PBS Masterpiece Mystery 2013 & Other PBS Programs

[marcie]

Masterpiece Mystery 2013 presents the best British mysteries. See the complete 2013 MASTERPIECE MYSTERY schedule.    

NOW DISCUSSING
Let's talk about any PBS program of interest to us


The Paradise, Season 1
October 6 - November 17
Based on Émile Zola’s beloved classic novel, Au Bonheur des Dames, The Paradise revolves around the lives of the people who live and work in Britain's glamorous first department store, The Paradise. Each is bound in his or her own way by the power of the world they live in, and the pasts that follow them there. A love story, mystery, and social comedy all in one, the lavish costume drama stars Joanna Vanderham (What Maisie Knew) as Denise and Emun Elliot (Game of Thrones) as Moray, alongside Sarah Lancashire (Upstairs Downstairs), Elaine Cassidy (A Room with a View) and Patrick Malahide (Game of Thrones).


ALREADY DISCUSSED

Foyle's War, Season VII
September 15 -29, three 90 minute episodes
Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle is again in pursuit of criminals who are taking advantage of the confusion created by World War II.


Silk
August 25 - September 8, three 120 minute episodes
Two rival barristers, one an idealistic defense lawyer and the other a ruthless prosecutor, compete for the prestigious appointment as Queen's Counsel in three episodes of high-stakes cases in criminal law.


The Lady Vanishes
August 18 - 90 minutes
A young socialite suspects foul play when a young woman inexplicably disappears from a train, in a stylish and suspenseful new adaptation of the classic thriller The Lady Vanishes, based on the 1936 novel, The Wheel Spins, by Ethel Lina White.


Three episodes of ENDEAVOUR reveal the rocky start of Inspector Morse's career in the police force.


In the all-new 2013 season, Lewis and Hathaway tackle three cases in the seemingly perfect academic haven of Oxford: Down Among the Fearful (June 16), The Ramblin' Boy (June 23), and Intelligent Design (June 30). Guest stars include Peter Davison (Doctor Who) and Edward Fox (Ghandi, Foyle's War).

Discussion Leaders:  JoanP and marcie

[marcie]

MaryPage, Yes, the political "discussion" was fun. It's interesting that they don't seem to have a lot in common.

I somehow had missed most of the Foyle's War episodes in the past. I'm finding the current series very good.

[marcie]

After this Sunday's last episode of Foyle's War, it looks like THE PARADISE is next, with 7 episodes (2  hours for the first one and then 1 hour for the others).

The Paradise
Sundays, October 6 – November 17, 2013

A bright-eyed country girl, Denise Lovett, finds more than just shop-girl work when she brings her clever ideas and ambition to Britain's glamorous first department store, The Paradise. Denise is plunged into power struggles, intrigues and romance as she catches the attention of the store's dashing and enigmatic owner, John Moray. Entangled with his powerful financial backer's entitled daughter, Moray harbors a dark secret as well as debts that threaten to ruin his hard-won empire. The Paradise, embodying the progress and the pain of a new age of commerce, is the way of the future. But will that future belong to those who usher it in…and can they have a future together?

Based on Émile Zola’s beloved classic novel, Au Bonheur des Dames, The Paradise revolves around the lives of the people who live and work in the store, each bound in their own way by the power of the world they live in, and the pasts that follow them there. A love story, mystery, and social comedy all in one, the lavish costume drama stars Joanna Vanderham (What Maisie Knew) as Denise and Emun Elliot (Game of Thrones) as Moray, alongside Sarah Lancashire (Upstairs Downstairs), Elaine Cassidy (A Room with a View) and Patrick Malahide (Game of Thrones).

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/programs/paradise/

Wasn't Selfridge's the first department store??

