Product Description
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Elizabeth kell Collection, The (DVD)
Three BBC miniseries adapted from Mary kells classic novels.
Cranford, a market town in the North West of England, is a place
governed by etiquette, custom and above all, an intricate network
of ladies. It seems that life has always been conducted according
to their social rules, but Cranford is on the cusp of change…
North & South follows Margaret Hale, the daughter of a
middle-class parson who uproots the family from rural southern
England to start a new life in Milton - a northern mill town in
the throes of the industrial revolution. Wives and Daughters is
set in a richly portrayed society well-stocked with eccentric
nobles and gossipy villagers. The well-ordered world of
17-year-old Molly Gibson becomes complicated when her her, a
respected country doctor, remarries after many years of
widowhood.
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Cranford
Adapted from Elizabeth kell's novels, the five-episode
miniseries Cranford focuses on female characters in the
19th-century British town to thematically contemplate encroaching
modernity in rural England. With the camera roving house to
house, each drama within the grander story is constructed of
scenes featuring dialogue between several gossipy ladies obsessed
with moral code, romantic ideas about courtship, and social
occasions. Three main characters, the ever-appropriate Deborah
Jenkyns (Eileen Atkins), her sweet sister, Matilda (Judi Dench),
and their younger, more savvy relative, Miss Smith (Lisa Dillon),
continuously weigh in on situations, providing a dependable view
when other ladies, like the nosey Miss Pole (Imelda Staunton) are
too judgmental. In fine period dress, the women of Cranford
remind the viewer of how little action was needed in their
small-town lives to provide unceasing entertainment. The
series'most intriguing aspect lies not in the ample female
conversation but rather in its display of earlier technologies
and ways of life. Part One, for example, quickly launches a main
narrative thread that runs throughout the series, namely the
arrival and assimilation of London doctor, Frank Harrison (Simon
Woods), into village society. Dr. Harrison's medical practices,
such as his refusal to amputate a man's arm because it's broken,
are all the more radical because they are so fundamental by
today's standards. In subsequent episodes, he recommends Miss
Smith get spectacles to cure her headaches, and saves his love's
life by cooling her fever after conservative doctor, Dr. Morgan
(John Bowe), recommends the old school practice of burying her in
blankets in front of a raging fire. In Part Two, Lady Ludlow
(Francesca Annis) throws a garden party at her estate, treating
all the women in their fancy hats to a new novelty: ice cream.
This scene foreshadows Ludlow's future concern at a railroad plan
involving her land that would connect Cranford to Manchester,
symbolizing the ruin of this idyllic setting.
In fact, fluffy and clever as some scenes are, death and rebirth
assert themselves in each showing, both physically and
idealistically. Part Four shows an auctioning off of a deceased
man's antiques, and focuses on issues of class and women's
education, as Mr. Carter teaches a peasant boy to read while his
assistant fumes at her trappings as a seamstress. Part Five
ushers in a new period of medical emergencies, securing Dr.
Harrison's shaky position in town. In total, Cranford offers a
powerful, if sentimental, look at how death begets life, love,
and passion. --Trinie Dalton
North & South
North & South is a splendid, four-hour adaptation of Elizabeth
kell's 19th century novel about an unlikely, and somewhat
star-crossed, love between a middle-class young woman from
England's cultivated south and an intemperate if misunderstood
industrialist in a hardscrabble, northern city. Daniela
Denby-Ashe plays Margaret Hale, forthright and strong-willed
daughter of a former vicar (Tim Pigott-Smith) who relocates his
family from a pastoral village outside London to unforgiving,
largely illiterate Milton, a factory town where John Thornton
(Richard Armitage) and his mother (Sinead Cusack), survivors of
poverty, rule their cotton mill with an iron hand. Thornton
befriends Margaret's her but incurs her wrath for his severity
with his workers. What she doesn't notice is Thornton's core
sense of responsibility for his employees' welfare. On the other
hand, he misinterprets some of Margaret's own actions and
intentions. Equally stubborn, the two drag out their obvious
attraction over many painful months and events.
North & South's two leads are both very good, though Armitage's
brooding, penetrating performance may very well be considered a
classic one day. There are other wonders in the cast: Cusack and
Pigott-Smith are superb, and Brendan Coyle is memorable as a
firebrand union organizer who ultimately becomes an ally to a
softening Thornton. The miniseries script by Sandy Welch is a
persuasive mix of historical context and character study. Brian
Percival's direction is full of moments that linger in the
imagination, such as the winter-dream look of a busy cotton mill,
with thousands of snowy fibers floating in the air. --Tom Keogh