Author Topic: PBS Masterpiece Classic 2011-2012 (Read 157216 times)

ginny · « **Reply #480 on:** March 18, 2012, 12:46:05 PM »

Masterpiece Classic 2012 brings back favorite authors and introduces new authors and programs. See the complete 2012 MASTERPIECE CLASSIC schedule.

NOW DISCUSSING

April 15, 2012
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
An adaptation and completion of Charles Dickens' last novel left unfinished at the halfway mark at his death, The Mystery Of Edwin Drood is a psychological thriller about a provincial choirmaster's obsession with 17-year-old Rosa Bud and the lengths he will go to to attain her. Cast includes Matthew Rhys (Brothers & Sisters) and Julia MacKenzie (Miss Marple).

COMING

April 22 & 29, 2012 at 9pm
Birdsong
An adaptation of Sebastian Faulk's novel about lovers torn apart by World War I. Eddie Redmayne (The Pillars of the Earth) plays Stephen Wrayford, whose pre-war affair with Isabelle Azaire (Clemence Poesy, Harry Potter films) has an enduring effect on him as he fights in the trenches.

ALREADY DISCUSSED

April 1 & 8, 2012
Great Expectations
Widely considered one of the greatest novels by Charles Dickens, Great Expectations tells the story of Pip the battered orphan boy, who rises from blacksmith's apprentice to gentleman under the patronage of a mysterious benefactor, who assures him of "great expectations." Starring Gillian Anderson, David Suchet and Ray Winstone.

February 26, 2012
One 90-minute episode
The Old Curiosity Shop
A teenage girl and her grandfather lose everything to a maniacal moneylender and flee his relentless pursuit. Derek Jacobi (I, Claudius) stars as Grandfather, with Sophie Vavasseur (Northanger Abbey) as Nell and Toby Jones (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) as Quilp.

January 8 to February 19, 2012
Downton Abbey Season 2
Downton Abbey season 2 resumes the story of aristocrats and servants in the tumultuous World War I era. The international hit is written by Julian Fellowes and stars Maggie Smith, Elizabeth McGovern, and Hugh Bonneville, plus a drawing room full of new actors, portraying the loves, feuds, and sacrifices of a glittering culture thrown into crisis. Watch all episodes online through March 6 at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/watch/index.html

The Primetime Emmy Award® winning Downton Abbey season one returns December 18 & 25, 2011 and January 1, 2012. (Check local listings.)

ginny · « **Reply #481 on:** March 18, 2012, 12:49:18 PM »

Wonderful, Jonathan, I will be so glad to hear another opinion. It has made me doubt my own ability to know what's going on in a book. If you're going to start it, I'll finish it today, am half way thru and that will give me the impetus to finish.

PS: David Suchet is quoted in a nice article in the Telegraph on the Death of Poirot and other things:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/3560217/David-Suchet-Poirot.html

and he's in the Sunday Times (London) on the life of his grandfather who once took a photo of Edward VIII and Mrs. Simpson before they were known as a couple: http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/Magazine/Interviews/article992622.ece

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #482 on:** March 18, 2012, 01:21:43 PM »

Do you think it could be different people - in that today if we look at families in similar financial circumstances their approach to life can be very different - Buffet lives frugally more in common with the Steve Jobs family and yet, both had very different philosophies about life - then compare them to the home and lifestyle of Bill Gates much less going to another group like George Cloony or Brad Pitt or David Beckham - I could not imagine these families living with similar "manners" so that maybe the Waugh read is showing yet another side of life through the eyes of a different family experience.

Frybabe · « **Reply #483 on:** March 18, 2012, 04:44:29 PM »

Oh, I do like David Suchet. I was looking at his filmography and discovered that I have not seen him in much other that I recognize than Poirot. Do you remember A Perfect Murder with Gwyneth Paltrow and Michael Douglas? He played the police detective. I am very much looking forward to his portrayal of the Duke of York in the new movie, Richard II. I noticed that Patrick Stewart is also in the movie. He plays John of Gaunt. I am unfamiliar with the fellow how is playing Richard II, Ben Whishaw.

JoanP · « **Reply #484 on:** March 18, 2012, 04:53:06 PM »

If I had three more addresses, I'd be able to mail all of the Great Expectatins in the morning - at once!

If you haven't emaled that information to me yet, please do it now - only takes a minute of your time! Thanks!

ginny · « **Reply #485 on:** March 19, 2012, 07:58:08 AM »

Barbara: possibly? Possibly you are correct in I could not imagine these families living with similar "manners" so that maybe the Waugh read is showing yet another side of life through the eyes of a different family experience.

