PBS Masterpiece 2017 - 2018

[ginny]

 

See the 2017 MASTERPIECE schedule. 

Let's talk about PBS programs that we enjoy.

UPCOMING


My Mother and Other Strangers
June 18, 2017

Set in Northern Ireland during World War Two, My Mother and Other Strangers follows the fortunes of the Coyne family and their neighbors as they struggle to maintain a normal life after a huge United States Army Air Force (USAAF) airfield, with 4,000 service men and women, lands in the middle of their rural parish.


  Grantchester, Season 3
June 18, 2017

James Norton (Happy Valley) stars as the handsome, jazz-loving vicar Sidney Chambers, with Robson Green as his law-enforcement ally, Inspector Geordie Keating, in Grantchester, a mystery series based on the acclaimed novels by James Runcie. When we last left the sleepy village, Sidney faced a moral dilemma: be with the woman he loves, or take the moral high road.


  Prime Suspect: Tennison
June 25, 2017

MASTERPIECE dials back the clock to spotlight the influences that turned 22-year-old rookie policewoman Jane Tennison into the savvy, single-minded crime fighter beloved by Prime Suspect viewers. Starring Stefanie Martini (Doctor Thorne) in the iconic role immortalized by Helen Mirren, Prime Suspect: Tennison airs in three riveting 90-minute episodes.

ALREADY DISCUSSED

King Charles III
May 14, 2017

The hit Broadway show King Charles III, starring Tim Pigott-Smith, adapted for television, imagines Prince Charles’ ascension to the throne following Queen Elizabeth’s death.


Dark Angel
May 21, 2017

Starring Downton Abbey‘s Joanne Froggatt, Dark Angel tells the story of Mary Ann Cotton: loving wife, mother, and serial murderer. Faced with abject poverty and an ailing husband, Mary Ann is ruthlessly determined to pursue a better life.


Home Fires, Season 2 - Final Season
April 2 - May 7, 2017

The Final Season of Home Fires follows the women of an English rural village as they are separated from their husbands, fathers, sons and brothers during World War 1 and must forge alliances among their diverse community.


Wolf Hall - Encore Presentation
April 2 - May 7, 2017

An encore presentation of Season 1 from 2015 of Wolf Hall. Adapted from Hilary Mantel’s best-selling Booker Prize-winning novels Wolf Hall and its sequel, Bring Up the Bodies, Wolf Hall follows the complex machinations and back room dealings of accomplished power broker Thomas Cromwell, who must serve king and country while dealing with deadly political intrigue, Henry VIII’s tempestuous relationship with Anne Boleyn, and the religious upheavals of the Protestant reformation.


To Walk Invisible The Bronte Sisters
March 26, 2017 (2 hours)

Written and directed by Sally Wainwright (Happy Valley, Last Tango in Halifax), To Walk Invisible depicts the evolution of secluded, dutiful clergyman’s daughters into authors of the most controversial fiction of the 1840s.



Victoria, Season 1
January 15 - March 5, 2017

A diminutive, neglected teenager is crowned Queen Victoria, who navigates the scandal, corruption, and political intrigues of the Court, and soon rises to become the most powerful woman in the world.


Sherlock, Season 4
January 1 - 15, 2017

Sherlock (with Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman) returns with three brand-new episodes that promise laughter, tears, shocks, surprises and extraordinary adventures.

[ginny]

Not as pretty as Claire Foy. Nor the German Anne of Cleves, whom he thought was ugly. Look at those eyes of Cromwell, tho!

 I have to say tho that this morning thanks to Netflix, I was able to begin to watch the new  2017 season, the 5th year,  of Father Brown's series.  We can't get it here in the US on DVD, it only came out in  the UK a couple of months ago and hasn't been converted yet, but it's streaming on Netflix, and  there are 15!!! new episodes! Since the Latin classes are out this week, I'm binge watching.  The first is a Christmas one, and THAT one I am going to add to my  yearly viewing of Christmas Fare. Hokey? Maybe. Predictable? Maybe. Super fun? Definitely!

I did notice, however, in the last  scene when they raised a glass to "absent friends," that it was Sid and not "Monty" who was mentioned. I like Sid, a lot.  I don't think we've ever met "Monty," have we? Poor Felicia, he seems absent a LOT but no glass was raised to him.

