PBS Masterpiece Classic 2012-2013

[rosemarykaye]

 

Masterpiece Classic brings back favorite authors and programs and introduces new programs. See the 2013 MASTERPIECE CLASSIC schedule.

NOW DISCUSSING
What's playing on your PBS station? What programs do you continue to enjoy?


Song of Lunch
March 24,, 2013 at 9pm
One 120-minute episode
A dramatisation of Christopher Reid's narrative poem, telling the story of a book editor who, 15 years after their break-up, meets his former love for a nostalgic lunch at the Soho restaurant they used to frequent. The production is unusual in featuring little spoken dialogue, the action instead being an enactment of incidents described in poetic monologue of the male character. Starring Alan Rickman & Emma Thompson.

COMING

Mr. Selfridge
March 31,, 2013 at 9pm
One 120-minute episode
Upstart American Harry Selfridge moves heaven and earth to build his visionary department store in London. But opening day is just the start of his retail revolution.  Three-time Emmy® winner Jeremy Piven (in his first television appearance since his iconic role as Hollywood agent Ari Gold in Entourage) stars as Harry Gordon Selfridge, the flamboyant entrepreneur and showman seeking to provide London's shoppers with the ultimate merchandise and the ultimate thrill. Mr. Selfridge is created by Emmy® Award-winning writer Andrew Davies (Pride and Prejudice, Bleak House).


ALREADY DISCUSSED

Page Eight
February 24,, 2013 at 9pm
One 120-minute episode
Sixty-something MI-5 agent Johnny Worricker has amassed an impressive art collection, an amicable collection of ex-wives, and a droll, unflappable relationship with the work he enjoys alongside his boss and best friend, MI5 chief Benedict Baron. But when Benedict brings to light damning evidence of British complicity with illegal American torture operations, it falls to Johnny to do the right thing.


Downton Abbey: Season 3, Episode 7
1 95-minute episode — Sunday, February 17, 2013
The Crawleys head to a Scottish hunting lodge, while the downstairs staff stays behind at Downton Abbey. New romances flare up, and a fresh crisis unfolds.


Downton Abbey: Season 3, Episode 6
1 120-minute episode — Sunday, February 10, 2013
Change arrives in a big way for several key characters at Downton Abbey. A yearly cricket match with the village sees old scores settled and new plots hatched.


Downton Abbey: Season 3, Episode 5
1 60-minute episode — Sunday, February 3, 2013
Things go badly amiss at Downton Abbey. Robert and Cora are not speaking. The servants are shunning Matthew's mother Isobel. And Matthew and Robert have fallen out. Also, Bates takes a gamble.


Downton Abbey: Season 3, Episode 4
1 60-minute episode — Sunday, January 27, 2013
The Crawley family faces its severest test yet. Meanwhile, new faces try to fit into the tight-knit circle of servants. And new evidence turns up in a baffling case.


Downton Abbey: Season 3, Episode 3
1 60-minute episode — Sunday, January 20, 2013
Two social revolutions arrive at Downton Abbey: the Irish civil war and the fight for women's suffrage. A mysterious conspiracy keeps Anna and Bates apart.


Downton Abbey: Season 3, Episode 2
1 60-minute episode — Sunday, January 13, 2013
The fate of Downton Abbey hinges on a letter from a dead man. Edith and Sir Anthony face their own fateful moment. Mrs. Hughes confronts a crisis.


Downton Abbey: Season 3, Episode 1
1 120-minute episode — Sunday, January 6, 2013
Wedding guests descend on Downton Abbey, where disasters large and small threaten. One is Cora's freewheeling American mother, who tries to loosen up her in-laws.


Downton Abbey Revisited
1 90-minute episode — Sunday, November 25, 2012
Savor highlights from the first two seasons and get a preview of Season 3 in this new PBS special.


Upstairs Downstairs: Season 2, Episode 6
1 90-minute episode — Sunday, November 11, 2012
A chance remark at the Foreign Office alerts Hallam that one of his associates is a German spy—with tragic consequences. As war is declared, life upstairs and downstairs is transformed at Eaton Place.