Perhaps. Perhaps what he's showing is a way of life but he'll no longer show it to me. Jonathan, you're on your own carrying the Waugh Dust standard. Last night I threw the book down in disgust. I don't think that is too strong a reaction. There were only two characters I cared about, only two which showed any spark of hope as human beings, and he proceeded to most cruelly destroy both of them in an instant.

I did hesitate this morning before the book hit the trash can, thinking that it could go in one of the boxes for the Library and then I thought let somebody else waste their money pushing this. Never saw, ever, the sardonic wit, and got half way thru the book. There was certainly no wit last night. Or any humanity. Most cruel.

He did not show me fear in a handful of dust but perhaps that's unfair: I did not and will not finish it. He did show me something else tho and perhaps that was his aim all along.

Babi · « **Reply #486 on:** March 19, 2012, 09:10:04 AM »

GINNY, I am happy to see the post I had planned is now unnecessary! You spared yourself
further annoyance and tossed the book. I am well, and happily, past the point where I read something because I feel I ought to. Welcome to the freedom!

ginny · « **Reply #487 on:** March 19, 2012, 09:41:23 AM »

Babi. I've never had any problem throwing a book across a room or into the trash but I don't do many, maybe I should keep a list of "dumped books." The first one I ever did was The Liar's Club by Mary Karr. I did feel a little strange doing it and guilty, but no more. Life's too short.

Jonathan · « **Reply #488 on:** March 19, 2012, 12:05:44 PM »

'Welcome to the freedom!'

Well! These strong feelings about a book put me under a compusion to read it. I picked it up for a buck the other day after seeing a reference to it in Fathers and Sons, by Alexander Waugh, grandson of Evelyn. Just a passing reference to 'the bitter denouement to Evelyn's fourth novel and some say his greatest masterpiece, A Handful of Dust.' It seems to suggest that the story came out of a strong personal experience. In association with it is mentioned another short story by Waugh: 'The Man Who Liked Dickens.'

Babi says save yourself further annoyance. I say, retrieve the book from the trash and save it for another day.

Jonathan · « **Reply #489 on:** March 19, 2012, 05:32:17 PM »

Get this. From A Handful Of Dust, page 209.

'He unwrapped the nearest parcel and handed down a calf-bound book. It was an early American edition of Bleak House.

'You are fond of Dickens?

'Why, yes, of course. More than fond, far more. You see, they are the only books I have ever heard. My father used to read them...and now you. I have heard them all several times by now but I never get tired; there is always more to be learned and noticed, so many characters, so many changes of scene, so many words....Each time I find more to enjoy and admire.

'They took down the first volume of Bleak House and that afternoon Tony had his first reading....He would frequently interrupt with questions....always about the characters: now why does she say that? Does she really mean it? and later at the the description of the sufferings of the outcasts in Tom-all-alone's tears ran down his cheeks into his beard

a book within a book

ginny · « **Reply #490 on:** March 19, 2012, 05:42:06 PM »

Jonathan, read the Library, a note to you in my last post there. Tony was the last straw.

Babi · « **Reply #491 on:** March 20, 2012, 08:57:29 AM »

Quote

"Life's too short".

Amen, GINNY.

Jonathan · « **Reply #492 on:** March 20, 2012, 04:21:21 PM »

I'm chuckling over the "Life's too short" and the "Amen". That would screw up my reading if I were to ask myself, do I have the time. Leave it in the trash, Ginny, you gave it a fair trial. Still, keep in mind, things may look differently on the way down than they did on the way up. I feel I must read it. Just as I'll go back and watch that movie again.

ginny · « **Reply #493 on:** March 20, 2012, 06:25:07 PM »

I hope you will give us your opinion of it, Jonathan. I think I overreacted to it, it just hit too close to home and I was finding the adult characters other than Tony whom I felt sorry for, most unsympathetic. Even now when I read my own post I don't feel quite the same way, but I can't withdraw to that cynical removed critic type of thing, because it just...was too real in the portrayal of the child and too much to lose the only two characters one cared about. I didn't and don't care what the reaction of the others would have been, how their lives would change, I don't care and am vaguely angry at the author, as well. Makes you wonder why you read? I bet if I had read it before John, my own 5 year old grandchild, I would have had a more...what's the word...analytical detached approach?

So I really want to hear your analysis and that of Marcie if she reads it.