[BarbStAubrey]

I do not believe it was the first department store but one that this American brought to transform what a department store could be in Britain - Woolworth was featured in one of the episodes and many an early Woolworth store had the basement and the first floor with the 5 and 10 cent type merchandise in the basement however, no Woolworth merchandise had the class of Selfridges. For firsts; Harrods is older than Selfridges, as is Le Bon Marché in Paris while in NY there was Macy's and Stewart's. I lived in Poughkeepsie for 2 years in the early 50s and they still had a Stewart's.

[MaryPage]

Is anyone besides me watching THE HOLLOW CROWN?  It is just superb!  The acting is taking my breath away.  Seriously.
Last Friday night they did Richard II and last night they did Henry IV Part I.  Next Friday night they will do Henry IV Part II and then conclude with Henry V the following Friday night.
As I say, it is just so good that there is really nothing else to say.  My only disappointment is in not having someone to watch with me with whom I can ooooh and ahhhh over the plays as they go along.

[MaryPage]

Oh yes, The Hollow Crown is coming on here each Friday night right after the Miss Fisher Mysteries.
Phryne was divine last night.  Her clothes were heaven and the jazz singer was really wonderful.  And oh, that old aeroplane!

[BarbStAubrey]

Yes it is superb - this play is familiar where as last week was a first fir me - found them online I think on the PBS web site - we do not get Miss Fisher Mysteries so for us it comes on at 9: after Bill Moyers whose guest last night was especially good, Greenpeace International Executive Director Kumi Naidoo. 

[JeanneP]

This "paradise " sounds a little to much like the one that just ended a few months ago. About a department store background in it. I will give it a watch, see if I like it.  Didn't like the last one. I worked in " Marshall Snellgroves." In Manchester . Pretty fancy also.
Now our woolworths had a basement where things even cheaper than above.  I think the StateSt. Chicago did also.  I still miss those stores.  Ours in U.k had a Pram/Baby watching service.  Lined the baby carriages up andhad  security service watching.It was gated.

[marcie]

Jeanne, yes Paradise reminds me too of Selfridge's.

I have a picture now of baby carriages lines up with security guards watching the crying babies!!

[jeriron]

I just watched the last Foyles War "Sunflower" from last night and thought it was really a good one. Much better then the other two.

[BarbStAubrey]

subject matter was difficult but the moral value of keeping lies and playing God for what we see is our benefit is a difficult examination - when do we condemn - is death for death the same as an eye for an eye - does forgiveness include acceptance of someone's knowledge and skills - it seems easier to be self-righteous over big issues and yet, we do not condemn our soldiers who killed by the score those who we thought were protecting the enemy. And is the greater good more valuable than moral integrity - lots of food for thought in Sunflower.

[JoanK]

Yes, I caught "The Hollow Crown" on Friday Henry IV Part I. I'd missed the earlier one, but will surely try to follow from now on.

I was surprised at how well I was able to follow it: between Shakespeare's language and my trouble understanding some British accents, I was expecting to have more trouble. I got  out my Shakespeare, and hope to read Part II before I see it next week.

Sunday was the last episode of "The Bletchley Circle." This is the second time I've seen it, and the ending still made no sense to me. Did she know he was there, or expect to find the girl's father? If the former, why did she go alone? if the latter, why take a gun? How did he plant the address and phone number? Did anyone else understand it?

[JoanK]

The discussion of "Persuasion" starts tomorrow. do join us!

[JeanneP]

I watched Foyles War last night also as it was the last one.  Didn't stick with the first two. Was pretty good.  So true as to countries taking in Germans who by rights should have hung for the crimes they did but were kept for the things they knew. Not forgiven but tolerated. Many Doctors. Designers, Engineers all high in the Nazi organizations. Many of the things that the one Dr. that was over the Camps. Things that he was working on are now being done and have been for the past 50 years. Now Medical Science. 

[marcie]

I watched Foyle's War also. At the end of the episode when he gets in the car and is asked "Where to?" he says, "Good question." Maybe they are leaving an opening for another series.

[ANNIE]

We watched all of the "Foyle's War" series and thought this one, "Sunflower", was the best.  We have always enjoyed this series. I think if you wanted to the older ones that they might be at your local library. I have brought home many of English series from my library. Can't bring up the names at the moment.  Maybe later!