Upstairs Downstairs: Season 2, Episode 5
1 90-minute episode — Sunday, November 4, 2012
With war looming, romance is in the air—illicit and otherwise. Hallam, Agnes, Landry, and Persie each pursue their heart’s desire in different ways. Harry and Beryl get engaged. And even Pritchard finds a soulmate.


Upstairs Downstairs: Season 2, Episode 4
1 90-minute episode — Sunday, October 28, 2012
All of London sees Agnes’s shapely legs when she models stockings for Landry’s company—offending Hallam. Intent on impressing Beryl, Harry enters the servants’ boxing competition as Johnny’s manager.


Upstairs Downstairs: Season 2, Episode 3
1 90-minute episode — Sunday, October 21, 2012
Hallam’s Aunt Blanche appears in a novel by a former lover, sparking a scandal that threatens the good name of Eaton Place. Meanwhile, Agnes’s demands on the servants bring a social worker to set her straight.


Upstairs Downstairs: Season 2, Episode 2
1 90-minute episode — Sunday, October 14, 2012
Ambassador Kennedy and his dashing son Jack come to dinner at Eaton Place. But Agnes is more entranced by another guest: millionaire Caspar Landry. Before the evening is over, Mrs. Thackeray resigns.


Upstairs Downstairs: Season 2, Episode 1
1 90-minute episode — Sunday, October 7, 2012
Pritchard takes the rap for Johnny in a shocking incident, which leads to a revelation that casts the butler into disgrace. On a diplomatic mission to Germany, Hallam meets Persie, who has a Nazi lover.


Upstairs Downstairs: Season 1 - rebroadcast
3 60-minute episodes — Sunday, Sept. 30, 2012
It's 1936, a tumultuous time in Britain, and within the walls of 165 Eaton Place, characters from an orphanage, a damp Welsh castle, the heart of the British Raj and elsewhere together will face a changing world, not just upstairs and downstairs, but side by side. Written by Heidi Thomas (Cranford, Madame Bovary), Upstairs Downstairs stars co-creators of the original series Jean Marsh and Eileen Atkins (Cranford, Bertie and Elizabeth). Also starring are Ed Stoppard (Any Human Heart), Keeley Hawes (Wives and Daughters), and Claire Foy (Little Dorrit). Available online at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/watch-online/

Discussion Leaders:  JoanP and marcie

Well Jeanne, I don't know yet!  It's usually one of my daughters who finds out in advance through some social media site or other, but I wait till it's actually screened.  My friend waits till the DVD comes out as she can't stand the volume of advertising, and I know what she means - they go on so long that I forget what's happening.  Even worse with 'Lewis' now they've had the 'brilliant' idea of splitting each episode into 2 parts shown one week apart - infuriating.  The last episode of this series (I think) was shown last week, I don't know if there are to be more.

Rosemary

[jeriron]

Read this today:Dowton Abby

Julian Fellowes, creator of PBS’ international phenom, tells the New York Times that Season 4 will pick up “six months later,” which means “we don’t have to do funerals and all that stuff. That’s all in the past by then.”

Also: Fellowes adds that he asked Stevens to stick around through Season 4?s premiere episode (set to air in the U.S. in January 2014), so as to end the finale “on a happy note” with the birth of his and Lady Mary’s baby. “And then [we would've killed] him in the first episode of [Season 4.] But he didn’t want to do that,” preferring instead to make “a clean break.

[marcie]

Thanks for the info, jeriron.

[Bookjunky]

I have caught up on everyones comments with great interest. Downton Abbey is the one series that I have heard more people talking about than anything else I remember seeing on PBS. It seems those who do not watch look at those talking about it in strange ways unable to figure out why they are watching something that they don't even think would be remotely interesting. And those who are hooked look askance at the non-watchers with pity wandering how in the world they could miss out on such great entertainment.

As for myself when I think of all the wonderful shows I have watched on PBS I think while watching them they have all been my favorites. With todays technology this is the series I have first been able to enjoy via DVR. Nothing beats the scenery, the drama, even the exceptional facial expressions and one liners. It is sad to see the end of a season, and even more-so the way it ended with Matthew laying under his car.

