PBS Masterpiece Classic 2011

[marcie]

 

Masterpiece Classic 2011 brings back favorite authors and introduces new authors and programs. See the complete 2011 MASTERPIECE CLASSIC schedule.

NOW DISCUSSING

South Riding
May 1, 8 & 15, 2011 at 9pm
Three 60-minute episodes
Anna Maxwell Martin (Bleak House) and David Morrissey (Sense & Sensibility) lead the cast in Andrew Davies's (Bleak House, Little Dorrit) three-part adaptation of Winifred Holtby's moving love story.

ALREADY DISCUSSED

Upstairs Downstairs
April 10, 17 & 24, 2011 at 9pm
Three 60-minute episodes
Upstairs Downstairs is an updated version of one of the most-loved television series. Jean Marsh reprises her Emmy-winning role as Rose along with series co-creator Eileen Atkins (Cranford). Keeley Hawes, Ed Stoppard and Art Malik (The Jewel in the Crown) also star. Watch the episodes online at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/watch/index.html


The 39 Steps
March 27, 2011 at 9pm
One 90-minute episode
Secret agent Richard Hannay battles German spies on the eve of World War I in a riveting and romantic new version of the thriller by John Buchan. Rupert-Penry Jones (Persuasion) stars as Hannay.  Learn more about this series at http://www.seniorlearn.org/bookclubs/masterpiece/39steps/39steps.html.  Read some of Buchan's works online at http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/b#a285


Any Human Heart
February 13, 20 & 27, 9pm
Three 90-minute episodes)
William Boyd adapts his acclaimed 2002 novel about a man making his often precarious way through the 20th century. Matthew Macfadyen, Gillian Anderson, Hayley Atwell, Kim Cattrall and Jim Broadbent star. Watch online through March 22 at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/watch/index.html.


The Unseen Alistair Cooke
February 6, 9pm
One 60-minute episode
Told in his own voice and home movies, The Unseen Alistair Cooke shows America as the beloved Masterpiece Theatre host Alistair Cooke saw it — the raw material for a lifetime of journalism. (Repeat) Watch online through 2/13 at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/watch/cooke.html


Downton Abbey
January 9, 16, 23 & 30, 9pm
(Four 90-minute episodes)
A stately country house, a noble family and a succession crisis are the backdrop for this epic drama by Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park) starring Hugh Bonneville, Maggie Smith, Elizabeth McGovern and others. Watch full episodes online through 2/22/11 at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/watch/index.html


My Boy Jack
January 2, 9pm
One 120-minute episode)
Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) stars in a World War I drama about beloved storyteller Rudyard Kipling's only son, missing on the Western front in 1915. David Haig and Kim Cattrall co-star as the famous author and his American wife, Carrie. My Boy Jack offers an intimate portrait of a nation at war and one divided family. (Repeat)

Discussion Leaders:  JoanP and marcie

Babi, I agree that the "not seeing the cliff caved in" was a weak point in the plot.

Callie, yes, I think that was Sarah, reprising the "beach" scene. I thought she looked wonderful in that older fashion swimming suit.

I am with those of you who think that Lydia was attending the university. Was it common to have names on the outside of the "dorm" rooms? But if she was teaching there, that's fantastic.  Both options have the same, positive outlook for her.

[marcie]

Babi, I agree that the "not seeing the cliff caved in" was a weak point in the plot.

Callie, yes, I think that was Sarah, reprising the "beach" scene. I thought she looked wonderful in that older fashion swimming suit.

I am with those of you who think that Lydia was attending the university. Was it common to have names on the outside of the "dorm" rooms? But if she was teaching there, that's fantastic.  Both options have the same, positive outlook for her.

[BarbStAubrey]

this story defiantly needed one more week - it was so rushed that the last 20 minutes leaves too much - I get the impression that part of going with her grandfather followed by the mother saying she can finally go home suggests that whatever her condition it was as a result of her living in her childhood home which is now the fate of her daughter - it also left open the concept that she was in care all those years with the slimmest of just cause and she suffered Postpartum Anxiety and Panic Disorder which no one would have known about at the time.

