Cranford

[Carole]

Did anyone else watch the BBC's much heralded latest costume drama? I have read it (years ago) and the only thing about it that I can remember is the episode with the cat who ate the lace - and we had had last night.

Looks lovely - costumes excellent and Lacock is playing its usual role of Old English Village as well as ever - I'm just not quite sure about it. Perhaps there are too many well know faces flitting around? and it's just a bit too silly for my taste?

Carole

[beejay]

Yes Carole, I watched it - but like yourself - found it a bit too silly!! Will watch Ewan McGreggor on BBC2 nex week instead!!

[TinaB]

I watched and liked it a lot... will give it a second glance though... so many famous faces!! must have been expensive!!

[Lucia]

I recorded it - had to watch Brazil play footie - I'm looking forward to seeing it as I've never read the books! I'll let you know if it seems silly to me too! :D

[Lucia]

Well, I must be very silly because I just adored it and can't wait for next week's episode - it sort of reminds me of a very early incarnation of 'Mapp and Lucia' - although sadly, there is no Mr.Georgie yet! The cat who ate the lace played a good part and Eileen Atkins was magnificent in a stellar cast! :D
I was impressed by the attention to detail - clothes, societal mores all correct for (I thought) c. 1840's, so I was a little bit jarred when Dickens' 'Pickwick Papers' was mentioned as I foolishly imagined that work was published late in Dickens' career - so I went off and looked it up and it was first serialised in 1837! :)
I know, I know - I'm a pernickety pain in the bum, but I do love accuracy when bringing classics to the small screen - now so long as there's no idiotic 'bringing the text up to date' or heroes falling in lakes, I shall continue to be content! :D

[Carole]

You are quite right - it reminds me of Mapp and Lucia as well - it's such a long time since I read Cranford that I can't remember much about it, except that I didn't think it was very good - so I don't really know how true the adaptation is - Mrs G's North and South and Mary Barton were much better novels.

Railways and Charles Dickens both go further back in time than you think :lol: I HATE Dickens - works fine on TV but READ it :( .... and he's my local author, so there's no escape here!

Carole

[Willie]

Yes, it is silly but in the context of the time, it just brings together all the daft social nonsence that those above us adhered to. I certainly know my station, possibley Bath Spa, it was filmed in Lacock which is just up the road.
When I was working for a local shoe firm the mens shoes were named after local towns, one of the secretaries asked me oneday, "yer, what's this shoe La cock, bit french innit".

[Carole]

Lacock - also Meryton in Pride and Prejudice and Highbury in Emma and probably a hundred other places as well! I guess as it's mostly all National Trust owned it's easier to take it over for filming ...

Carole

[TinaB]

I couldn't believe they wanted to amputate an arm because it was broken, what looked to my untrained eyes like a greenstick fracture ( my sister had one in childhood after she fell down the stairs)

[Lucia]

Honestly, Tina, before Lister invented his antiseptic spray, amputation was the only possible method of treatment for an open (compound) fracture - I thought the make-up department did it very well for the programme, you could see the bone sticking right out through the skin.
In the days when antiseptics were just on the brink of being invented and antibiotics weren't even dreamed of, all kinds of aerobic and anaerobic bacteria could potentially have access to the broken bone and the patient would have died quite quickly from septicaemia or gangrene - even nowadays, one of the most serious complications of an open fracture is infection in the actual bone - it can take years to clear up and often prevents the fracture healing correctly.
I noted (with some approval) that they mentioned 'tar' - that was because of knowledge gained from treating military men in battle situations - it was widely known that sailors actually did better than soldiers because naval surgeons used to amputate and then instantly plunge the stump into a bucket of hot tar to prevent the patient bleeding to death rather than attempt to close off the great vessels and suture the skin flap. This 'treatment' prevented massive blood loss, created a sterile closure (due to the heat) and minimised surgical shock - although the shock of having a limb amputated and the stump dipped into a bucket of hot tar doesn't bear thinking about!

[capricciosababs]

thankfully treatments have moves on - those were hard times indeed for many! thought cranfods started so so slowly but then began to get better so shall watch it again next week - do enjoy peroiod dramas - pride and predjudice and littel women - things like anne of green gables - dont like some of dickens though a bit dreary and drab - but the tv team have made a good job of this new drama and as said attention to the detail and the times...