Jonathan · « **Reply #494 on:** March 20, 2012, 10:33:19 PM »

Ginny, I'll take your reaction over those of the detached critics everytime. Perhaps the author wants you to feel the way you do. I will read it. The little I have read seems to show that Waugh was feeling very bitter about the way his life was going and what had been done to him.

Babi · « **Reply #495 on:** March 21, 2012, 08:26:45 AM »

Perhaps depending on the author, I think we sometimes do get very emotiionally involved
with a story, GINNY. There are some books that affect me so negatively, that I feel like
I'm doing myself harm by forcing myself to read them. How's that for reacting/overreacting?

salan · « **Reply #496 on:** March 21, 2012, 09:10:31 AM »

Babi, you are so right. After my husband's devastating illness & death; I didn't (and still don't) want to read anything that takes me back to that dark place.
Sally

Babi · « **Reply #497 on:** March 21, 2012, 09:14:07 AM »

You and Steph have that in common, SALLY. I wouldn't be surprised if there are other posters
here, too, that have to avoid that particular large pothole in the road. God bless you both.

Jonathan · « **Reply #498 on:** March 23, 2012, 11:13:48 AM »

bleak and bleaker

I finished reading A Handful of Dust last night. What a discomforting book. It's hard to decide which is the bleaker house: Hetton Abbey or Chesney Wold. Interesting that Waugh should bring Dickens into his story. Almost as if saying, let me tell you about bleak. He certainly makes personal what Dickens leaves abstract and allegorical. Then again, although both set out feeling bored, the pain seems greater for Lady Dedlock than it does for Lady Brenda.

That's two in the trash.

ginny · « **Reply #499 on:** March 23, 2012, 05:54:37 PM »

I appreciate your frank opinion, Jonathan. And I am glad to see I haven't entirely lost my senses. I never got to Brenda's reaction, but let's face it, she's hardly a model of much of anything.

I thought of Dickens, strangely enough. I think he'd have hated it.

We need a trash can icon here on SeniorLearn. It might be interesting to see what people put in it.

Thank you.

Babi · « **Reply #500 on:** March 24, 2012, 08:59:43 AM »

Maybe we could simply think of a symbol to be used with any book we really didn't like. Still
just one's own opinion, of course. But if a reader I've come to know gives a book a

or a

I can take a hint.

marcie · « **Reply #501 on:** March 25, 2012, 09:37:54 PM »

Just one more week until April 1 and Episode 1 (of 2) of the new adaptation of GREAT EXPECTATIONS!!

There is a short article by Gillian Anderson about why she took on the role of Miss Havisham and her thoughts about the novel at http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/tv/2011/12/great-expectations-gillian-anderson.shtml

Babi · « **Reply #502 on:** March 26, 2012, 08:36:21 AM »

Thanks for the reminder, MARCIE. I definitely do not want to miss that.
I read the article, and share with Miss Anderson her discomfort on first reading about Miss
Havisham. I was quite young and could not at all understand a woman who was so pathetic
as to let one incident ruin her life. Then came the time I actually knew a woman like that. I,
and other friends, tried to re-direct her toward the future, but she preferred to go through life
dwelling on the wrong done her.

ANNIE · « **Reply #503 on:** March 27, 2012, 01:35:36 PM »

If anyone here discusses PBS Masterpiece showings, did you get this in your email today?
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/watch/littledorrit_ep1.html

I didn't know where to put it in the PBS folder. Tried each discussion and nothing was dated for 2012 and I know there is one there because I was in there when Downton Abbey was showing. Where should I put this?

marcie · « **Reply #504 on:** March 27, 2012, 04:37:36 PM »

This is the place for the announcement, Annie, since Little Dorrit one of the Masterpiece Classic programs. That's great that Little Dorrit is available for viewing online. The viewing expires April 1 so we have a few days. Thanks for alerting us.

We can access all of the episodes of Little Dorrit at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/watch/index.html

The main website for this adaptation of Little Dorrit is at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/littledorrit/index.html

JeanneP · « **Reply #505 on:** March 31, 2012, 02:24:57 PM »

At the moment I am watching Season 2 of Larkrise to Candleford. I had missed it. Will now have seen them all I think. Did it end on Season 4?
I am going to buy the set.
Been doing research on Family for years. We are original from the Peak District of Derbyshire. Birch Cove being the village. I feel like I am watching my Great Grandparents when watching it. From Pictures their area and the people sound to be lot like the DVDs in my mind. Have them from 1800 to 1885 there. Raised 7 children.

