"Wonderful BBC drama"
Needless to say, I was glued to Cranford which has just finished a 5 week run on BBC1. A period drama with a warm heart. The slightly too-good-to-be-true strokes of good fortune and satisfactory romantic denouements were tempered by the ever present grim reaper. In the 19th century an infection or cold easily progressed to serious illness and death, as a number of the characters found out!
Most of the primary characters were women, spinsters or widows, which wasn’t satisfactorily explained, but who’s complaining with the marvellous performances from Judi Dench, Eileen Atkins, Lisa Dillon (new to me*), Imelda Staunton, Francesca Annis, Julia Sawalha, Emma Fielding*, and Julia McKenzie. The story is based around three of Elizabeth Gaskell's novels.
At times the women’s adherence to strict rules of propriety was frustrating, but then an act of kindness would relieve the stiflingly correctness, perhaps only a sop to 21st century viewers though? I’m not sure I really believed that the proud Lady Ludlow (Francesca Annis) would soften her attitude towards the ‘lower orders’. **
So, if you like splendid acting, costume dramas, women of all ages, and romance, go watch it.
*Occasionally when you first come across an actress in a costume drama it can be jarring to see them in something contemporary, I always associate Juliet Aubrey with her role as Dorothea Brooke in Middlemarch.
**I’ve just looked up Elizabeth Gaskell, and she was a progressive, of the Unitarian faith, and absolutely concerned with the working and living conditions of the poor.
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