[Frybabe]

Just watched  an interesting video I ran across in my Amazon video, Holbein: Eye of the Tudors. It was obvious that the maker of the video was unhappy about the new version of history which is turning More into the bad guy and Cromwell into the good guy. Apparently Mantel is not the only one to express this revisionist version of history.

Okay, so I have a question. If Holbein was the one who painted the picture of Anne of Cleves which the King claimed deceived him as to Anne's beauty, then how is it that Cromwell got executed and not Holbein as well?

[ginny]

Maybe that's why it has taken Mantel so long to write the 3rd book.

Wasn't Holbein famous for his likenesses? Henry liked the portraits Holbein did well enough of him and his children.

That's a good question. I don't know enough about British history to answer it.

 I have a feeling there's more to it than that, and that Norfolk and Gardiner had a hand in it, rivalry and jealousy,  and jockeying for position in the court...And then there was that  odd little thing in the first program where,  was  it Henry who asked  him about his feelings toward the clergy? And you can see Cromwell's stance.  He must have made a lot of enemies, especially in the dissolution of the monasteries.  I am interested, myself, in how he fell, but it was a serpent's nest he was dancing in, politically, anyway.

My thought on it is that Mantel is not as revisionist as she was trying to make the case that he wasn't the absolute monster he's been formerly portrayed as;  she's thrown in lots of unsympathetic things he did. There are always two sides. And so in the movie  they cast  Rylance with those sympathetic eyes, and he made the case pretty much.... for the movie, anyway. Holbein painted a different Cromwell, just LOOK at those piggy, mean little eyes, and if Holbein's as accurate as his fame insists, she MAY in fact BE doing revisionist history, it's a novel, after all.

Fascinating, isn't it?

[ginny]

I have to ask, is that Wolsey's ring on Cromwell's finger in the portrait?? Is that why the movie made such a point of it?

[Frybabe]

I hadn't noticed the ring in the portrait, Ginny.

I did notice that Rylance did a good job of getting his facial expression right. And I noticed that Holbein used a similar expression for several of his paintings, including his wife. They all seem to be there, but not there with that gaze. Kind of circumspect maybe, or like you might look if you were day dreaming or just not thinking about anything? I'd say sad, but that doesn't quite describe it. It struck me that Rylance's Cromwell, like the painting, didn't show any real (or intense) emotional expression, just that distant gaze no matter what was going on. Holbein's portrait of More is a bit different. There you can see an intensity in the forward leaning posture, in the eyes and to an extent, the facial expression, showing a keen interest in something not shown in the portrait.

Holbein didn't live more then a few years after Cromwell's execution. He died of the "sweating sickness" that took Cromwell's wife and girl's. I was wondering what it referred to and here is an answer. No one really knows, but many now think, thanks to the Four Corners outbreak in 1993, it was a form of hantavirus. http://theconversation.com/what-was-sweating-sickness-the-mysterious-tudor-plague-of-wolf-hall-37194

[ginny]

Oh interesting, thank you! I wondered myself on the "sweating sickness," what a horror. That's why Henry VIII kept moving his court, to get away from whatever it was.  It's a miracle any of them ever lived between the plagues and this strange sickness:  imagine a broom causing such!!!  You can't win, can you? Try to keep a clean house and look what it gets you.

There's another portrait of Cromwell Holbein did and the eyes are different. He seems to have pretty much really hit at Cromwell in the one we know.  It interests me that the man playing More in this production looks more like the Erasmus painting of Holbein than he does the More one. That intense look you cite  can be taken  more than one way in the Holbein, too.

The Frick Collection which has supposedly the most accurate Holbein has another one of him by Jacobus Houbraken(1698−1780) and he looks a little different in the eyes area. He's almost normal looking here:

http://collections.frick.org/media/view/Objects/1020/511?t:state:flow=8143ea50-a31c-4bba-b574-bd04c55d9a41

Obviously not done from life. And this roundel from  Wikipedia is interesting, so all together there are more portraits of him without those awful eyes than with them, but that, perhaps, is what Holbein saw.