We started to watch "The Hollow Crown" but Ralph wasn't too interested so i recorded it for myself.  It did entice me.  So its by Shakespeare, JoanK?Never heard of it!

In spite of thinking that "Call the Midwife" was over the top, I watched when in the hospital last spring and really enjoyed it.  Good actors and actresses.

JoanK, I have never read Jane Austin, so will be peeking in to see how it goes.  I liked the quote from one of her letters to her sister when she visited Lyme Regis which is the setting for "Remarkable Creatures" which we are discussing in November.

[MaryPage]

Oh my goodness!  My favorite author EVER.  Ever, ever, ever!  Start with Pride & Prejudice and go on to Persuasion and then Emma and then Sense and Sensibility and then Mansfield Park.  Leave Northanger Abbey to the last, because it is not as good as the others.  Then get all the movies, starting with all the Pride & Prejudices.  Greer Garson in black and white first.
Every one of them has been made into a movie at least twice.  Some five times!
One of the best Pride & Prejudices is six hours long!  Colin Firth.
Do not go further in life without hugging yourself with Joy while reading Jane Austen!

[ANNIE]

Our granddaughter showed up for awhile this afternoon.  She is 16 and a junior in HS and loves to read and write.  She was telling me that she had bought some classics yesterday.  Pride and Prejudice was on her list.  I told her about the Persuasion discussion we have happening now and about "The Good Earth" discussion which is still alive and kickin' and she wants to look in to see our discussions.  I will send her a link to those discussions so she can see what her grandmother does for fun and games. And some good friends!

All right, MaryPage, I will get Pride and Prejudice and read it for my own pleasure this week after I finish my f2f book which is totally boring and depressing and a total waste of my reading time.  I think I will suggest that we read Pearl Buck or Jane Austen when my  turn comes up for choosing a book or an author.

Weren't we watching "Foyles War" in black and white back in the olden days?Maybe is was more like sepia.  I will look up when it was first offered.

Do I understand that "Phryne Fisher" is going to be on CBS?? Is that right? Marcie,does the DVD say where it was shown?

I just thought of several of the Masterpiece Mysteries series that we watched after they was taken off here in the states. "Midsomers Murders" and "Miss Marple"and "Poirot" and the old "Morse" series.  We have been spoiled and lucky to see all of these shows on PBS. 

[MaryPage]

Here in the Washington, D.C. area, and Annapolis gets both D.C. and Baltimore PBS channels, Miss Fisher's Mysteries starring Phryne Fiisher is shown Friday nights at eight o'clock.  These fun, fun stories have been on for several weeks now, and, I am happy to report, will go on for weeks and weeks to come. 
Always on Public Television.  Not CBS at all, as far as I know.

[MaryPage]

Had a delicious evening of television viewing last night.  At eight came an hour to thank our Australian friends for:  Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries.  Again, the clothes and acting were divine.
Then at nine, two and a half hours of The Hollow Crown.  This week it was Henry IV Part Two, and Tom Hiddleston took my breath away in his portrayal of Prince Hal becoming Henry V.  The last time I saw this play, it was Kenneth Branagh in the part, and he is a great favorite of mine and was beyond wonderful.  But Hiddleston beats him, IMHO.  Oh Boy, oh boy, oh boy:  was that EVER a KING transformed at that coronation!  Put shivers up and down my spine, it did!
Great actors keep coming!
And I can look forward to another Phryne Fisher, followed by Henry V, next Friday night.  I'll be all settled in my easy chair, eyes wide and ready.

[JeanneP]

I thought "tango in Halifax" was good again tonight.  Don't know if will be interested in watching the new one coming on next.

In it, did any one notice the one blond women right at the start.  Looks like the one playing Caroline in Tango in Halifax.  Now going to be Gay.