I am thinking they ran out of money or some of the major actors had other commitments and so they pushed the story together by chopping off scenes -

I think the cliff falling away was meant to bring a bit of mystery to the story - and also show how a community acts without all the information  - however, his entire character was shrouded in mystery - no good explanation for his heart attack, the house is dark and foreboding and what is his deep attachment to Mrs. Beddows all about - and then even the deal the salacious acting minister hammered out to cover the expense of his love child is not wrapped up.

South Riding does not go down in my memory as a satisfying Masterpiece Theater - so far, of this year's crop Downton Abby is the only clear winner. Frankly, even Upstairs Downstairs left me confused and hanging - for me, 39 Steps will always be an Alfred Hitchcock movie and I've seen My Boy Jack - heart wrenching however, Jack, for me, is simply a grown up Harry Potter.

[MaryPage]

To me, it was definitely Sarah who was playing in the waves.  Alfred Huggins,  who supposedly fathered a child with the prostitute (not a "love child", since he always had to pay her money) and who bought up the property he thought the council was going to have to purchase later for councilhousing, was the victim of a scam, well, 2 scams really;  the cheap tart was blackmailing him along with her pimp, but she was not having his baby, and the crook who sold him the property knew perfectly well the council was not going to buy it.

There were 3 names being put on the entry post of a suite of dormitory rooms at a college, it was not a door.  You would not put 3 names on a classroom door, but you would do so at many old colleges and universities, including Oxford, for the students' rooms.  Lydia's was being put up as letters spelling out L. Holly by the proctor, along with the names of two others already up.  The letters were such as you can fit into space one by one, and not a plaque being attached to a door or a name being painted onto a door.  No, she was entering as a student.

[Babi]

 You could be right, CALLIE.  The film never did show her face.  So, if that
was Sarah, can anyone tell me what became of Marge Crane?

 BARB, the Crane home was apparently bought and turned into a nursing home.
Marge's mother (I forget her name) was transferred there and so finally 'came
home'.
 From one of the earlier scenes in the series I thought Mrs. Crane's condition
was definitely associated with her pregnancy.  Remember how she fought her
husband, saying she didn't have her 'thing' in and that she must not get
pregnant?  There must have been a family history of pregnancy associated with
her condition.

 Thanks for the explanation of the door post plaque, MARYPAGE. I thought I
saw a title there beside Lydia's name, but I could have been mistaken.

[MaryPage]

Yes, the Council did buy the Carne estate and turn it into a nursing home for the mentally ill, and so, in that sense, Midge's mother did finally "go home," as she left the private institution, the cost of which had ruined Carne financially, and went into the taxpayer financed institution.  She seemed to recognize it as the home she wanted her husband to take her back to.

But I think she was quite mental before she had the baby and went totally around the bend.  I don't believe it was just post partum, though I have seen many real cases of that in my life, including a really gruesome one in one of my old neighborhoods.  No, I believe Midge's mother was nuts period.  Remember the beginning where he comes home and she is in her negligee entertaining a bunch of men and drinking a lot?

There was a quick shot right at the end where they were doing that fast kaleidoscope of events where Midge was in a lovely peach flowered evening gown in a lovely drawing room smiling at her grandfather.  One inferred she became quite the lady.

[CallieOK]

Babi, Are you referring to the Crane daughter, whose name was Midge?  She opted to go and live with her Grandfather - who suddenly appeared "out of nowhere".

I caught the fact that the Crane house was turned into a hospital - but I missed that Mrs. Crane was transferred there.
I thought her plaintive question about "going home" was part of her illness.  She had asked her husband the same thing earlier on.

Her illness was associated with her pregnancy - but I've never heard of it and can't remember what it was called.  Is it a real condition or fiction?

[rosemarykaye]

Callie, I am not sure about the name of the disease, but  think even in the opening episode she was portrayed as a bit unstable - the pregnancy seems to have pushed her over the edge.  I really must get the book from the library and re-read it.