[Frybabe]

The broom, yes. Hantavirus is a nasty thing that can be airborne spread. That is why, if you check on how to clean up mouse infested areas, you see recommendations to first wet down the area with bleach or the like, allow it to set a little bit and than wipe the stuff up, oh, and wear a dust mask. The premise is that wetting the area down will keep a lot from becoming airborne and the bleach may kill the virus.

[ginny]

Well I've watched all of Wolf Hall again and the performances on the big screen never seem to amaze.

Next up is King Charles III, I can't wait to see it, I think it starts this Sunday night, am not sure how many episodes if any, but Tim Piggot Smith who just died stars in it, he of the Jewel in the Crown, and I am really looking forward to it, tho it appears it's causing some controversy in the UK. Diana is a ghost, for starters.

[ANNIE]

I know nothing about King CharlesIII but the ads for it look enticing. So are you DVRing it while traveling?  We are so spoiled by all our gadgets. I think you can find it on Netflix to see it's a series.

[ginny]

It's on now. It's different.

 Yes I'm taping it on the DVR.

[ANNIE]

Is there anyone watching besides Ginny and me?  Is this what the English hope will happen?  After Elizabeth dies?
And there's Merrick from The Jewel In The Crown!!! Playing King Charles III!  Different, that's for sure.  But the acting was good! Did you think you were watching a Shakespeare play?

I wonder if Barbara is watching? Our poet!!🤓🤓

[CallieOK]

Annie and Ginnie,   I watched Charles III and also the program "documentary" that followed.   
I hadn't read the info about it in my PBS Newsletter so didn't realize it was a play before it was a film.   I did think the dialogue sounded "Shakespearian" (is that a word?) and was glad to hear that the writer had planned it that way.
Apparently the cast of the film was also the cast of the play so it was interesting to hear their comments on being in both - as well as their comments on the characters they played.

I can see why it might cause controversy in the UK - "young upstarts" taking a hit at the aging future king in favor of someone from "their" generation.

[rosemarykaye]

I haven't seen it and I don't think it's made much of an impact here, but I suppose no-one I know is that interested in the royal family.

The sad thing about it is that Tim Piggott Smith, whom I have admired ever since he played Merrick in The Jewel in the Crown, died suddenly and before the screening. Another fine actor gone. I still think of him in his creepy, repressed role as a cruel army officer in the dying days of the Raj. He was the lower middle class upstart, the one who wanted - but would never have - the easy confidence of the public school boys. The Jewel is one of those series that gives more every time you watch it - as a teenager I took it at face value, now I see more and more in its themes of power, oppression, bigotry and madness.

We're still working our way through the box set of Mad Men - another masterpiece that rewards on so many levels.

Rosemary

[ANNIE]

Callie, wasn't that documentary fascinating? I wish I had DVRed the whole program.  Hope they reshow it so I can.  Does anyone know if anyone, other than Netflix,who aren't, is showing The Jewel in Crown? I would love to watch that again.

[rosemarykaye]

It's rarely (if ever) shown on TV here Annie - it was a TV series rather than a film and they don't seem to repeat those old ones. I have the DVD. I have just had a look at US Amazon and it is available but much more expensive than it is here. May be worth it though!

Rosemary

[CallieOK]

Rosemary, one of the credits at the end of "King Charles III' was an announcement "In Memory of Tim Piggot Smith (didn't catch birth year) - 2017.
Was the stage production presented in the UK?  If so, what kind of a "run" did it have?

[ginny]

Ann, the BBC Shop online, (shopbbc.com) has the Jewel in the Crown,  the 14 episodes remastered version, on DVD, $35.00, and the introductions by Alistair Cooke. 12 1/2 hours. Amazon has the 25th year edition for the same price, I didn't read further about the extras or the remastered stuff.

[ANNIE]

Thanks everybody who looked it up!
I think I will order it later this summer after I check with the sites who have it as to how long it will take it to get here.  You know PBS shows every once in a awhile.  I remember the when it was shown in GB for the first time it was said that the crime rate went down and no one was out on the streets when it was on.  They were all so entranced with story.

[rosemarykaye]

Annie, I was just speaking about that with a friend the other day - how we all used to be so transfixed by some of the excellent series made at that time. There was of course no catch-up TV, and you could not buy the DVD, so you all watched it at the same time and discussed it the next day. Other series in the same vein were The Forsythe Saga, The Onedin Line, A Dance to the Music of Time, Poldark (original version with Angharad Rees) and Brideshead Revisited.