[MaryPage]

I enjoyed Last Tango In Halifax so very much this evening.  Was hugging myself with joy, not only at the dancing, but in the way the two young lads took to their mother's new romance.  The whole thing just gets funnier and funnier and more and more heart warming.

Anyone who skipped The Paradise thinking it would be a take off, and a poor one at that, on Mr. Selfridge, missed a rare treat tonight.  This series is of no relation whatsoever to Mr. Selfridge, other than that they both feature department stores in a much earlier period.  Mr. Selfridge is fiction based upon a real life man and a real and on going emporium.

The Paradise is pure fiction from real literature by Emile Zola, with the setting moved from France to England and somewhat adapted.

The acting is nothing short of divine, and I particularly delighted in Ruby Bentall playing a shop girl named Pauline.  Ruby acted the part of Millie in Lark Rise to Candleford, and was the best thing in it.

And yes, Sarah Lancashire, who plays Caroline in Last Tango In Halifax, plays Miss Audrey, and beautifully I must say, in The Paradise.  ALL the acting is superb and the show a great treat.

[BarbStAubrey]

Yes and Dudley was Fisher Bloom, a love interest for Laura in Lark Rise...

Oh dear Celia really is bent out of shape over her daughters new love life isn't she - ouch ouch - and we have several stories about Gillian's husband's death - Allen is really making it sound ominous, but then he was not there and you do not know how much is accurate when someone in shock is telling the story looking for a parent's comfort. I find woman especially seem to take blame for the cause of many traumatic events. However, she sure is making up for the last 10 years sleeping or about to sleep with all the men her age and younger.

John the husband is a mess isn't he. I bet the twerky son is also gay and therefore quick to accept his mom's lover.

It was fun seeing them dance and the dancing they were doing brought back memories.

[MaryPage]

I adored the dancing, but got my biggest kick out of Gillian's great joy over it.  Both girls, Caroline and Gillian, seem to deeply appreciate the love their parents have found in their old age.
You know, I had that identical thought about William.  I expect if we are right, we will find out.  Any case, we only have next week's episode to look forward to, and then this very good thing, as do all good things, will end.

[MaryPage]

Oh, my!  It bothered me TERRIBLY all through The Paradise, but I just could not remember and figure it out!
The actress, Olivia Hallinan, who plays Mrs. Brookmire, played Laura Timmins in Lark Rise To Candleford!
Why in this World did I figure Millie/Pauline so quickly, and could not get HER?
Well, color me dumber than chalk.

[marcie]

I didn't get a chance to watch Last Tango last night but did see The Paradise. I found quite a few similarities between The Paradise episode and Selfridge but I am enjoying The Paradise. Many ladies are captivated by the charismatic owner of the store. It was fun to see the talented new shop girl say to her friend, "I don't want to marry him. I want to be him!"

[MaryPage]

Deeply disappointed not to be hearing that more of us saw last Sunday's episode of Last Tango In Halifax and The Paradise.  I yearned to hear other reactions to them.
Tonight on PBS is going to be terrific, and I am very excited.  First another adventure of Phryne Fisher and another mystery for her to solve.  It is the clothes I drool over.  Wish I could freeze the picture and just look and look, and then click and go on, but it does not work that way!  I do very much enjoy the stories and acting, too.
And then over two hours of the final episode in The Hollow Crown:  Henry V.  Tom Hiddleston is the most marvelous Henry V I have ever had the privilege of seeing, and I can barely wait (well, I have to, don't I!) to hear him deliver the St. Crispin's Day speech!  Hugging myself with anticipated delight here!

[BarbStAubrey]

Haha can they cram any more of the current social issues into Halifax - it is a romp.

Missed part of Paradise and the rerun was at 3: in the morning since they are doing pledge week and wanted to get the reruns of Downton in -  just got the first half hour and last half hour. Missed what ever happened with the best friend and the store clerk but I take it there was a sexual dalliance. I later realized that the friend was Our Laura from Lark Rise...

