PBS Masterpiece Classic 2012-2013

[marcie]

 

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?


Mr. Selfridge
March 31 - May 19, 2013 at 9pm
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

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.


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

[marcie]

Good story, Callie :-) It took me a minute to figure it out.

[MaryPage]

Callie, I love it!  And it proved he understood the sounds the letters made!

[BarbStAubrey]

starting tomorrow night we are getting a new series - sounds like a good one - here is the promo

THE BLETCHLEY CIRCLE follows Susan, Millie, Lucy and Jean, ordinary women with extraordinary ability to break codes, a skill honed during World War II when they worked undercover at Bletchley Park, site of the United Kingdom's main decryption establishment. Now, in 1952, the four have returned to civilian life, keeping their intelligence work secret from all, including family and friends. A series of ghastly murders targeting women, however, reunites the team as they set out to decode the pattern behind the crimes.

[Frybabe]

Glad to see you back up Barb. The Benchley Circle sounds quite interesting. I'll have to see if my local will be running it. I am not watching Selfridge.

Sad to hear about the plant explosions in West, TX and the deaths and destruction it caused. I wonder if they will ever discover what exactly caused it.

[jeriron]

 
I finally watched parts 1-3 of "Selfridge". I'm enjoying it although I didn't think I would.

[BarbStAubrey]

Yes We always stopped in West on our way to Dallas for Kolachi's as long as we could get there before noon - the bakery had no serving area or counter just a bunch of monster sized wood tables and ovens - flour dust in the air and a bunch of women who got to work around 3: in the morning and closed up shop at noon. Very little English - 3 and 4 generations later and they still spoke Czech - so I wonder if the bakery is still there - they are great at keeping the information out of the press till they are 100% sure and it helps so they are not bombarded by the press wanting every tidbit they can find and then blowing it up to a story that no one recognizes. I could go on and on about that one but needless to say - many of us  here think Boston jumped the gun on shouting terrorists and now cannot back down - tanks in the street for a kid who instead of choosing a movie theater or school chose a more public venue. That to me is the missing bit of the uproar - what is making any of these young men so aggressive to take lives. Well prayers all around - lot of folks hurting from these two events.

I was enjoying the series The Land Girls and it stopped after she married the preacher - thought it would go on and the home delivery nurses - forget the name of the show but it is another I am enjoying - do not like the current Doctor in Dr. Who and I miss the Brit Coms - all we have left or reruns of Doc Martin. This stupid, in my mind Selfredges is eating up Saturday and Sunday and so I switch on Saturday to our alternate PBS channel where they run old movies on Saturday night - last night was the old Basil Rathbone The Houses of Baskerville - fun, he was so over the top dramatic flinging his cape and the background music was not too much better then the set pieces played in the theater by the local music teacher.

[mabel1015j]

Bletchley Circle is good!

[MaryPage]

Tonight I adored Call The Midwife yet again.  Also loved Mr. Selfridge.  It is growing on me, big time.  I am so glad I did not drop it.
But Bletchley Circle is Wonderful.  A complete and total Joy to this incurable feminist.
So I went right straight to Barnes & Noble on line and ordered it.  By the way, their price to members is much cheaper than buying it through PBS.
I am so excited!
What fun!

[rosemarykaye]

The second episode of 'Endeavour', the new serial about Inspector Morse as a young man, was screened last night - it was absolutely brilliant. Shaun Evans, the guy playing Morse, is exceptional, and his boss is played by the inimitable Roger Allam.

Apparently it's a joint UK-US production, so you should get it soon.

Rosemary

[jeriron]

RosemaryKaye

I loved the last scene of the second show when he is seen in the car mirror.

[JoanK]

I loved The Blechley Circle too!

[MaryPage]

Am watching very little television at all from Monday through Saturday, but here it is Sunday Night again and three great shows in a row on Public TV!
Call The Midwife, Mr. Selfridge, and The Bletchley Circle.  Each is delicious, but The Bletchley Circle is my favorite.
Joy!
Pity they are not spread out one to a night.

[JoanK]

I know. I loved Part I of the Blechley circle.

Thanks for reminding me.