I was idly watching the slightly ridiculous Rosemary and Thyme last night (it's repeated endlessly on our digital channels) and who should pop up as a rather camp teacher in a boys' boarding school but Anthony Andrews - the very same Anthony Andrews who so brilliantly played Sebastian in Brideshead. He looked almost the same after all these years, and seemed to be acting more or less the same part! I was of course madly in love with him at the time, despite Sebastian being a less than salubrious character, and I have to say he is still quite attractive.

Rosemary

[ANNIE]

You know I have a copy of Brideshead on vcr tape.  I might watch it again to see if Sebastian was really so good looking!  And he  is on Rosemary and Thyme!!     I think I will just google this mess!      Hahaha! 

[marcie]

Masterpiece has three series beginning this month! See the heading above for more information about MY MOTHER AND OTHER STRANGERS, GRANTCHESTER, SEASON 3 and PRIME SUSPECT: TENNISON.

[ginny]

Fans of the Great British Bake Off Alert!

The newest one (and the last one featuring Mary, Mel, Sue, and Paul)   will premiere this Friday June 16 on your local PBS station!

Don't miss it!

"Season 4 premieres Friday, June 16th

Follow the trials and tribulations of passionate amateur bakers whose goal is to be named the U.K.’s best. Each week, the bakers tackle a different skill, the difficulty of which increases as the competition unfolds. Mary Berry, a leading cookbook writer, and Paul Hollywood, a top artisan baker, serve as judges. Together with hosts and comic foils Sue Perkins and Mel Giedroyc, Berry and Hollywood search for the country’s best amateur baker by testing the competitors’ skills on cakes, breads, pastries and desserts, crowning a winner after 10 weeks of competition."

[BarbStAubrey]

we also had a series with just Mary and Paul baking themselves with no contestants - quite nice - the friendship between the two was observable - wasn't there a third judge in the originals? if so who was it? 

[rosemarykaye]

Would be interesting to see them baking themselves Barb  What would Mary be? A Victoria Sandwich, I think...

[ginny]

Those Master Classes, Barb? I taped them all, those were really nice,  but the Hopper 3, a new device that recorded them,  lost them all, just deleted them, nobody seems to know why at DISH,  while I was in Europe. Shame. Perhaps I could buy them and have them to keep that way. It seems to be happening to a lot of people but they are not talking about it, my brother in law had the same thing  happen in another state.

It was just Paul and Mary as judges but Sue and Mel were the sort of entertainers and MC's. And they'd sit at the judging table and ask questions of the judges. It was a good show.

Rosemary. I didn't know what a "sponge" was until I went to England the first time. I just saw a photo of Mary and the Queen at the Chelsea Flower Show when I was there. 

Terrible terrible  fire in that high rise in London. I can't understand how it got on ALL the floors like that so quickly. What a horror.

[BarbStAubrey]

   and Paul could be a humpty dumpty made of sponge cake encasing a boiled egg -

[rosemarykaye]

Hi (belatedly) Ginny - yes, the Grenfell Tower fire was a terrible, terrible thing. As we now know it spread so fast owing to the insulation and cladding on the building, neither of which were fit for purpose, both of which had been used to save money (this is social housing). The people who lived in the tower were very poor, many were immigrants, but the block is in the middle of the London Borough of Kensington, one of the richest parts of London and indeed of the entire UK. Billionaires live (or rather own huge investment properties, often left empty) just a few roads away. This should never have happened. It is a clear indictment of the way British society seems to be going - the poor becoming ever poorer, the rich becoming obscenly wealthy.

By contrast, last weekend I went to see a wonderful film Summer in the Forest, about Jean Vanier and the L'Arche Communities. Vanier (a French Canadian former navy officer) started the first one in northern France in the 1960s, when he realised how badly special needs people were being treated - usually locked up in asylums. There are now about 150 communities worldwide - wonderful places, though he is keen to emphasise that they are not utopias but just places where people can lead a 'normal' life. Some of the residents are profoundly disabled, others not so much. Some have suffered brain damage, for others it is not a physical thing, but the result of terrible experiences. No one is financially rich, no one is financially poor. What a contrast to what so-called normal society seems to have become.

