I've made a few mentions of the Mapp and Lucia novels, social comedies from rural Britain by E.F. Benson published between 1920 and 1939. I finally finished reading the last one, so I took a peep at the 1985 tv show.
It's based on the last three books, published 1931-1939, and stars Geraldine McEwan and Prunella Scales (mother of Samuel West, whom we have long been fans of in this house, back to Hornblower (1999) -![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
waxjism only, but I remember when she was in the fandom. She had moved on by the time I moved here, and hasn't rewatched the dvds since - and Cambridge Spies (2003), through to Poirot, where he is one of my favorite parts of the tour-de-force David Suchet Murder on the Orient Express, and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell).
Anyway! Although the books take place in the 30s, the costumes of series 1 place it in the mid-1920s, which I think was a good move because they're absolutely stunning. I may have to try to get a DVD of it, just to get higher quality images, though I can't imagine finding DVDs that old from the UK will be easy. This is also right in my lifelong fannishly beloved period of history - 1920s-1930s that is -, and unlike a lot of latter-day productions set in the period, is of quite high historical quality (because the books were actually written at the time) and beautifully produced. I won't say there are no hair and makeup errors at all, and those areas generally are the worst offenders in costume productions; but they aren't nearly as bad in 1985 as they usually are nowadays. In fact, overall the hair and makeup is pretty stunningly good, comparable to the 1990s episodes of Poirot with David Suchet - and not nearly as glaringly 80s as some of the glaringly 90s moments in feminine hair and makeup in early Poirot.
Geraldine McEwan is a delight, as usual. I have seen Prunella Scales before in a few episodes of Midsomer Murders, the Beckinsale Emma, and the few eps of Fawlty Towers I watched before I gave up on it, but I've never really got to see her spread her wings like this before, and she is mesmerisingly and hilariously and chillingly evil! In that petty evil boss/ most evil fake-nice lady at church sort of way. I was dubious about Nigel Hawthorne when I glanced over the cast list, but after two and a half episodes I'm liking him a lot. I think they're all doing very good and very legitimate interpretations that nonetheless aren't what I was picturing as I read, and Georgie is perhaps the furthest from my imagining; but it's a bit like watching an Austen adaptation, I suppose. Not that E.F. Benson is on a level of genius with Austen, but there is a similarity. Sort of somewhere between Austen and P.G. Wodehouse - not as serious as the one, not as steadily and unrelentingly hilarious as the other.
Luckily for me, nobody cares about limited British channel 4 series from 1985, so even though you can't see them streaming anywhere and you can't get BBC iplayer or any of those British show things in Finland, even if you use a VPN to alter your location, you can still see them on YouTube. Just, you know, not in the greatest picture quality. Pinning hopes on the DVDs there.
It's based on the last three books, published 1931-1939, and stars Geraldine McEwan and Prunella Scales (mother of Samuel West, whom we have long been fans of in this house, back to Hornblower (1999) -
waxjism only, but I remember when she was in the fandom. She had moved on by the time I moved here, and hasn't rewatched the dvds since - and Cambridge Spies (2003), through to Poirot, where he is one of my favorite parts of the tour-de-force David Suchet Murder on the Orient Express, and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell). Anyway! Although the books take place in the 30s, the costumes of series 1 place it in the mid-1920s, which I think was a good move because they're absolutely stunning. I may have to try to get a DVD of it, just to get higher quality images, though I can't imagine finding DVDs that old from the UK will be easy. This is also right in my lifelong fannishly beloved period of history - 1920s-1930s that is -, and unlike a lot of latter-day productions set in the period, is of quite high historical quality (because the books were actually written at the time) and beautifully produced. I won't say there are no hair and makeup errors at all, and those areas generally are the worst offenders in costume productions; but they aren't nearly as bad in 1985 as they usually are nowadays. In fact, overall the hair and makeup is pretty stunningly good, comparable to the 1990s episodes of Poirot with David Suchet - and not nearly as glaringly 80s as some of the glaringly 90s moments in feminine hair and makeup in early Poirot.
Geraldine McEwan is a delight, as usual. I have seen Prunella Scales before in a few episodes of Midsomer Murders, the Beckinsale Emma, and the few eps of Fawlty Towers I watched before I gave up on it, but I've never really got to see her spread her wings like this before, and she is mesmerisingly and hilariously and chillingly evil! In that petty evil boss/ most evil fake-nice lady at church sort of way. I was dubious about Nigel Hawthorne when I glanced over the cast list, but after two and a half episodes I'm liking him a lot. I think they're all doing very good and very legitimate interpretations that nonetheless aren't what I was picturing as I read, and Georgie is perhaps the furthest from my imagining; but it's a bit like watching an Austen adaptation, I suppose. Not that E.F. Benson is on a level of genius with Austen, but there is a similarity. Sort of somewhere between Austen and P.G. Wodehouse - not as serious as the one, not as steadily and unrelentingly hilarious as the other.
Luckily for me, nobody cares about limited British channel 4 series from 1985, so even though you can't see them streaming anywhere and you can't get BBC iplayer or any of those British show things in Finland, even if you use a VPN to alter your location, you can still see them on YouTube. Just, you know, not in the greatest picture quality. Pinning hopes on the DVDs there.
