he sets her on the story of Earl Williams, a man on death row, convicted of killing a police officer; whose hanging is being used for political aims by the governor. I thought that the capital punishment storyline was a trifle heavy for a screwball comedy, but I feel that perhaps Howard Hawks had a satirical aim in mind and as it works out, Earl's plight counterpoints the lighter comedic touches and although Earl is a pitiful man, you never feel that he is the joke. The joke is the lengths that newspapers and newspaper men will go to get a story and then how the telling of that story changes upon how it is told.

Hilde is dispatched to the jail to get an interview with Earl Williams in an effort to sway the public opinion of him as a cop killer and get his reprieve. Hilde talks to Earl, realises that he probably is a few crumbs short of being the full cookie and starts to write her story in the press room, where all the other assorted newspaper men are assembled.

The camaraderie of the reporters is evident as they joke and insult one another, smoke incessantly and wait for the next big development, when they will each grab a phone and attempt to scoop the others. They wouldn't only stab their granny in the back for the best story, they would bludgeon her into a pulp and then take pictures! The idea that they are hard hearted son's of bitches is easily developed, but these guys, despite their gruff, hard boiled and tough exteriors, do have a heart, as you see in a superb scene, where Earl Williams sweetheart Molly Molloy arrives to give the assembled press a piece of her mind for sensationalising her innocent relationship with Earl.

When she leaves tearfully, after not a few insensitive jibes about Earl hanging in the morning ("They're fixin' up a pain in the neck for your boyfriend."), they sit and stand awkwardly, chagrined by Molly and her words. A shot with no mawkish music or cuts, just the long shot silence of six rather shamed men.

Suddenly the silence of the press room (where incidentally most of the movie takes place), is shattered by sirens and gunfire. The reporters rush to the window, where they find out that Earl Williams has escaped.

They rush from the room leaving Hilde alone, when Earl Williams far from having escaped from prison, climbs into the room and threatens her with gun, he discharges the bullets into the wall and the empty gun is taken from him. Hilde calls over Walter to take charge of Earl, in the meanwhile stashing him in a conveniently placed rolltop desk.

Hilde has since gotten a phone call, telling her that Bruce, her fiance, has been arrested for the third time this evening, for the heinous crime of "mashing". As this involves a nubile blonde, set on the stolid Bruce by the scheming Walter, I dread to think, what that is slang for.

Hilde is keen to get away, but has to keep anyone from discovering Earl in the desk, so she waits for Walter, who when he arrives, manipulates her into writing the story of Earl's "rescue" by his newspaper "The Morning Post".

As she does this, Bruce arrives, having bailed himself out of jail, and exhorts Hilde to come away with him on the train, well they are getting married tomorrow. Hilde ignores him in her enthusiasm to get her article finished, and Bruce slinks away to catch the train and leaves Hilde to carry on being a "newspaper man".

Meanwhile Earl's reprieve arrives with a rotund messenger, who we did meet earlier in the film, we knew Earl was going to be reprieved which left us able to laugh at the jokes.

Earl is discovered in the desk and taken back to prison, but not his death, the story is filed, by telephone and Hilde and Walter decide to marry again. But Walter still doesn't carry Hilde's case, the gentleman!

The film is chock full of funny lines and situations, my above precis does not do the film justice. The film belongs to Rosalind Russell, who would be a modern woman in any age. Feisty, go-getting, ambitious and intelligent, she's is everything that a woman ought to be in movie, she strikes a far more feminist note than many modern day film heroines. O.K she does have a brief hankering for a quieter life full of domesticity and babies, but Walter wears her down.

Cary Grant is his usual charming and gorgeous self and although Rosalind Russell gets the lions share of the movie, Grant pretty much steals the scenes that he's in. He gets many of the best lines, for example, when dispatching the girl to enable Bruce to be accused of mashing, he tells the blonde that he looks like the movie star, Ralph Bellamy. Bruce of course is played by the hunky Ralph Bellamy himself.

Ralph Bellamy does have a pretty thankless role, as all he has to do is be the cuckold to Grant's schemer, but he does his job well and you feel for the poor man, as Walter plans his downfall and Hilde's eventual return to him.

Walter also avers that he was the last one who spoke to Archie Leach before he slit is own throat. Archie Leach is of course, Grant's real name. A real belly laugh is evoked when Bruce shows $450 to Hilde (that was given to him by Walter and is counterfeit) and Walter grabs it, takes a good look and gives it back, saying that he only wanted to have a look, thank you very much.

A great film to watch, I'd recommend that you look it out, if you get the chance!

Been a while...

2006-12-11T12:48:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I posted, but I had to do some comment deletion, I don't want any Cheap Med$ thanks very much, well not since I moved away from the drug dealer career path, no really, I did deal in drugs...legally may I add. Let me qualify that statement with another, I used to work in a pharmaceutical wholesalers.