[ginny]

 Rosemarykaye,  I did not know this: The people who lived in the tower were very poor, many were immigrants, but the block is in the middle of the London Borough of Kensington, one of the richest parts of London and indeed of the entire UK.

I did wonder how they managed to evacuate quite a few buildings of the same cladding in the surrounding neighborhoods as a precautionary measure,  and it never occurred to me it was low rent housing!! I kept thinking boy I am glad I don't live in a high rise in the area, how can they force people out,  and rethinking my stay in the next hotel on a high floor.  Just a horror.

Somebody told me oh you're OK if there is a sprinkler system, just ask first, and I'm thinking no amount of sprinklers would  have stopped that but I may be wrong.

(I thought of you, believe it or not, when I returned to London for the second time this summer and had to go thru Victoria. I remembered what you said, and  I did avoid the STEPS, because of some kind of tendon or ligament issue I've had  in one leg)... (that's my excuse for taking a cab there) hahaha  It was worth it, too.

Have you been able to see the new Father Brown? I understand it started in January in the UK? How do you like it? How does it compare to the others? Are either of the two missing characters back at all?

We're getting  the "new" season here now, they are calling it "7," the first full  one which does not have Lady Felicia or Sid in any of them tho Sid has returned once from prison,  and left again, I understand he's to be on Broadway this fall. You can't help but wish them well,  but they really are missed.  (I did try some of Father Brown's lemon drops and humbugs and all I can say is they must be an acquired taste. But my grandson had his first millionaire's bar or shortbread  whatever they are called and is a fan for life.)   

Summer in the  Forest sounds wonderful, I will look for it.

[rosemarykaye]

Ginny, the sprinkler systems in Grenfell Tower were either not installed or not working, ditto the alarms. Social housing in this country - and especially in the tower blocks - is  allowed to rot these days, with very little maintenance, no wardens, no caretakers. Lifts rarely work, people are afraid of being mugged in the stairwells (which are usually in a revolting state). Having said that, it seems from what residents have said that there was a real community in Grenfell, and that people looked out for one another. It was the council - starved of cash by central government - that failed to look after these people, but really I feel that this translates as a failure of society. None of us knew how bad it was, but we should have known. This should not be allowed to happen in a 21st century so-called civilised country (or indeed anywhere).

But I am so glad you had a good time in London Millionaire's shortbread! I remember making that as a child - my mother being horrified at the cost of the ingredients. Now I am more horrified at the amount of fat and sugar in it, but I agree it is delicious.

I have not seen the new Father Brown. The new series are usually only shown on the Sky channels (that you have to pay extra for, and which my husband refuses to have on the basis that he's not giving a single penny to Rupert Murdoch...) so we just wait till they turn up on Freeview. But I've seen some of the episodes without Sid and Lady Felicia and I agree, it's not the same without them. I think the actor who plays Sid has become very much in demand for other things - did you see him in Dr Thorne?

What we are getting at the moment is the new series of Top of the Lake: China Girl. I was away for the first episode and the daughter forgot to record it, but luckily it is on i-player so we can catch up. It has already had a great review in The Guardian. We're also enjoying the new series of The Windsors (spoof) and Poldark. And about 7 episodes left on our Mad Men marathon - got to get to the end before Madeleine departs for university in September!

[BarbStAubrey]

Glad to see your post rosemary - and thanks for the info on Grenfell Tower - the financial support of society has been cut back so much and with fewer jobs there are aspects of life that remind me of reading a novel by Dickens.

As to the new Father Brown - saw it last Sunday and then there was the usual replay Saturday night - awful - just awful - could not even watch the replay - awful writing - awful directing - awful acting - the only actors in the lot that pulled off a performance was Mark Williams as Father Brown and Sorcha Cusack as Mrs Bridgette McCarthy - Inspector Mallory was more disjointed than usual, Bunty, who can act was not up to her usual performance and the others were as if a bunch of stills could be extracted that represented their best. I was really disappointed.

Looks like the end of Grantchester tonight - will he or won't he - Mrs Maguire's story is wrapped up with a satisfying ending and Al Weaver, as Leonard Finch has really shown himself to be a fine actor.