[JeanneP]

I watch the Midwives but skip Selfridge.  I really did like the first showing of Bletchley Circle last week and so will watch that one also.  I was in the Girl Scouts at the end of the war and knew a lot about what the Bletchley group were doing.  We use to try decoding.  Learned some Morse code. Don't remember any of it now.
Bletchley Park is a very popular place to visit now. I hear very interesting know all that went on there.  Very few people know where it was located during the war.  No one working there were allowed to give out their names.  Lots of ATS, Wrens  and WARP. worked there.  Altogether there were thousands working at one time or another. A list is on the Web now of all the names and the names they were known bye at the time.

[salan]

I look forward to Sunday night television.  Thank goodness that my daughter talked me into getting DVR.  I can tape all the programs I enjoy, watch some now and save some for other nights when nothing is on.  I love all the new PBS programs--Call the Midwives, Mr. Selfridge and now Bletchley Circle.  I also enjoy The Good Wife (not PBS).
Sally

[nlhome]

I am enjoying Call the Midwives, but I didn't like Mr Selfridge so haven't been watching. The Bletchley Circle program is intriguing, but it's spring, too much to do outdoors. If I can stay awake, I have too many other things to do, can't watch much TV.

[BarbStAubrey]

salon you also like the Good Wife - one week I forgot and watched Masterpiece and could kick myself - seeing it later on my small computer screen was not the same and so it is easy for me to miss Selfridge unless I see it on Saturday when it is repeated - I do not know what happened but there is nothing on even PBS during the week - I am fed up with the news so I am not even watching NewsWeek -

Well will she or won't she - looked to me tonight that her daughter has figured it out. Thank goodness Peter had enough votes without the tape having to be an issue - if she goes with Cary and Diane gets her judgeship that leaves Will all alone hmm

[rosemarykaye]

We have a new comedy starting tonight called 'Vicious' - it stars Sir Ian McKellan and Derek Jacobi and has had very good pre-reviews, so I'll let you all know what it's like.  It's about an elderly gay couple so I appreciate it might not be to everybody's taste, but they are both fantastic actors.

Rosemary

[mabel1015j]

Good Wives was very strange last night. All that toing and froing in court all night for naught and then the suspense at the end. Whew!

Blatchley was very good. Does anyone know how many episodes there are?

[CubFan]

There are three episodes.

Mary

[BarbStAubrey]

Jean I think last night on Good Wives they were setting it up drawing new lines for a change in the script - it hit me this morning I wonder if the choice to go with Cary has to do with Alicia deciding to go with Will and they cannot as long as both are working for that firm. I wonder if some how Peter OKing the cheating at the voting booth is going to come out to Alicia which will justify her choosing Will -

As to the courtroom action or inaction since I have just been reading about how Lawyers have to learn to write their briefs to persuade and the difference between persuading a jury who are not educated in the Law versus persuading a judge using the same basics of witnesses and material and how some lawyers do get attention with quirky courtroom behavior like bringing a baby into the courtroom in this situation - The judge wondering around the room was a way to show what I have been reading because of their caseload they can only each case a minimum of time even to read about it so you have to be a good persuader.

And yes, Blatchley was again terrific - I think many either forget or have no idea how often women were beat up in their homes and how women were simply ignored regardless their expertise. It is very good but it is dredging up memories I would prefer to forget - when she is ignored by the police it really gets me so that I feel that helpless angry scared feeling that was my life back in the 50s - and so with mixed feelings I watch hoping for their success. The killer has a face now and since we know his war time experience he needs psychiatry not a prison.

[MaryPage]

Young women watching The Bletchley Circle may think the fact that these young women did such invaluable work during WWII to save the Allies and yet had everything they had to offer completely discounted and ignored after that war was won is a fantasy and not fact.  I want to stand up on my tiptoes and scream that it WAS FACT.
If you were a woman, you were indeed valued during those war years.  Afterwards, you became a fluffhead again in men's eyes.  
I think the clothes are more nineteen forties than 1953.  This is supposed to be 1953.  But I am loving it.
I love Mr. Selfridge, too.  Especially last night with the Suffragettes.  My great grandmother was a Suffragette!  Good on her and lucky me for having her genes.
Call The Midwife had an important message last night, as well.  The world pre-contraception is one also unknown to today's women.
All in all, all three of these excellent shows brought us by the British were very pertinent to the history of the rights and treatment of women.

[JoanK]

"It is very good but it is dredging up memories I would prefer to forget - when she is ignored by the police it really gets me so that I feel that helpless angry scared feeling that was my life back in the 50s "

Yes, I felt the same!