The pinnacle of my time at the drug warehouse was definitely the time I took receipt of some pills, counted them, invoiced them and then sent them straight back to the people we bought them from. With all our seller prices on them, oops.

Jane Eyre Actors Update

2006-11-22T12:54:00.000-08:00

Ooh, well it's been a while since I wrote anything, this is mainly because there has been no Jane Eyre and I have not been that enthusiastic about anything else.

I thought I might do a little post about what Ruth and Toby have been doing or are in the process of.

Ruth will be in a new Miss Marple mystery and the new Stephen Poliakoff drama, amusingly alongside Toby's mum, Dame Maggie Smith.

Toby, meanwhile, will as I mentioned before, be in a drama for the BBC about Custer, a sneak peek at his hairstyle in this earlier post. There was a video on YouTube, but alas the BBC have had it taken down!

Also (thanks to the anonymous commenter who told me this little fact: speak up mystery TobyFan!) Toby and his beautiful wife Anna-Louise are expecting a baby! It's going to be one gorgeous child! Congratulations Toby and Anna-Louise.

Jane Eyre Episode Four in 8 Minutes

2006-10-24T17:03:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a videotastic day today. Interesting to see that each successive video had gotten longer. I'm slightly glad now that there weren't more episodes! I hope you like the videos.

Jane Eyre Episode Three in 7 Minutes

2006-10-24T14:58:00.000-07:00

And now for your viewing pleasure: Episode three!

Enjoy!

Jane Eyre Episode Two in 6 and 1/2 Minutes

2006-10-24T12:21:00.000-07:00

Here's episode two!

Please enjoy.

Jane Eyre Episode One in 5 Minutes

2006-10-24T08:50:00.000-07:00

Had a day off of work and got a bit bored, which is suprising considering how many books I have in my "hurry up and finish me or I'll be overdue at the library" pile. Hope you like my abridged video, sorry if I left out your favourite part!

(Sorry the quality isn't the best, but I'm new to this video editting thing, and the fades between the scenes were necessary as I kept having wierd lurches in background music otherwise.)

Jane Eyre Episode 4

2006-10-19T12:15:00.000-07:00

I'm quite late with this post, again! But as you can see, I've gone screen cap crazy and I had a few problems getting them uploaded to blogger, why won't it let me in!! And I've been busy, sorry about that.

This has been the most looked forward to episode of any programme I've watched this year, the reasons being, the acting, the actors and the gorgeous cinamatography; some frames had real filmic qualities and the whole series had a gorgeous aesthetic, which highlighted the atmosphere and underpinned the drama extremely well.

We start with Jane asleep on a rock, penniless, alone and driven to drinking water from a rock pool. Ruth Wilson looks suitably bereft, disheveled and destitute.

The director, Susanna White, has made wonderful use of the moors, they mirror Jane's bleak, empty feeling, vast and seemingly unending. I like the artful smudges of dirt that they have used here, it puts me in mind of Oliver! I almost expect her to burst into song. Jane's hair is so messy here because she left her bonnet beside a rock pool in her haste to escape the creepy shepherd that was watching the strange wandering lady, who was drinking from a rock pool. (In my real life, I analyse water for a living; believe me, you don't want to drink untreated water, I know what's in it! I hope that was a stunt pool, specially created, or it is what explains Ruth Wilson's illness during the shoot.) Jane is rescued by St.John (SinJun as it is pronounced) and his two "excitable" sisters. I put the word in quotes, because it is what Alison Graham in the Radio Times described them as. And she got it spot on. They were lively and generous, somewhat prone to flights of fancy and slightly intrusive questions such as: "Are you having a bad memory?" Their detective work was limited to reading the labels on Jane's dress; investigative masterminds these two aint. But I think they were portrayed elegantly and sparely, letting us know enough about them, without clogging up the narrative too much. St. John Rivers, on the otherhand, is almost the opposite to his sisters, where they are lively and curious, he is dry and fastidious. I'd like to bring attention to the sterling work that Andrew Buchan did. He brought St. John to life and gave him the right amount of austerity and reserve, and without making him overly priggish and overbearing. This is a gentler man than in the novel, where he almost browbeats Jane into marrying him, here he is a man devoted to God and mindful of his position in society, so much so that he rebuffs Miss. Rosamund Oliver's friendly gestures.

I have a soft spot for St. John, when I'm reading the book, I always shout (in my head) "marry Rosamund Oliver, you idiot!" I liked St. John's " This talk is pleasant, you may continue for another quarter of an hour", and then he gets his watch out. Talk about clock watcher.