Rosemary

[CallieOK]

Rosemary,  I remember her unstable emotions in the first episode. When he was raping her (that's what it was - basically), she kept saying, "I mustn't get pregnant." 
  So it must have been something she was aware of having.  The medical term for her illness was mentioned (probably in one of those "quickie" scenes"); I wish I could remember what it was.

[MaryPage]

I thought it was just called post-partum blues, or post-partum depression.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/postpartum-depression/DS00546

A few blocks from me, back in about 1971, a woman who had been a nurse and who had three children in 5 years and her husband did not believe she was as bad as she said she was and he believed she was just being neurotic and would get over it, well she killed all 3 little ones, including a little 5 year old girl whom I had been asked to walk home from kindergarten once.  It really demolished me to be that close to something like that, though I did not know the woman or the younger children.  The woman tried to commit suicide, but botched it.  Last I heard, SHE was in a mental institution for life.

Yes, in the series South Riding, you see the mentally ill Mrs. Carne being led out of a car in front of the newly converted to a hospital Carne home and her eyes light up as she is being led inside.  Those end clips came and went and changed so fast, some of you may have blinked and missed that scene!

[CallieOK]

I just clicked the link in the heading and watched the final scenes of the final episode.

They seemed to go more slowly than the t v broadcast so I (finally!) saw Mrs. Carne arrive "home", the sign indicating the new girls' school and Lydia's name being added by the door.

She was dressed more like a mature young woman than a school girl and I suppose that's why I thought she was getting ready to teach instead of entering university.

I tried to scroll through Episode One to find the name of Mrs. Crane's illness but I couldn't find it.

Onward and Upward.

[Babi]

 Oh, was that Midge in the evening dress, MARYPAGE?  Since the scene followed on her Mother's return 'home', I thought that was the mother imagining all was as before.
 You're right, CALLIE, it was Midge I meant. I knew she had opted to live with her
grandfather, I just don't know what became of her after that.

[rosemarykaye]

Just looked at Edinburgh City library catalogue - and there are TEN reserves for South Riding!  So frustrating when (a) for years no-one read it at all and no-one knew what I was talking about if I mentioned it, and (b) my own old copy is in storage.  Will just have to wait till we do move, then have a nice time "rediscovering" all my old favourites.  I'll appreciate them much more now!

Rosemary

[MaryPage]

Babi, when I watched the ending of South Riding for the second time, thanks to Callie's recounting of what she did, I discovered it was NOT Midge in that final scene;  it was an entirely new young girl and the grandfather was going into the luxurious room ahead of Midge and he motioned for the girl, sitting in a chair and wearing the lovely peach colored flowered evening gown, to lift her chin up and sit up straighter.  You could just see a bit of Midge's uniformed shoulder following him, or so I imagined.   I assume it was the slightly younger cousin of Midge's who was slated to go off to a Swiss or French boarding school with Midge, and this was their first meeting.

[Babi]

 Hm, I hardly know what to make of that,  CALLIE.  Most of the flash-forwards
picked up quite a bit later in the lives of the characters.  And if the young girl in
the chair, instructed to correct her posture, is a sample of what life with grandfather is all about,  I find it worrisome. 
  ROSEMARY, do you remember at all what finally became of Midge?  Was she
all right?  (Shucks, I'm reacting as though this was a real person. )

[MaryPage]

But Babi, the lovely thing about let's pretend is that we can usually find out what happens to a beloved character from the book or make up our own ending.

In real life we learn we cannot guess anyone's fate or control it in any way.  For instance, much as we want perfect happily ever after for our children and grandchildren, we cannot do a thing about which way their lifeboats carry them.  Sigh!

[salan]

Ah Mary, how true.  To a large extent our "life is determined by the choices we make".  Too bad we don't really understand that when we are younger.  But then again, maybe it's better not to.  We might not have the strength to carry on!
Sally

[Babi]

 So true, ladies, so true. 

[marcie]

Join us in our PBS MYSTERY discussion at http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=2286.0