[JeanneP]

Good to know that there are more. "CI Lewis" coming. Really enjoy them. He is not "Morse" but very good.

Now are you saying that Commercials are shown in UK. when "Downton Abbey " is being shown?  Not here as Public Tely.  But they do cut in on the first 2 parts of each series. Requesting Money.  People are now writing up saying they are doing that to many time a year.  I agree.  Started out one time and now seems to be every 6 weeks or so

[JoanK]

Yes, because the need for money is growing, as public funding has been cut, and costs must be growing. Notice they also have commercials on some of the shows. But I don't feel I can complain: although I do give them something, it's not much. And I must confess to waiting til they have a thank - you gift I want.

[marcie]

Bookjunky, I do think that the production value of Downton Abbey--the great sets, costumes and scenery-- as well as the excellent actors, make it so watchable. Wikipedia says of a "soap opera": A crucial element that defines soap opera is the open-ended nature of the narrative, with stories spanning several episodes. One of the defining features that makes a television program a soap opera, according to Albert Moran, is "that form of television that works with a continuous open narrative. Each episode ends with a promise that the storyline is to be continued in another episode."

I think it's the somewhat melodramatic actions in each episode that contribute to us returning to see what happens next.

[marcie]

PAGE EIGHT, with Bill Nighey, will be repeated from 2011 tomorrow evening.

See more at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/pageeight/index.html

[BarbStAubrey]

My take in calling Downton a soap opera is folks who cannot say anything since they have said it all for other period dramas - most of the cuts done to the Jane Austin and Dickens or Gaskell stories could then be labeled soap opera - what about Upstairs Downstairs or South Riding - hmmm sounds like someone does not like the success of Julian Fellowes.

[MaryPage]

I don't care what they call a show that I love, for

I'm going to love it, if I love it, no matter what, and

I love Downton Abbey.  Period.

[rosemarykaye]

I loved Page Eight - hope you all get to see it.  Mind you, I'd love almost anything with Bill Nighy in it 

Rosemary

[rosemarykaye]

Jeanne - I forgot to say, yes we get numerous ads when Downton is on, as it's shown on ITV not BBC (as you will know, the TV licence money only funds BBC.)

Rosemary

[CallieOK]

"Page Eight" is on our PBS station tonight.  I plan to record it but will probably switch from the Oscars after a short time.

[JoanK]

Have to check out Page eight!

[MaryPage]

I adore Bill Nighy!

[Frybabe]

I forgot I'd seen this one before. One thing I thought odd was that he continued to carry the money he got from selling his painting in a plastic bag that you can see through.

I can't help but thing that, at the end, he was heading for someplace with a view similar to the one in the painting he gave to Nancy.

[mabel1015j]

I started to watch, but when i saw the young woman neighbor i thought "oh, no, don't go there!" i was disappointed, the Brits are so much better than the U.S. about giving older women actresses good roles to play. Did she have to be 20(?) yrs younger than he was? PLEEEASE!

Jean

[Frybabe]

Too bad you didn't finish it Jean. There wasn't any love interest there. He saw right through her conniving to meet him.

What did you all think of the daughter's artwork. It may have conveyed depression and anxiety, but I found it strangely interesting.

[mabel1015j]

Well, good! But i saw a later scene that looked very intimate, like he may have been interested in a relationship, did i miss interpret it?

[Frybabe]

I think I know the bit you mean, Jean, but I didn't get a strong reaction to it. It does seem to me though, that he may have had a girlfriend or former girlfriend at some point. Near the end he stayed at a woman's house (overnight?) while he was getting ready to confront the PM. Could have been a sister, I suppose, I just didn't catch who she was exactly. Does anyone know who she was?

[BarbStAubrey]

Not sure of how the scenes went but there was the neighbor who later drove him away from the dinner - there was the daughter and her mother his ex wife and the wife of Benedict his friend - when the neighbor picked him up the spent the night in a hotel in separate beds more as friends -

There was the women art dealer someplace out of London that who must have known  as a friend - attractive blond but did not get the impression they were ever an item - There was a second wife that we never meet unless she was the attractive art dealer since earlier he says his second wife knew about art..