The differences between St. John and Rochester are apparent, while Rochester would have given way to his passions, St. John on the other hand hides and suppresses his feelings (passion?) for Rosamund. His ambition is to be a missionary and to do God's work, there is no room for feelings or passion. His clothing is naturally clergyman black, and his collar looks as if it is about to choke him. While walking on the Moors, Jane and the Rivers, meet Rosamund, who has been going out of her way to talk to and invite St. John to dinner. He, ever the insensitive idiot, refuses and she walks back dejected, wishing she hadn't put her best hat on. Her shoes also looked entirely unsuitable for a country walk.
St. John proposes that Jane become the School Mistress at the newly formed Girls school. He proudly shows Jane a muddy barn, with a box in it. At least Lowood had floorboards! I suppose this was so Jane can bring nature into the classroom, literally.

Jane accepts the offer, but in her characteristically forthright way, states "no beatings" and the freedom to set her own curriculum. St. John agrees and her salary is to be £ 30 a year, just the same as when she was Adele's governess.

I believe that Rochester still owes her £5 pounds, she never got the remainder of her wages after returning from Aunt Reed's funeral. Stingy git. The school comes with a black board, mud, a clock, a bell and an adorable little girl who cutely can't tell the time, but can ring a mean home time bell. From the state of her hair, she doesn't know how to comb her hair either.
Jane reminisces about her and Rochester's last meeting, which takes place, somewhat unwisely in her bedroom. Rochester, strokes and caresses and whispers huskily into her ears. Jane mutely allows him to do so (and is probably secretly enjoying it).
The touching I liked greatly, it wasn't strictly in keeping with book, but it had a sensual effect, which no doubt was the directors intention. The kissing on the other hand seemed to me to be a sop to the more romantic viewer who needs everything spelled out; it screamed "this scene is meant to be sexy and erotic!" I just felt a bit uncomfortable, I would have preferred a few caresseses and husky whispering, it would have been far more effective to have kept the kisses till the reconciliation scene, instead of shoe horning them in here.

I know quite a few viewers liked the kissing on the bed, maybe I will when I rewatch, but at the moment, it just seems too overt and explicit a scene to have before the end. I do think it diluted the chemistry between them and would have far rather preferred a pleading Rochester to a kissin' Rochester, well at this point anyway.

Here Rochester has just realised that his manly bulk pressed down on little Jane has caused her to stop breathing, so he hurriedly administers the kiss of life.

Having revived Jane, her promptly rolls off and looks over to make sure Jane is now breathing. Jane gasps a little for breath. This part of the scene was far more effective, Rochester tenderly holding Jane and whispering pleadings into her ear. If the entire scene had been done like this, I would have liked it better.

Rochester alludes to his Mediterranean villa and beseeches Jane to go away with him there, to live a platonic life together, with tea and bowls in the afternoon. Perhaps a chaste kiss on her birthday, which I suspect would last for 365 days of the year!
All these daydreams are far too much for Jane, who sobs like a child and does an ill conceived frog impression.
It seems to me that St. John is a far more punctilious boss than Rochester and has punctually paid Jane so that she can buy a new dress.
Rosamund Oliver comes to call on a horse and brings a few doves for the Dovecote. She asks if Jane is pleased with how she had set up the school and Jane says yes, instead of "Where are my floorboards?" St. John ignores Rosamund and she makes a petulant face and makes her servant walk all the way back up the moor.
A year on, Jane has now become rich on her inheritance and has shared it out amongst herself and the Rivers. St. John has proposed to Jane as he wants her to come to the Cape with him and Jane is not keen on this state of affairs and is sitting by a babbling brook cogitating her options and hears an almost sepulchral "Jane, Jane!" She immediately decides to run back to Thornfield to see Rochester.

I want to make a note about the change in St. John's destination from India to Africa. It seems like a bizarre change to make, what language therefore is St.John asking Jane to learn, Swahili?

She rushes back to Thornfield and is dismayed to find that Thornfield is now a burnt out wreck.

Jane sits in a field, taking comfort in the company of a few raggedy looking sheep and a kindly passing shepherd (who looks suspiciously like the one up on the moors) who tells her that Thornfield was burnt to the ground.

A figure wanders the corridors of Thornfield with a candle, and then decides to set Jane's old wedding dress on fire, possibly because the candle isn't giving out enough light and decides to drag it around the house like a pet dog, but obviously more aflame.
The arsonist turns out to be Bertha! Quelle Surprise! She dances on the roof of Thornfield in the flames and appears to be very happy until Rochester arrives to take her down.

Claudia Coulter did the best job she could with the little she had. Her Bertha was mad, but not mad enough for me, she seemed far too petulant and magnificently well coiffed to be truly insane. I want drooling and crazy hair, but we got a restrained and downbeat performance, which is the adapters fault, not the actresses'. The mystery of the North Tower was elegantly introduced in the first two episodes, but the fact remains that despite the wildcat flailings of Bertha at Jane in the third episode, the reveal of the mad woman in the attic just wasn't as dramatic or kinetic enough to truly convince us of Bertha's insanity. She seems more of a piteous creature shut up alone in the North Tower, who can blame her for escaping at night ?(the mechanism for which is never explained: Grace Poole's gin habit isn't revealed).