[salan]

I am watching Last Tango and Paradise.  I am enjoying  both, but am a little disappointed in Paradise.  Too similar to Selfridges.
Sally

[MaryPage]

Marcie, could we maybe think about changing the name of this site to WHAT I AM WATCHING ON PUBLIC TELEVISION
OR
WATCHING NOW ON PBS
OR
SHOWS ENJOYED ON PBS

[marcie]

Thanks for the suggestions, MaryPage. I added "& Other PBS Programs" to the title.

[ANNIE]

I watched "Paradise" and "Last Tango in Halifax" on Sunday night.  They also offered "Call the Midwife" either earlier or the next evening.  Tonight, "Doc Martin" was on at 8pm and I missed that as I am a baseball fanatic so am watching Boston vs. Detroit first game of the the American league championship.  Saw the National league teams play earlier, Cardinals vs Dodgers- the Cards won.  My sister, Mary, and I have agreed to cheer for Detroit just because that city has suffered so much over the last few years.

PBS-I think- had a very educational offering on the fall of Detroit a few weeks ago.  Very interesting and sad, of course.  The folks who have remained living there are old Detroit citizens and really like their hometown.  At that time, the city council couldn't perform services that had been paid for with taxes.  I seem to remember that a company or group of outsiders has suggested that they move the boundary lines to make the actual boundaries surround a much smaller city.  No one who still lives there wants to move into homes much closer to the city center.  But if they would, they would have trash and snow removal.  What a nightmare!

My sister was saying that her small town in NC is also suffering as there are no jobs since the mills closed plus the furniture business is gone.  The young people are going off to college and aren't planning on returning.  The medical services are waning also and the elderly will suffer from lack of doctors soon.  Did someone say our economy is improving?  Where?

[BarbStAubrey]

Did you see... 'Wolf Hall' is coming to MASTERPIECE

[marcie]

How interesting, Barb! There's a notice about the new series, to be broadcast in 2015, here: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/11/wolf-hall-miniseries-with-mark-rylance-is-coming-to-pbss-masterpiece/?_r=0

[JeanneP]

 


 



    



Last tango in Halifax just ended.  Wasn't it good? She reminded me so much of my ex mother law. She was against everything . I learned early why. Did understand but she was hard to take. Never changed up to her passing at age 90.
.JEANNEP.  

[MaryPage]

Loved it all!
Loved the final episode of Last Tango in Halifax.  I thought Derek Jacoby dazzlingly perfect, as always, but ended also with a huge respect for each of the other actors, most particularly Susan Lancashire and Nicola Walker.  Walker and Jacoby sure played well off of one another, and did a magnificent job of showing what real love and bonding are.
For those who did not watch, I am referring to his daughter, and not to his Lady Love.  The Old Darlings besotted with one another were sweet, but Nicola Walker as his daughter Gillian was so real you felt she could jump right off the screen into your room.
It was fun to watch Susan Lancashire right away in the next hour of The Paradise playing Miss Audrey.  She is sooooo good!
And I still do not find it much like Mr. Selfridge.  No matter, I am hoping the owner of The Paradise, John Moray,  comes to realize that Clara's little girl, Grace, is probably his and he will support her.  At least, I think that is what the story is telling us.

[jeriron]

I read that Susan Lancashire dropped out of "the Paradise" because it was to much doing both shows and she chose to stay with Tango.

[MaryPage]

Well, that tidbit made me decide to look her up, so I did.  And I could not find any reference to that fact, but did find out two really fascinating things about Susan Lancashire:

She was the Narrator on Lark Rise to Candleford.  Funny;  I always thought the actress who plays Laura was that.  Not so!  "Twas Susan Lancashire!!!

AND she is the most highly paid actress in British television today.  So says Wikipedia, any hoot.

[FlaJean]

I really enjoyed the last episode of The Last Tango.  Allan's laugh at the end was good to hear.

[BarbStAubrey]

Yes, and I really enjoyed Nicola Walker in MI5 and like you I too always thought it was Laura who was the narrator for Lark Rise...