Then the gal who he was sleeping with whose husband was away but she received info he was not coming back - she was something in the government working under the women who becomes assistant PM - nice looking a bit of a middle age chubby and definitely a mature women.

I do think the neighbor developed a crush but it her looking at the painting can be taken either way - as he suggested insurance for her old age and a nice painting or she could see it as a calling card to find him - I do think he gave it to her in all sincerity as an insurance and thank you for all she did to get him out of a sticky situation.

[ANNIE]

Do I not remember reading about this guy being 60 years old? 

[MaryPage]

In this morning's THE WASHINGTON POST:

"Shirley MacLaine will be returning to “Downton Abbey” next season, and opera star Kiri Te Kanawa is joining the cast.

MacLaine will reprise her role as Martha Levinson, Lord Robert Crawley’s freewheeling American mother-in-law.
New Zealand-born soprano Te Kanawa will play a house guest. She will sing during her visit.
Tom Cullen as Lord Gillingham, described as an old family friend of the Crawleys who visits the family as a guest for a house party (and who might be the one to mend Lady Mary Crawley’s broken heart).
— Nigel Harman will play a valet named Green.
— Harriet Walter plays Lady Shackleton, an old friend of the Dowager Countess.
Joanna David will play a guest role as the Duchess of Yeovil.
— Julian Ovenden is cast as aristocrat Charles Blake.


Producers confirmed villainous housemaid Sarah O’Brien won’t be back. Siobhan Finneran, who played her, is leaving the show.
Matthew’s untimely demise was the result of the departure from the series by actor Dan Stevens, who had starred in that role.
The third season also saw the shocking death of Lady Sybil Branson, who died during childbirth. She was played by the departing Jessica Brown Findlay.
Hugh Bonneville, Michelle Dockery, Elizabeth McGovern, Jim Carter and Brendan Coyle are among its other returning stars."

[Frybabe]

Good heavens, lots of changes. I wonder why Siobhan Finneran is leaving. Does this mean she won't even be in the first of the new series? No O'Brien vs Thomas (and everyone else she takes a dislike to).

[marcie]

Thanks for all the news, MaryPage. I had to see who Tom Cullen is....

http://metro.co.uk/2013/03/02/tom-cullen-cast-as-lady-marys-new-love-interest-for-downton-abbey-series-four-3523254/

I love Kiri Te Kanawa's voice. She's beautiful too. http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Kanawa-Kiri-Te-3.htm

[JoanK]

Hopefully, they'll have the sullen ladysmaid from their Scottish trip to replace her. We need at least one evil person.

But I'll miss OBrian. The actress who played her did a wonderful job of making us hate her.

[marcie]

Good point, JoanK, that we need a "villain." I too think that Miss O'Brien was a very good role with a very good actress. Siobhan Finneran, who plays the scheming maid to Lady Grantham ... announced that she’s departing Downton and will soon be seen on BBC One’s The Syndicate. “I’m not doing any more,” she said Friday. “O’Brien is a thoroughly despicable human being—that was great to play.” - See more at: http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2013/03/01/o-brien-leaves-downton.html#sthash.laOY88EM.dpuf

[ginny]

I think the Mr. Selfridge show  is going to be very interesting, I'm looking forward to it. I recall the grand department stores of my youth with great fondness: the gigantic pipe organ in the huge multi story lobby of Wanamaker's  in Philadelphia,  which still has concerts (the organ is still there, but the store has changed hands several  times. The organ. with 28,000 pipes, is the largest  playing pipe organ in the world, and  has a society which supports it: kudos to the various  store owners who did not remove it or tear it out.)  I recall Strawbridges,  Gimbels, (which I think was probably the equivalent of Selfridges, or was Strawbridges? )  and Lits, I remember them particularly. Was there a saying? Does Gimbels tell Lits? Or maybe vice versa.  I don't know anything about who founded them.   Wanamaker's,  at least, seemed a palace to me.  We didn't have a Macy's that I recall till much later. I could be wrong about that, I'll look it up.

 I think the story of Selfridges will be very interesting.