The theme of sexual jealousy was not overplayed by the script or the director, but it was evident, and in this adaptation at least it was appropriate. To have such an exotic and attractive Bertha, who was directly in contrast to plain Jane, was a brave move and one which ought to have been developed further; Jane and Bertha (despite her madness) could not help to be jealous of one another.

Rochester entreats Bertha to follow him down and take his hand, she sees an owl fly off the building and in a bid to escape the flames and the prison that Rochester has created for her, she longs to do the same. She, like Jane is a bird who wants to fly away, but when she flings herself into the air, she falls to her death. Rochester seems somewhat weary in this scene, his entreaties don't sound entirely sincere, if he wanted to stop Bertha, he could have grabbed her and physically taken her downstairs, I don't think he ever believed that Bertha would jump and thought that his request would be acceded to.

On a more shallow note, Toby Stephens in an open shirt with sooty smudges, mmm, nice! Heavens Bertha, go with him!
Thornfield burns merrily away, I'm not surprised that during filming neighbours of Haddon Hall, where Jane Eyre was filmed, were alarmed by the flames, it looks positively ablaze. I was disappointed that there wasn't a Rochester dodging flaming beams scene, it would have explained his burns and poorly arm.

Jane rushes to Ferndean, through a portentous wood and spies on Rochester walking out into his garden, when he looks over to her, her smile is wide, but it quickly fades as she realises that Rochester can't see her. Jane in this scene has another new dress, that St. John, he really does pay his wages on time.

In the book, this scene takes place in the rain, but I suppose due to budgetary reasons this was changed. I however would have liked that to have remained in place, the rain makes Rochester look more vulnerable.

Rochester sits in his chair growling like a bear and demanding candles, Jane enters the room and Pilot recognising her starts to bark. Jane helps Rochester to drink, and he starts to realise that the servant probably isn't George as Jane gently mops his lips.

This is my favourite scene of the series bar none, the strength of Rochester's emotion is gasp inducing, Toby Stephens acting is superlative. From the moment he grabs Jane's arm when she speaks, his anguish and pain are written on his face. The way his voice breaks as he asks Jane: "You are real?" portrays completely all the emotion and vulnerability the character possesses. During this series, the strongest scenes have always been those in which Jane and Rochester interact, with both actors giving their all, in this scene, Toby gives his all and then reaches down into his tight britches and finds some more, all Ruth can do is react, which needless to say she does marvellously.
The scene is made all the more difficult with Toby having to play blind as well, which is done sensitively and thankfully done without the eyerolling that some actors have to employ to show their blindness. As with the last episode, the small flickers of emotion that flit across his face amply display Rochester inner turmoil and sheer relief and joy at having Jane back with him again, the way he clasps her, he does not even mean to let her go. I think I can proudly state that I didn't see a single sneer from Toby Stephens during the series, which just goes to show he can control his sneer and that he can play sympathetic and compassionate fellows just as well as villains, better in fact.
(I wish Rochester had said:"What sweet madness is this?" How's Thursday Next going to get home now?! )

Jane positions herself on Rochster's knee and proceeds to fill him in on her year away. Rochester hasn't lost his hand and the small burn on his left hand side has been derided by some to be not bad enough. I think the burn is ample, it's enough to make him unsuitable for a society bride, Blanche Ingram would not countenance such a defect, but it cleaves Jane to him further. I can live without the amputated hand, as it appears that Rochester doesn't get his sight back at the end, he might as well as have two hands to hold his babies.

The scene with Jane and Rochester sitting by the fire, is a tender one, Jane tries to make Rochester's shaggy mane of hair more agreeable by passing a comb over it, not particularly well (she'll never make a hairdresser), but the thought was there. I like this new tactile Jane, it underlines the strength of her affection for Rochester, so strong that she can barely stop herself touching him. Her wide smile as Jane leaves Rochester for the night, is a mixture of joy at returning and finding her love reciprocated and mischievous, she going to bed and leaving Rochester to wonder if she will return in the morning.

Obviously she does return in the morning and she and Rochester sit by the river while she cruelly describes the wildlife flitting around them, go on Jane rub in the fact you're not blind! Just joking, it is no doubt an allusion to Jane and Rochester's talent of talking all the time with is described in the book.

Rochester's burn and blind eye look realistic, the eye doesn't look fake blind and I'm glad they didn't do a Timothy Dalton and glue it closed.

Rochester tells Jane he wants a wife to share his bed all night and all day too if possible! I thought that was a wonderful line, despite his weakness and vulnerability now, he is still a snarky fellow and his intellect and humour had not been damaged, which is probably what Jane fell in love with, after all Rochester is not a handsome chap, despite all the evidence to the contrary.

Rochester's angst levels are still quite high, he knows that he's not a whole man anymore and doesn't know if Jane can love him now he's broken.