Some of the scenes in this second season for The Tunnel were difficult to watch last night but I do enjoy the series far more than I did Hinterland that had another sort of darkness with troubled people.

As to A Place To Call Home - oh my... the issues of class and now we even have Jack, the Doc awakening to his homosexuality - the characters Sarah and the matriarch Elizabeth and the crucified homosexual son James really hold that show aloft as a benchmark of acting that everyone ponies up and gives it their best. The filming is so spot on it too elevates the story.

Cannot make the switch yet from Kris Marshall playing DI Humphrey to Ardal O'Hanlon taking over the lead in Death in Paradise - Kris brought a lightness with his easy absent-minded way where as, all I can think of is at any moment Ardal will fly off in his cape as George Sunday - He plays the part too heavy trying to be frivolous with all these cutesy bits of playing with props and so he comes across disjointed rather than bumbling.   

All I can say is thank God for the Brit Coms - the usual TV is beyond anything I can even watch - if I want to watch a movie I can go to Amazon and make a choice, the rest is all garbage with the news taking over all the air time - tired of the whole mess - so for three consecutive nights it is Brit Coms plus the Baking show - and that is it - for the remaining days of the week the TV is off.

Even Charlie Rose is no longer a regular on his own show. The one younger guy does a good job but just does not have the depth that Charlie Rose exhibited 20 years ago during the early days of his show. It appears the wheel is turning yet again - the glories of aging - every other decade is a huge change from the past.

[mabel1015j]

Ginny - check with your library for the master class series you lost - or for any tv series.

Jean

[ginny]

Oh good idea, Jean, I will!

Barbara, which episode was that?  My DVR got two this week, The Tanganika Green, and the Sins of the Father.

I know there's a LOT of comment about hating the new series, specifically the first one in the series (they can't be talking about the Christmas Program). We can't purchase Season 5 here in DVD yet in the correct "Region," so we can see it on our own players, but we are getting it on PBS.

 Tanganika Green is "Episode 70" and Sins of the Father is "Season 4 Episode 9."

I hate that Lady  Felicia and Sid are gone, temporarily I hope, tho they both as Rosemarykaye says have booming careers, so it's a real burden for the writers, because the vibe was lost. And I can see not replacing those characters, either, because the originals may come back someday. In a way it's like a real parish, people come, and go.

Jeepers, the story just gets worse and worse, thank you Rosemary, I had no idea about the residential towers and their conditions. We don't get any of those programs like Top of the Lake: China Girl here, and I appreciate hearing about them so I can keep a watchful eye.

And of course I know you've all seen that Mary Berry is going to judge another cooking show, not about baking but the full meal. .  Can't wait for any of her series promised, including the ones in the great houses, they will all be good.

This is so funny, Rosemary: (that you have to pay extra for, and which my husband refuses to have on the basis that he's not giving a single penny to Rupert Murdoch...) My husband feels the same way about ONE of the PBS stations here which refused to air a tell all documentary about the plight of the mill workers which the others showed.

How is the "new" Paul Hollywood Great British Bake Off, Rosemary? On Channel 4? And do you understand the big uproar about Channel 4 about to play  the "Diana tapes?"  Apparently they were not seen in the UK but were broadcast elsewhere? I don't recall seeing them. I'm not sure why Paul Burrell had them (to protect her? Then why not burn them?) or how bad they can be.

[rosemarykaye]

Hi Ginny and Barb!

Ginny I have no idea about these 'Diana tapes' or why Paul Burrell should have them. I am not that interested in the royals, thoough I have to say that William and Harry seem to be turning out better than their forefathers! I imagine that Burrell has kept them (whatever they are) as some kind of insurance for his retirement. I know very little about him, but he does seem a bit smooth.

I haven't seen the new Paul Hollywood Bake Off either - I didn't even know it was on yet. We watched the first episode of Top of the Lake: China Girl last night and it was brilliant. They have in fact put all 6 episodes onto i-player straight away, even though they are only up to the second one (tomorrow night) on 'real' TV, but we decided not to watch them, as we'd rather follow the series as it progresses. Elisabeth Moss is such a good actor! And new to this series is Gwendoline Christie, wonderful as Moss's new sidekick. I'd never seen her before but my daughter knows her from Game of Thrones. I read that this series will be shown in the US on a channel called 'Sundance TV'? Just to warn you, its subject matter is not for the faint-hearted!