[TinaB]

Honestly, Tina, before Lister invented his antiseptic spray, amputation was the only possible method of treatment for an open (compound) fracture - I thought the make-up department did it very well for the programme, you could see the bone sticking right out through the skin.
In the days when antiseptics were just on the brink of being invented and antibiotics weren't even dreamed of, all kinds of aerobic and anaerobic bacteria could potentially have access to the broken bone and the patient would have died quite quickly from septicaemia or gangrene - even nowadays, one of the most serious complications of an open fracture is infection in the actual bone - it can take years to clear up and often prevents the fracture healing correctly.
I noted (with some approval) that they mentioned 'tar' - that was because of knowledge gained from treating military men in battle situations - it was widely known that sailors actually did better than soldiers because naval surgeons used to amputate and then instantly plunge the stump into a bucket of hot tar to prevent the patient bleeding to death rather than attempt to close off the great vessels and suture the skin flap. This 'treatment' prevented massive blood loss, created a sterile closure (due to the heat) and minimised surgical shock - although the shock of having a limb amputated and the stump dipped into a bucket of hot tar doesn't bear thinking about!

wow, poor sailors... even though they faired better than their counterparts

thank god for medical progress, even though I am still of the opinion that we know so little about the workings of the body...

thank you chris, that was most informative, I am so glad medicine has advanced and nowadays I find myself a great deal more in favour of progress in all things rather than trying to cling on too tightly to heritage

[Carole]

Strangely enough I've been trawling the net this afternoon for information about surgery in St Thomas's Hospital around 1800 (I'm writing about a surgeon there Nunn Davie) and you definately wouldn't have had anything more than alcohol during an operation then.

The surprising thing is that they did quite advanced surgery without anaesthetics in the C18th including cataracts, stones and cancer surgery .... one of the most awful things you can read is Fanny Burney's description of her breast cancer operation without anaesthetics - which she survived and was successful as she lived to an old age.

Carole

[Lucia]

Adored it even more this week, even though poor Miss Deborah is dead - as is that poor child of the vicar whose daughter is in love with the young doctor.
Imelda Staunton and Julia McKenzie were immense tonight - I thought I'd end my days laughing through the tears at the sight of poor Bessie in her grey flannel 'jamas.
I have the faintest feeling that Lady Wotsit's son who won't come home from Italy, bats for the other side! ;)
Oh, I'll have to watch it again, there was so much going on and I don't want to miss any of the finer nuances - I so wish it was on every evening, I just want to gobble it all up at once! :D

[Irene Clarke]

I also think it is getting better. The railway coming causing such a stir.
Irritated with the daughter who keeps refusing the Major though. I think lady 'whatsits' son bats for the other side too.

[Carole]

It's still all too silly for me :( It just makes me want to get out my tapes of Middlemarch and watch something sensible :(

I can't find my copy of the novel - I want to read it again because I'm sure it wasn't anywhere near so daft as this - just boring .... I dread someone at the the BBC "discovering" my favourite Victorian author Margaret Oliphant and doing something just as daft with her :(

It's all that twittering and running around - it drives me nuts!

Carole

[capricciosababs]

yes women did witter in those days! men thought that they were such silly fragile females - all swoons and faints and fancy flouncy bonnets and ten babies each...which was what that world was then - didnt like the first weeks episode but last nights sat up straight in bed watching the small tv set - in stitches with the hubby when that cow had to have flannel clothes!!! funniest thing in ages on any channel...sad storylines though atsame time...is it supposed to be a drama and -or a comedy?

[nose leather]

Well, we both loved it. So sad when Deborah died but it happened such a lot in those days with limited medical care and lack of hygiene.

Loving the attention to detail and costumes etc, it would have been very high budget to produce, I am sure. The type of programme the BBC does so well.

I haven't read the book though, yet.....:kittydance:

[CinnamonTortie]

Well I LOVE it, and really look foward to Sunday night telly :kittydance:

[Mochali]

Can you download it from the BBC?

[TinaB]

oh I cried at the poor cow in the lime pit, then laughed at the pyjamas :lol:

nobody does such wonderful drama's like the BBC.. the attention to detail is just fab.. a great programme and a great cast... love it love it love it... we need MORE

[Carole]

I think I must be the only person in the world who thinks it's too silly for words .... someone said to me that it was nice to see what real life was like for our ancestors and I was thinking "you must be competely :crazy::crazy::crazy:"

Carole

[TinaB]

I realised that when I was watching yet another bit of tv about Elizabeth the 1st, I love my tudor history... but however much we read or watch we will never really know how it actually was, and how much is just chinese whispers and embellishments

[CinnamonTortie]

Oh what an episode tonight, its getting very deep isn't it? but I love it, poor Miss Maddy - it doesn't matter what I see Dame Judy (Judy to her friends) in she's brill

[Kalikareem]

Last night was the first time I watched it,I must say that I enjoyed it...the hour went by so quickly,it left me wanting more...When Matty's 'beau' (the marvelous Michael Gambon) announced he was off to France and wanted her to think about their relationship whilst away,hubby said 'thats it, he's got to drown in the boat coming back'...He wasn't far off he contracted Pneumonia on his way back instead...Bless.