Jane teases him with details of her stay with the Rivers and Rochester is jealous of St. John. He tells Jane that they could not be platonic, as he had once suggested they live as brother and sister, Jane agrees and says that Edward is all hers and kisses him. In a mirror of the bedroom scene, Jane pushes Rochester down and lies on top of him, thus cementing her new position as the mistress and Rochester the servant. Despite her slight frame, Rochester appears to be labouring for breath, so Jane obligingly starts the kiss of life routine.

Rochester ever the gentleman, runs his hand down her body to rest on her bum (I didn't learn this in the first aid course) and as Jane makes no protest at this, I'm sure she doesn't mind.

Ah, now they're knocking their boots together. Make your own assumptions. I like this image though, it shows us how much Edward and Jane are entwined and it's not something you would necessarily see at the end of a costume drama. At least it's not a kiss outside a church door.
The family gathers for portraitit and Jane has a new dress, and looks resplendent with her curls. Rochester calls for his baby and Jane gets an unhappy child perched on her knee.
This last shot has got some pretty negative responses from many people, that they feel that it was too twee and schmaltzy to have everyone gather as if for a photograph. I liked it. You don't see this in a period drama and what it is showing is Jane's happy ever after. From an orphaned and abused young girl, she is now mistress of her own home and her husbands heart, with all her family around her, and not forgetting St. John peering out at us from the frame in his African paradise garden (or so it seems).

This is the first Jane Eyre adaptation I've ever seen, it was not perfect, the last episode flagged for not having a large amount of Jane/Rochester interaction, but on the whole, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Ruth Wilson was absolutely superb as Jane and so was Toby Stephens as Rochester, in my humble opinion they should both get awards for their performances, unfortunately it looks like very strong opposition this year, and romantic costume drama protagonists tend to get overlooked in lieu of actors playing straight dramatic roles. If they don't at least get nominated something is definitely wrong with the world!

Just before I end, I want to say thanks to everyone who's commented and read the blog, I hope you all enjoyed it. I will probably keep tabs on what Toby and Ruth continue to do and I might put a few reviews I've found on the blog. When the DVD comes out if it's full of extras I may not be able to stop myself from effusing enthusiastically!

First Impressions of Jane Eyre Episode 4

2006-10-15T17:08:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post to get my first impressions down, I will rewatch and do a larger post soon as there is lots I want to say.

Jane looked thoroughly bedraggled wandering the moors, and you felt for her, because she cut such a forlorn and sad figure. I liked the inclusion of Jane reading the Lord's Prayer while lying down as she awaited her fate, the religious theme was hardly touched upon, but it is the bedrock of Jane's moral character and I liked the allusion to it here.

We meet St. John and his sisters, who take great care of Jane and nurse her back to health, she takes a job as a school mistress and despite her distance from Rochester, she finds herself thinking of him: his pleas for her to go and live with him in that "white washed villa" he talks of so much, are in her mind. The problem I had with that scene was the lying on top of poor Jane, get off, she's only small.

This episode wasn't the finest one, the second was, but it did have the best scene in the entire series: the reconciliation scene, which coincidentally was Toby Stephens best scene, all Ruth could do was react and if you didn't feel a little of his anguish at getting his Jane back, you have a heart of stone.

As it's getting late now, I'll stop, but I will do a longer post at some point.

Jane Eyre Final Episode Sting

2006-10-15T04:39:00.000-07:00

This is the only trail that the BBC (to my knowledge) have been showing. It's very short, I've uploaded it just for the sake of completion really, a trail per episode!

Now it's not long to go till the final (blub) episode...

What Toby did next...

2006-10-13T11:37:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of Toby Stephens as General Custer in a new production by the BBC, yet to be broadcast.

What a lovely moustache, though it's not as verdant as the one he has in "The Rising".

I don't know what to say about the hair, I really don't. I'm not digging it.

It's nice to see he has taken some sartorial advice from Jane, and fastened a lovely red scarf around his neck, although he's gone one further and made it flouncy. Though I do wonder at the practicality of wearing a red scarf and going into battle!

Jane Eyre Episode 3

2006-10-12T12:49:00.000-07:00

Ah, well, better late than never for this review.

We start with Jane at her Aunts house and her trepidation at entering that house is palpable: Jane did not have a happy life there and as the camera whizzes dizzying through the hall and up the stairs, we feel disconcerted and and slightly nauseous, just as Jane must be feeling, she enters and those memories come flooding back, but this Jane is steely and she gathers herself and goes to visit her dying Aunt just as she was bid.