We finally finished the whole of Mad Men. I feel bereft! But what a fantastic series - I don't think the writers or the actors put a foot wrong.  And such an ambiguous ending - I'm still thinking about it.

Rosemary

[BarbStAubrey]

It was The Fire In The Sky that was so awful - this week not as bad with Flambeau, The Penitent Man but now they have Mrs. McCarthy acting as a sleuth with Bunty - I can see Bunty but Mrs. McCarthy!!??!!

[ginny]

Oh well you're either way ahead of us, because neither of those have appeared on our schedules, or else you're  way behind (because DISH lost all my programmed DVR tapes while I was on vacation, so it may have been among them), I hope not, because that's two more I have not seen!  Love Flambeau, isn't he a hoot?

I guess they have to expand Mrs. McCarthy's role to try to fill the missing two characters. I really like Sorcha Cusak, or however it's spelled. She's younger than I am! That was a shock!

The one I just saw had Mrs. McCarthy  and  Bunty sleuthing about in a great house.  The Bunty character is beginning to wear thin a bit, I think, hopefully they will change direction with it, and possibly put her in clothes that are not glued to her skin.   I don't know how she walks, or sits, and I've been reading  a lot of negative comments on the somewhat overdone Inspector character in the new episodes. Apparently the actor is a fine one and people resent the  buffoonish presentation.

In the older episodes I loved Father Brown's sense of humor. I love seeing him enjoying himself at the absolute worst shows and jokes and presentations, he comes across as humble and sweet. I don't know how the actor does it, I really don't, but it shows a lovely side  of the character's personality.

Rosemary, I must be the only person in the universe who has not seen Mad Men, is it worth it? Sometimes I wonder what I missed.  I had not seen The Good Wife, either, but I saw the first episode of The Good Fight (the spin off on CBS which you have to pay to see with Christine Baransky) and was blown away by her performance.  That first episode was electric.  I keep hoping that CBS will relent on the having to pay part because it seems silly to pay for that one program and it streaming on top of it, (and I don't like any of the other programs offered) but they haven't. It's not much money, it's the principle of the thing.

It  may actually BE that the Hollywood version of the Bake Off has not even appeared.  I wonder if we'll see it here.

[CallieOK]

I wondered what had happened to episodes of The Good Fight.   Is this a CBS station for which you have to pay?

My Netflix only has seasons 1-5 of Father Brown.  I'm working my way through #5 now.  Last one I watched was "The Chedwick (?) Cyclone" and I was surprised to see Father B. so interested in boxing.  Somehow, that didn't fit with his temperament.
 Bunty and Mrs. McCarthy are still there.  When does that change?

[ginny]

Barbara, we've caught up to you, I see both of those now on the DVR.  I personally disliked the Lucia one very much, so far.

Callie:

I wondered what had happened to episodes of The Good Fight.   Is this a CBS station for which you have to pay?

Apparently yes. The first episode was "free" on CBS but the rest require a subscription to CBS's...new money making venture in streaming called CBS All Access: this is from their site: 8,500 shows  to watch on any device: http://www.cbs.com For CBS All Access annual plans, the pricing is as follows:

    Limited Commercials Annual Plan: $59.99/annually with a 1 Week Free Trial*
    Commercial Free Annual Plan: $99.99/year with a 2-Day Free Trial*

I would love to see the rest of the Good Fight,  but I am not interested in the other programming. one of which is Candy Crush, a new show which was showing in previews the other week, absolutely unbelievable...you have to see it to believe it. Pairs of people endure being strung up on swinging apparatus trying to play physically the game Candy Crush on a giant upright electronic board.  Unbelievably awful.

My Netflix only has seasons 1-5 of Father Brown.  I'm working my way through #5 now.  Last one I watched was "The Chedwick (?) Cyclone" and I was surprised to see Father B. so interested in boxing.  Somehow, that didn't fit with his temperament.
 Bunty and Mrs. McCarthy are still there.  When does that change?