[Lucia]

I think it just gets better and better - the quality of the acting is so marvellous that it's difficult to single any one performance out, but in a stellar cast, Imelda Staunton is doing it for me - can a 'Damehood' be very far off?
The hubba (who has never read Mrs Gaskell) said to me last night as Miss Matty's Thomas set off for Paris, "If this was Hardy, that would be the last time we saw him alive!" - but despite this 'preparation' for possible sadness, I still got a bit misty-eyed when he died - Judi Dench can do more to rend the heartstrings with a poignant expression and a sad and far-away gaze than most actresses can do screaming, crying and covered in tears and snot.
I could go on and on - but I'll just say it's a joy to sit down to an hour of untrammeled bliss on a Sunday evening - I can't wait for next week! :D

[Needleworker]

One of my favourite books when I was younger. I am recording the whole lot before sitting and having a delightful wallow..........

[TinaB]

it is fab!!!! was trying to place the new doctor, I think he was recently in Rome when that was on....

[Carole]

In the novel poor old Miss Matty is 51 years of age. FIFTY ONE!

Back to the BBC version - I can't see her parents wanting to reject Mr Holbrook's offer of marriage to their younger daughter if he had lived in such a huge house as the one he did in on TV. Vicar's daughter or not.

Carole

[capricciosababs]

will watch it this weekend - wish it wasnt so sad though - want someone to wed someone instead of dying off - that village is stranger than dibley was!

[Casiat]

I love it - that 'era' really appeals to me!! Perhaps I've been there before!

Beautifully acted and very atmospheric.

Have to admit to never having read the book - but will be!!

Do we ever get to learn more of Lord Septimus' ailment................???!!!

[TinaB]

am thinking he is probably Gay which would have been a huge scandal in those days...

it was ridiculous last night, with them all setting their caps at the young doctor :roll: how very different things were, everyone talking at cross purposes instead of being able to get straight to the point

[capricciosababs]

peter fell fast asleep but I enjoyed watching this weeks episode cosy and cat covered in bed - very good about the doactor and all the ladies!

[CinnamonTortie]

I love it - that 'era' really appeals to me!! Perhaps I've been there before!

Beautifully acted and very atmospheric.

Have to admit to never having read the book - but will be!!

Do we ever get to learn more of Lord Septimus' ailment................???!!!

I think he is a work shy gigalo(sp) lol, who uses his mummy to live off, and what Septi baby wants he gets by the sounds of it

[Lucia]

Well, I'm with those who think Lord Septimus is gay!:santa:
Had to wait until tonight to watch it due to being honour bound to watch Barcelona play football, as they seem to know when I'm not watching them and don't try so hard to win! :catwink:
Still loving it - I cried (quite a lot) when Miss Matty spoke so poignantly about the child she wanted so much and would never have - and cried again for the poor little lad when he was sent to work in the cowsheds and when dear, loyal Martha said she would never leave Miss M.
Hasn't that silly young doctor got himself into a pickle? I do hope things pick up for them all a bit next week or I'm going to need three hankies per viewing.
It's bliss!:reindeer1:

[Lucia]

*Still sniffing a bit*
Well, it turned out to be a four-hankie affair in the end - I don't know which I shed the most tears over, poor Mr Carter, what a terrible way to go - the ladies rallying to help Miss Matty - the daft young doctor's desperate attempts to save his darling after his colleague had done his best to kill her - the return of Major Wotsit and Miss Matty's brother - Oh, lots more - it was all just lovely, the acting was superb and I expect it to win tons of awards.
I shall miss it so much - possibly enough to have a go at reading the books! :D

[Carole]

I just hope they manage to resucitate Philip Glenister and stick his leg back on in time for Ashes to Ashes!

Seriously, it did get better as it went on and all the running about twittering away lessened :D

Carole

[capricciosababs]

saw it, yes it got better as the series progressed, was into the plots by the last episode!

[Casiat]

Noooooooooooooooooooooo

It can't all be over!!!

Just watched the last one, it was lovely.

Really need to read the books now!!