Eliza and Georgiana make an appearance too, seemingly too absorbed in their own lives to notice that their mother is exiting hers upstairs. Eliza's outburst towards Georgiana's laziness, was refreshing and unusual, it's the kind of detail that writers and directors cut out, as it neither advances nor is vital to the plot. I'm in two minds as to whether I liked that scene, in one way I enjoyed it's inclusion, but it seemed superfluous and more like filler. Somewhat ungenerously I felt that Eliza, no doubt due only to her severe hairstyle, looked like a man in a dress. Georgiana, despite her sisters aversion that she was fat, was assuredly not, but a word of advice love, lose the pouffy sleeves: they make you look quite wide and you could get a galia melon up each sleeve.
Meanwhile, back at Thornfield, Rochester amuses himself by blowing smoke at Blanche Ingram, whose shoulders are seemingly smeared with some kind of grease as each subsequent dress she wears, slides lower and lower down her body: cover up dear, you'll catch your death.

I have to say, I like this shot of Toby, the glow from the fire and the smoke makes him look saturnine. (Or perhaps it's more like, "look I can conjure up mini clouds at will!")

Aunt Reed exits perfunctorily from Costume dramacitus, but before that she gives Jane a letter from her Uncle John Eyre, who lives in exotic Madeira, home of wine and cake. What more could a girl want?
Jane returns to Thornfield and finds Rochester waiting for her, with his thighs tightly attired in anticipation. He gets so excited that he flings his telescope down and runs over like a puppy dog. It's quite a touching scene, Jane's delight at being home is evident and so is Rochester's at having Jane close to him again.
Jane's return is timed well, the guests are just leaving, Rochester says a hearty farewell to "the visionary John Eshton", and a cooler one to Lady Ingram and Blanche. It's heartening to see that despite toying with Blanche and leading her on and mocking her, he makes up for it by gifting her his red riding jacket. Well after all, it makes him look like Rupert the Bear.The whole of the proposal scene was skillfully shot, and acted, notably with Ruth giving her snotty best. It was however interesting to note that despite not accepting Rochester's hanky, Jane's snot entirely disappears, just before kissing the man himself.

The giddy pleasure that Jane and Rochester exhibit running through the fields towards Thornfield, is marred only by the frankly fake storm and worst cgi lightening strike in the world. I have to admit that Ruth and Toby both mime running in the rain well.

The following morning, Jane speaks with a disapproving Mrs. Fairfax and spends some time entwined with Rochester on his sofa, he then states he's taking Jane shopping, which causes some consternation, but Jane with her usual stoicism accepts it, but not he gaudy dolllike carriage. The funniest part in the whole episode was Rochester's accompanying smirk to "We're going to Town". And as he stalked out to the carriage, he barks: "You're not coming!" to the occupants of the carriage. At first, you are not sure to which of the two occupants he's talking to, Adele or Pilot! Adele eventually inveigles her way into the shopping expedition and they set off in the black carriage. Rochester pesters Jane and then tells Adele how he will festoon Jane with jewels and present her to the Kings and Queens of Europe. Before the Wedding, one night Jane is disturbed by a nightmare and wakes to find her veil torn to shreds and a mysterious figure holding a candle in her face. The morning of the wedding arrives and Jane looks lovely in her dress, Rochester looks pretty good in his wedding suit too.

As always the wedding is disturbed and the truth of Rochester's past is revealed. I did however always believe that there ought to be two witnesses at a wedding, here there is just the one oldish guy, looking faintly puzzled and the vicar.
This screencap captures Rochester's dejection and anger and sadness all in one. Despite not being able to see three quarters of his face, Toby Stephens manages to imply this inner turmoil with a few subtle facial movements. Toby's acting in this episode has been magnificent, in several scenes, the briefest flickers of emotion flit across his face: you get disgust, anger, regret and sadness in a matter of seconds. The strength of his emotion (when he was talking about the West Indies to Adele and Jane in the garden) made me gasp. I think occasionally his performance has been overlooked and slightly overshadowed by Ruth Wilson's (who is truly fantastic), but in this episode he has surpassed himself and I can't say it enough: he's a great actor.
Jane and indeed the entire wedding delegation is summoned to the hall to meet Rochester's wife. After we ascend the North Tower, the woman we are presented with is pretty and well groomed, not so mad as to not condition and style her hair in the morning, eh?
Rochester tells us how he was tricked into marriage and how he found out only after he was married that Bertha was not the full shilling. My problem with this is that we don't see the full extent of Bertha's madness, due to a scene that I doubt will make it into the teatime repeat on Sunday afternoon, we find out about Bertha's libidinous nature, however, her madness seems to be limited to a few noisy tantrums, so you get the impression that she was just a slightly randy screamy sort of person.

One thing I have missed from this production is Bertha's mad laugh. She's a curiously mute madwoman in the attic.

I like that in the flashbacks Rochester has longer hair. It suits his younger self I think, it does however make him look a little bit like a King Charles Spaniel.