I thought this was interesting, too: Feb 10, 2013 – The Forgotten Grave of Mr. Selfridge: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2276623/The-forgotten-grave-Mr-Selfridge-Tombstone-mark-burial-place-famous-shop-owner-left-dilapidated-sorry-state.html

 "The simple grave of Harry Gordon Selfridge (pictured) at St Mark's Churchyard contains no clues about the lavish lifestyle the man who...."

[JeanneP]

Selfridges. Also a Store in Manchester just as nice as the London. Still there.  It was one of the first places I worked when I decided to work in the city.  Now the show on TV.  "Are you being Served" reminds me of those days.  The floor managers walking around in their Morning suits. We had to dress only in Black and look perfectly turned out.

[BarbStAubrey]

Yes, and you needed a brain in  your head - needed to wait on folks knowing the inventory and if like here the sales girls, some older women who worked in the store for years, knew what you shopped for, your colors and let you know if something they thought you would like came in - In the undergarment area they knew you size and taught young girls how to wear a bra and later a corset - we even had our favorite sales girls with the men in sales relegated to the men's department, home furnishings especially carpets and bedding.

[MaryPage]

We used to have lots of wonderful department stores in downtown Washington, D.C.  All up and down F Street, they were.  Garfinckel's was the poshest, with Jelleff's, which was mostly clothing, next.  Lord & Taylor.  Woodward & Lothrop (my personal favorite), Hecht's, Kahn's, Lansburgh's.  I may have forgotten some.  All gone now.  Pity.  When I was little, and when my children were quite small, it was a treat to go down at Christmas and see all the brilliantly decorated windows.  Many of them were mechanical wonderlands.  Again, Woodies always had my favorite windows.
Used to be.  Used to be.  Some things are better now, but some lost things which were quite, quite wonderful will never be known to younger generations.

[JoanK]

Woodies was the one to go to. And eat in their "tearoom".

[rosemarykaye]

Just watched the last in the series of Call the Midwife.  Lovely 

It was to be followed by a new murder mystery, 'Shetland', based on the books by Anne Cleeves, who also writes the 'Vera' books (which have also been televised with the wonderful Brenda Blethlyn as Vera.)  Madeleine & I were too tired to stay up though, so we've recorded it to watch tomorrow.  I've never been to Shetland, but the reviews say the scenery & atmosphere are excellent.

Rosemary

[JeanneP]

I always wanted to go to the Shetland Islands but never made it. Surprises me now how many places I haven't seen in the UK . It being so small.  Even now UK people seem to all head over to Europe and never see the great places we had at home.
My Family were Derbyshire. So close to where I grew up but I never got there either.

[JoanK]

I've read some of Anne Cleeves' mysteries, but not familiar with her Vera books. Are they mysteries?

Hope Shetland makes it over here. I'd love to see the scenery.

[rosemarykaye]

Vera is a police detective in Northumberland.  The Geordie accent that Blethlyn assumes can be a bit impenetrable at first, but once you get used to it (or use subtitles!) it's very good (IMO).

Rosemary

[JeanneP]

I took the full set of "Chief Insp. Morse" out of the library this week. So far have watch 2 and I had not seen them.  It must be that all are not run on our Masterpiece Theatre here.  He and his side kick look so much younger on the first ones. Morse was really heavy. Still had that twinkle in his eyes though and lots more hair

[JoanK]

I didn't watch the first few seasons. I don't like the author on whom the books are based: he is sexist. But a friend told me that the actor who played Morse insisted they change that aspect, or his daughter would never forgive him. So I watched at the end. I'd love to see the earlier ones.

[JeanneP]

Colin Dexter the writer of the Books is getting quite old now. Most probably from the time when most people were a little more Sexist.
Things have changed so much in the last 20 years.  I really notice it.
Conditions we worked in 40 years ago you don't see being done. Now gone to far the other way I think.  Call things Sexual Harassment if men just look at a women anymore.  Back then we could have gotten Rich.

[FlaJean]

Rosemary, I watched "Vera" on Netflix.  Enjoyed it and had no trouble with the dialects.  Another detective program on Netflix (filmed in Glasgow) that's very good is Taggart.