MaryPage · « **Reply #506 on:** March 31, 2012, 02:30:31 PM »

Yes, it ended with season 4.

marcie · « **Reply #507 on:** March 31, 2012, 11:15:07 PM »

Don't forget that GREAT EXPECTATIONS starts tomorrow, April 1!!

Frybabe · « **Reply #508 on:** April 01, 2012, 10:27:42 AM »

Good Heavens! I don't believe it!!

BBC America is running the Downton Abbey spoofs, and George is sitting there watching them.
He came across them himself, and is watching them. Absolutely unbelievable.

horselover · « **Reply #509 on:** April 01, 2012, 02:21:50 PM »

I am looking forward to "Great Expectations." I can still remember the strong impression this story made upon me as a teen-ager, and am curious to see what me reaction will be now at a different time in my life. I can understand one person writing she could not understand why Miss Haversham let one incident ruin her whole life, but there are some tragic events in people's lives that cannot help changing the course of their remaining days. Even if you move on, life is never the same. Unfortunately, this character is not able to move on. The dust and cobwebs settling on the event are her way of coping with its impact. Looking forward to the discussion!

Babi · « **Reply #510 on:** April 02, 2012, 09:02:41 AM »

Watched the first half of "Great Expectations" and so glad to find it good. I have a much better
understanding of the escaped prisoner and Miss Havisham, and found a fine character in this
version of Joe Gargary(?). The young Pip is very likeable. I could wish he was not so profoundly
impressed with Miss Havisham, but I suppose that's too much to expect from a young boy, esp.
one with his background.

Jonathan · « **Reply #511 on:** April 02, 2012, 09:52:00 AM »

I'll admit that, like Pip, I was bewitched by this strange figure. Or was it the atmosphere in that grand old house? Entered with a gasp and left with a shudder. And what an unholy plan she has for the children. Not moving on herself, she plans the ruination of others. Is that the drift?

JoanP · « **Reply #512 on:** April 02, 2012, 10:37:51 AM »

horselover, like you, I read Great Expectations through different lens as a teenager. Was more concerned about Pip's future with Estella, than Miss Havisham's mental health as she confines herself to that house in her wedding gown. The scene of the wedding feast, the moldy cake, the rodents on the table, the spider webs covering all it all, stayed in my memory all these years, however. I'm going to go back and read Dickens' description of that again.

Miss Havisham, "not moving on herself" - Jonathan, that's what I am focusing on this time around. How long ago was she left at the altar? Is she still expecting her groom? Why doesn't she clear out the banquet hall and get on with it? Are we do believe that she is out of her mind?

marcie · « **Reply #513 on:** April 02, 2012, 10:59:07 AM »

Horselover and Babi, I too was intrigued by Miss Havisham in this adaptation of Great Expectations. I think Gillian Anderson's portrayal showed a mix of naive hurt and confusion and cold heartedness... definitely mentally ill.

Jonathan, I think that Miss Havisham is grooming Estelle to take revenge on men (with Pip being the first), because her fiance was a "no-show" on her wedding day (and maybe never loved her).

Joan, I too want to re-read Great Expectations. I first read it in junior high and don't recall the details.

In film adaptations of Great Expectations, Miss Havisham has been played by a number of distinguished actresses, including:

   * Florence Reed (1934)
   * Martita Hunt (1946)
   * Margaret Leighton (1974)
   * Joan Hickson (1981)
   * Jean Simmons (who had previously played Estella in 1946 opposite Hunt) (1989)
   * Anne Bancroft (1998) (a version which modernized the story to the twentieth century and changed the names of several characters)
   * Charlotte Rampling (1999)
   * (Jamie H Scrutton) (2010)
   * Gillian Anderson (2011) TV Movie
   * Helena Bonham-Carter (Upcoming, 2012)

marcie · « **Reply #514 on:** April 02, 2012, 11:08:23 AM »

I thought that the human bond was very moving that was forged by Pip in his giving a piece of the mutton cake to the prisoner...and then the prisoner risking harsher treatment, to take the blame for stealing the file and the piece of cake, so that Pip would not be blamed. Pip seems to take after his brother-in-law who said that he did not begrudge the prisoner the cake since he was so hungry. His brother-in-law has been a kind "father" to Pip. I felt bad that Pip so easily left his brother-in-law to go to London "to learn to be a gentleman" since Pip thinks that Miss Havisham has him in mind for Estelle.