Rochester confesses his whole history to an overwhelmed Jane, again Toby's acting in this scene is superb. His self loathing and self pity is evident. I also thought I saw guilt in there too, guilt at nearly making Jane a false wife, guilt at his treatment of Bertha and guilt at surviving his father and brother to become the heir of Thornfield.
Jane flees to her room and slowly undresses, she puts her sober grey dress back on and tucks away a playful, bridelike tendril of hair that remains. Her numbness is palpable, she's shocked and saddened and all her girlish dreams have been shattered. She ignores Rochester's pleas from the other side of her door and lays down silently on her bed.
And there ends the episode. I want at least two more episodes, how on earth are they going to fit the end of the book into that short hour remaining?

A Sheepish Confession...

2006-10-09T16:37:00.000-07:00

Browsing this afternoon, I found this article in the Telegraph, and well, it contained this wee snippet:

Penny, from Reading, was otherwise preoccupied, fretting that Mr R's breeches were so tight they might affect his sperm count, and mused if perhaps they were sewn on afresh, every morning?

Eek, that was me! In my defence, they were unnaturally tight trousers and they were continuously flaunted at the viewer at pretty much every occasion. See:

He's trying to beguile Jane with his shapely thighs! Frankly, they slightly scared me.

Not thinking that the BBC would ever publish my scurrilous review, I put it on my blog.

Ruth Wilson in Hello Magazine

2006-10-09T15:56:00.000-07:00

Here is the lovely Ruth Wilson talking about Jane Eyre in Hello! Magazine:

Slightly more Celine than Jane in that second pic, but wow, is she pretty.

Toby Stephens in Hello Magazine

2006-10-06T11:16:00.000-07:00

Here are the scans, finally! Sorry they are a little skew-whiff.

Jane Eyre 2006 Set Visit

2006-10-04T12:46:00.000-07:00

In "Reader, I Married Him", Daisy Goodwin visited the set of "Jane Eyre 2006" to speak to Sandy Welch and Ruth Wilson.

There is a quite a nice interview with Ruth, who plays Jane, but again, like the interview with Toby, it's far too brief.

As you can see the set looks gorgeous:

As is Toby Stephens smile, is that make up lady tickling him or something?

Here is Jane, logging on to the web, with her 19th Century laptop, made from the finest mahogany. Who knew they had wifi in those days...

If you want to make screencaps of your own, please see this link. Enjoy.

Jane Eyre 2006 Trail 3

2006-10-04T08:26:00.000-07:00

This is the BBC trailer for episode 3 of Jane Eyre.

Enjoy!

Jane Eyre Episode 2

2006-10-03T15:41:00.000-07:00

The second episode was superb, the performances from Ruth Wilson and Toby Stephens have been allowed to deepen and facets of their character hitherto unknown have come to the surface. Jane has shown herself to be loyal and steady, but witness her uncharacteristic girlish delight at Rochester's hand shake and we see the first signs of love.

Rochester, previously brusque and abrupt, begins to evince weariness at some unknown hard ship; his manipulative and callous nature is displayed by his treatment of Blanche Ingram; whose perfect blonde ringlets and supercilious air portray her shallowness and perhaps mercenary intentions.

Francesca Annis, imbued Lady Ingram with the correct tone of haughty imperiousness and in her gorgeous frock contrasted with Jane in her austere grey dress, which underlined the class difference between them, as well as between Jane and Rochester.

The bed on fire scene which fairly crackled with unspoken desire, began poorly as it was sorely lacking in Rochester "fulminating strange anathemas", he just hopped out of bed with a "oh no, not again" kind of air. The loss of some of Rochester's snarky dialogue ("Is there a flood?") is sorely missed.

The sight of Jane and Adele peeking through cracks in the door andbanistersisters at the decadent house party was well done, highlighting Jane's isolation and fact that she is very different from these exotic, richly attired Ladies and Gentlemen, though when she is ordered by Rochester to attend, she does so stoically and discreetly.

Her gradual emergence from behind the curtains and out of the shadows shows her growing confidence and mirrors her growing affection for Rochester.

The direction in this episode was great, from the tracking shot of the hustle and bustle of the house preparing for the guests to the magnificent framing of Blanche in the window of Adele's puppet theatre. This portrays Rochester's manipulative character, at present he is the puppet master, making Jane and Blanche move to his will, needless to say this is not one of Rochester's attractive traits.

The trick with the gypsy telling false fortunes was changed so that Rochester listened to the conversations behind a curtain, I was slightly disappointed that Rochester didn't drag up, but the scene actually felt more in keeping with the tone of the series, it would probably have been too camp if Toby Stephens had dressed up! Though, I would have loved to have seen that!

Instead of charades, a game I've never liked, a ouija board was constructed and again the object of Rochester's game was Blanche, who he called "heartless", the scene amply served to demonstrate his callous streak and somewhat heartless behaviour.

The best scenes are nearly always those between Jane and Rochester, the actors are so skilful at creating chemistry that whether, the scene is one of urgency; Rochester leading Jane up the North Tower or the flirty, bantering discussion of Jane's wages; they command the screen and make you feel empathy for the protagonists.