[marcie]

I agree that Mr. Selfridge and The Bletchley Circle are captivating. Many of the characters are compelling.

Rosemary, thanks for the information about Vicious. I found a statement about the program by Ian McKellen at http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/will-new-itv-sitcom-vicious-starring-sir-ian-mckellen-and-sir-derek-jacobi-prove-a-watershed-for-gay-relationships-in-tv-drama-8595198.html

"Sir McKellen says Stuart and Freddie’s relationship is something of an advent for television. “It’s not aiming to shock people. It won’t alarm anyone. It isn’t a satire or an exposé of gay life. These characters just happen to be gay. For me it is as if TV has grown-up,” he says."

[rosemarykaye]

Thanks Marcie.  We recorded it as we were still trying to catch up with 'Endeavour' from the weekend - so we might watch it tonight, although as we have the dreaded puppy training class first, I may only be capable of pouring a glass of wine and lying down in a darkened room 

Rosemary

[JoanK]

Let us know how your puppy did.

[marcie]

Yes, Rosemary, please let us know how the puppy and master are after day 1. :-)

[MaryPage]

Wow!  One of our PBS channels (living in a Megalopolis, we have 3), Maryland Public Television, also known as MPT, has a fantastic lineup tonight.  Again, I wish all the good stuff was NOT piled on in one night.  And again, I hope I can take a nap and stay awake to enjoy it all:
Call The Midwife at 8
Mr. Selfridge at 9
The Bletchley Circle at 10
Dalziel & Pascoe at 11
One thing I have going for me is that I sent for Season 7 of Dalziel & Pascoe and have viewed the DVDs.  If tonight's episode is from that season, or any earlier one, I have already seen it and do not have to stay up to watch.  My television guides do not any of them say, so I will have to find out for myself.
They do say, however, that Arthur Conan Doyle is portrayed on Mr. Selfridge tonight.  What fun!
Oh, I do so love Sunday nights!

[JeanneP]

Yours are one hour ahead of ours and so doesn't make it to late.for us. I love Sundays for everything. Great to read the papers. Stay in PJs or robe if not going out if rain or cold.
Don't have friends in around my area now and so I know that I won't be disturbed.
My closest daughter just left for Connecticut today for couple weeks again. (just can't stay away from her Grandchildren). She is the only person who doesn't call if she is dropping in.

[MaryPage]

Well, I managed to stay awake, and it was all quite wonderful.

[JoanK]

I could only dimly follow what was going on in Bletchley, since I find many of the characters hard to understand. But enjoyed it, none-the-less.

I wish Jeremy Piven could act!

[marcie]

I enjoyed Mr. Selfridge and The Bletchley Circle. Some of Selfridge is a little "soap-opera" in that some characters sometimes seem to act out of character (Agnes Towler's kiss and Mr. Grove apparently going to be a cad) but I find the series, and many of the issues it brings up, interesting. I love the theme music for the program.

[MaryPage]

I found The Bletchley Circle wonderful, and look forward to seeing it all over again when the DVD comes.  I use the closed captioning, so have no trouble understanding the characters.
Now it is over, and there has been no announcement that there will ever be a sequel.  I would think the writers could spin it off into the London Police asking this group to help them out in another adventure.  Time will tell.

[marcie]

MaryPage, yes, I too am hoping to see more of The Bletchley Circle.

[JeanneP]

I was surprised to see that there would be only 3 weeks of the B Circle.  Maybe it is just a tryout in order to see if enough people tuned into it.  They could maybe make into into a show that would join it up into a Police type show. 

I always enjoyed "Esther Wainright". even "Miss Marple"

[jeriron]

ITV has ordered a second season of Bletchley Circle for next fall. Maybe PBS will pick it up.

[MaryPage]

Oh they surely will!  Oh what good news!  Thank you, Jeriron!  You just made my day!

[marcie]

That's good news about The Bletchley Circle. It looks like a second series of Mr. Selfridge has begun production too:
http://www.cultbox.co.uk/news/headlines/6784-mr-selfridge-series-2-new-characters-announced

This Sunday we'll see the second-to-last episode of season one, where the Woolworth "discount" store challenges Selfridge's in London.

[mabel1015j]

Woo-hoo! One of our PBS stations is starting As Time Goes By at season one! I hope they go straight through the seasons.