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #515 on:** April 02, 2012, 01:32:17 PM »

My take is that Pip may be his "Father's" [brother-in-law's] son but regardless how the "mother" is depicted as a horror even in real life with a horror parent. the parent does have an influence and I think that without conscious recognition he liked what he saw at the house of Miss Havisham and the influence of his "mother" allows him to imagine he could live better and closer to how Miss Havisham lives. Toward the end of this frist bit it seems to show Pip as having eyes for Stella where as when he was a kid I think he thought she was special but not for him - he enjoyed beating her at cards and only kissed her because he thought that would please Miss Havisham.

His thinking of Stella toward the end I thought said more about how he thought he could have a life like the one he saw in the house of Miss Havisham.

I think this version has Miss Havishamshowing a reaction to life with a number of today's better known Psychological disorders - not necessarily crazy but things like - Post Traumatic Stress, that is life long - some of the avoidance behavior includes; A loss of interest in important, once positive, activities. Feeling distant from others. Experiencing difficulties having positive feelings, such as happiness or love. Having strong feelings of distress when reminded of the traumatic event. Feeling constantly "on guard" or like danger is lurking around every corner.

The symptoms of PTSD are difficult to cope with, and so, many people with PTSD develop unhealthy coping strategies, such as alcohol or drug abuse or deliberate self-harm. Miss Havisham appears to be self-harming herself and like many with PTS they inflict a form of their own trauma on others. Her disorders appear to include:

Dermatillomania (skin-picking); An Impulse-control disorders are those that involve an inability to control impulses, resulting in harm to oneself or others.

Depersonalization Disorder; Persistent or recurrent experiences of feeling detached from, and as if one is an outside observer of, one's mental processes or body (feeling like one is in a dream).

Oppositional Defiant Disorder; Deliberately doing things that will annoy other people, blaming others for his or her own mistakes or misbehavior, being touchy or easily annoyed by others, being angry and resentful, or being spiteful or vindictive. Negativistic and defiant behaviors are expressed by persistent stubbornness, resistance to directions, and unwillingness to compromise, give in, or negotiate.

Jonathan · « **Reply #516 on:** April 02, 2012, 04:56:02 PM »

Miss Havisham PTSD, D, DD, ODD

Wow, Barb. What a diagnosis. What a price to pay for a broken heart! I have not read the book. I hope she finds her way out of this dire strait. Do the kids help her recovery?

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #517 on:** April 02, 2012, 05:37:06 PM »

Jonathan this is the PBS movie and all the signs are there - no actress appears as if rubing raw their hand and then latter picks at the skin of her hand unless there is a message in that action. another bit of acting is how she sets folks, in this story kids to be hurt and hurt each other - and yet another sign she refuses to see family members also she quarrels disagreeing with their help - of course there is a spoiled son, a young jerk so you are led to believe the help is not the kind she wants but still, she is acting out in her part as if she is persistently stubborn, resistant to anyone else's directions, and she is unwillingness to compromise even in her expectations of this adopted daughter.

Yep, she is a mess but I do not think crazy - only traumatized and we are seeing an actress trying to show us the trauma and an author trying to explain the cause and how she reacted to the trauma.

This is the middle of the Victorian period when marriage is far more than about love and devotion but for a women to exist alone, unmarried in a house does not allow her to mix with society with maybe long walks on the moors her only outing. And so this is not just her feelings betrayed as she expected a promised wedding but an identity as a socially acceptable woman cleaved.

Babi · « **Reply #518 on:** April 03, 2012, 08:40:11 AM »

JONATHAN, I got the distinct impression that Miss Havisham was training Estella
to be cruel and heartless to men. Her personal vengeance. She was most disappointed
when young Estella became fond of Pip.
Ah, I see MARCIE is of the same opionion. I, too, was a little disappointed at
Pip being so happy to leave, but after the earlier quashing of the hopes planted
by his sister, I can understand it. Young people are so focused on their dreams for
the future, and here they are resurrected again. Pip has had a glimpse of what a
life of wealth and social status can be like; of course he wants it.
And again I see that BARB has also preceded me. We seem to be in agreement so far.

BARB, that description of Oppositional Defiant Disorder well describes my Aunt's
behavior after her son died in an auto accident.

MaryPage · « **Reply #519 on:** April 03, 2012, 10:57:33 AM »

I agree with Marcie and Babi. In fact, from the time I first read this book at age 13 in the summer of 1942 in long days at my aunt's country home, where she had a library full of complete editions of various famous authors and I dove into Dickens, until this day, when I have read most of those books at least once more and seen so many film versions, I have believed Miss H's bitterly poisoned heart was set on using that little girl as a weapon to crush and disappoint as many men as possible.

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Author Topic: PBS Masterpiece Classic 2011-2012 (Read 157216 times)