The distressing sight of Rochester as Rupert the Bear evinced much laughter from this viewer, please don't do it again, I missed a fair portion of the following ten minutes as I held my poor, aching sides!

The episode ends with Jane leaving Thornfield to return to see her dying Aunt Reed, and as framed by the window in the North Tower, by an unseen presence, we see their Jane and Rochester's paths diverging, and we sincerely hope that Rochester does not regret giving Jane ten whole pounds and that she returns quickly to Thornfield.

Some pictures that didn't fit the post below

2006-10-01T12:06:00.000-07:00

I made a few more screen caps from Reader, I Married Him and I've decided to put them in this post for anyone that would like to see them, nothing too interesting I'm afraid.

A few of Toby...

I like his hand in this one...
A few of Jane...

And last but not least St. John...

St.John looking disapproving...
And a final one of Jane Eyre 1983...

Reader, I Married Him...

2006-10-01T11:57:00.000-07:00

BBC4 is currently showing a short series of documentaries about "romantic fiction", the first episode dealt mainly with the authors and rise of romantic fiction via Mills and Boon and also looked at the current state of romantic fiction, chick lit, etc.

This week the topic of the programme was "Heroes" and in this context, I think the general consensus was darker, the broodier and meaner the better. Daisy Godwin, the host concentrated on four romantic heroes: Darcy, Rochester, Heathcliff and (her favourite) Rhett Butler.

The documentary had a lot of talking heads, telling us what their specific favourite was and why. But the best fun was definitely the e-fit of four perfect Mr. Darcy's. Daisy and a few other Darcyites went to a police station (where else to find a romantic hero!) and with the help of a taciturn (and probably slightly confused) old Policeman got down to creating the picture of their perfect Mr. Darcy.

Darcy one (left) looks incredibly grumpy and appears to have bloodshot eyes. The poor lamb does look like he's been crying.

Darcy two, the one with the anaemic sideburns also looks mournful, a look compounded, I think, by his unsymmetrical eyebrows

Darcy three (below) looks, as Daisy commented, like the Grecian 2000 man. I can't help suspecting, alas, that he's wearing a wig!

Darcy four, is Daisy's perfect Darcy and as Darcy's go, looks pretty modern, but I never would have cast him as a redhead.

The ladies all came to the general conclusion, that despite their best efforts, the best Darcy was Colin Firth. Who even, I have to admit, is tenaciously and resolutely connected to Darcy now, it's hard to envision anyone else as Darcy; poor Matthew McFadyen didn't even get a mention.

Daisy then moved on to Charlotte Bronte and "Jane Eyre", not to mention Mr. Rochester.
After a quick visit to Haworth and the parsonage where she saw Charlotte's study (below)

Daisy went to the set of Jane Eyre 2006 and met Toby Stephens, who is playing Mr. Rochester in Jane Eyre 2006 and asked him about his character.

Toby said that his first impression of Rochester was that he was this taciturn and moody, brooding fellow, but once he had re-read the novel, he came to the conclusion that Rochester was a garrulous fellow, in his own words: "He never shuts up!" He also concluded that he found Rochester quite theatrical.

Unfortunately the interview was very brief, and not much else was discussed which was a shame, I wonder if it was always to be such a brief interview, or if the need for Toby to return to the set was too pressing. Whatever the reason for the brevity of the interview, I for one would have loved to have heard more from Toby, for him to explain in more detail what he understood about Rochester's character and what he thought of "Jane Eyre" as a novel from a male perspective.

Having seen the first episode, I thought Toby's eyes were darker in it, however in this picture, they seem far lighter and greener. Not a criticism, just a brief aside. Perhaps Toby's been made to wear darker contacts for the role.

Now for a blog exclusive: the documentary had a brief clip from a future episode of "Jane Eyre" between Jane and St. John Rivers:
Jane is being quizzed by St. John about Rochester and he tells her he knows that Rochester proposed marriage while he first wife was still living and that his fiance then ran away.

Unfortunately the brief clip was drowned out by Daisy telling us the story so far, so the clip is mainly Jane looking upset and St. John looking slightly smug.

St. John says that Rochester must have been either a bigger man, or a bitter man, my recording was not entirely without blips, so I can't quite make it out. Jane's reply is "you didn't know him".

The rest of the programme was given over to a disection of Heathcliff's character (puppy strangler) and Daisy's favourite hero, Rhett Butler. Daisy goes to Atlanta, dresses up as Scarlett O' Hara and goes on the pull, I mean she tries to find a Rhett Butler of her own. After a false start with guy who looks entirely comfortable with computers, she finds this guy; a man who looks like he would be entirely comfortable in the company of hogs.

I am not being generous here, he seemed like a very nice fellow, with a deep and sonorous voice, and even if he is not the most, ahem, photogenic man in the world, he at least got Daisy somewhat flustered and hit her Rhett Butler shaped target.

Next week, Daisy is going to be looking at romantic heroines.