I always get the British show numbering wrong. Season 5 is the latest and aired in 2017.


The actor who played Sid has been in the British West End  production of The Cursed Child which is   coming to Broadway, so as long as that runs, which could be forever, I guess he'll be doing that.  Maybe he can do some occasional returns.



The actress who played Lady Felicia apparently is also  very busy. This is a listing of what she's dong in 2017:

Appearing in: Film:

THE GATHERING STORM

AN IDEAL HUSBAND

TV:

Will (TV Series)
Ellen Burbage
- Brave New World (2017) ... Ellen Burbage
- The Two Gentlemen (2017) ... Ellen Burbage
- Cowards Die Many Times (2017) ... Ellen Burbage
- The Play's the Thing (2017) ... Ellen Burbage

 2017 Prime Suspect 1973 (TV Mini-Series)
Mary Collins
- Episode #1.4 (2017) ... Mary Collins
- Episode #1.3 (2017) ... Mary Collins
- Episode #1.2 (2017) ... Mary Collins
- Episode #1.1 (2017) ... Mary Collins

Both appear blessed with a lot of work. Lovely for them, sad for us. 

The Father Brown writers have a big task ahead of them. The early series is hard to beat.

[CallieOK]

Thanks, Ginny.   I'll pass on paying CBS for the "privilege" of watching their selected shows.

Thanks also for the info on the number of Father Brown series.  The Season 5 episodes seem to be getting away from the gentler stories.

I enjoy seeing actors from the various long-time BBC series pop up on other things, particularly when they play a totally different type of role.  Signs of a good actor, IMO.

[ginny]

Me, too, Callie. The Father Brown series has taken on a more...modern edge. I have not read the original Chesterton books tho I have them on the ipad, perhaps I'll try one and see which film creation is more accurate. But it really isn't about accuracy as the film versions have a life of their own, and that life appears to be changing as you've said. Maybe the idea is to show Father Brown tackling not the world of the '50's but of 2017, what we're more "used to."

In the meantime we can always go back to the beginning and watch the old ones again, they're worth it.  I just found out there are more episodes in those which were shown in the UK, so I'm going to hope PBS shows more of them than on the DVD's.

Rosemary, this is an explosive question and you really need not answer, but you have said several times that you don't follow the Royal Family particularly and I guess my question is I'm wondering why?  The Queen seems to be exemplary, but is it the antics of the rest of them you are not interested in?

I ask for two reasons: first, that The Crown is coming back for a 2nd year in November!!  Minus John Lithgow as Churchill, unfortunately, but this will be the last season with our present cast, and I can't wait to see it, the acting is out of this world. So that has piqued my interest in the Royal Family, or some of them.

And also because I'm reading the new  Smith biography of Prince Charles. It's gigantic and I'm half way through and...I'm not sure what to say? How can we know any of our public figures? Why do we insist on putting them  pedestals? I don't think any of our own public figures are who we think/ hope/ project  they are. I never was interested in "Camelot," or the Kennedys,  who were not as they were portrayed, or any of the other presidents and their families, as far as following them personally.  I'm beginning to wonder what is  wrong with me.

We live in such a Revisionist Age.  Many of our former Founding Fathers and heroes  are often shown now to have been  half legend and half nothing like what we thought.  I'm also reading a mammoth, 1000 page biography of MacArthur, my gosh his real life defies description. It's like some sort of ancient epic,  and yet, all I knew of him was the "old soldiers never die," the Truman firing, and  the takes and retakes of his landing  over and over on the beach.

 The Smith biography of Charles  presents a different side of him, positive things  he's actually accomplished, which are considerable. I had no idea. And the little negative things are sort of presented after an avalanche of astonishing works, as tiny little after thoughts, as if they don't matter. . But they linger in the mind. I gues they are more salacious and easy to remember for the normal reader than some of the projects and things he's tried to do.

 So now he's more of an  enigma, than ever, to me.  He's... He's plunged himself into really worthy causes, unlike a lot of his predecessors,  he's done a great deal which I knew absolutely nothing about, in areas which seem particularly worthy, quite a few of which  ideas which I agree with, actually...but... then there's the other side. Sad. Things I really didn't need or want to know. I can't seem to  put a finger on it. He seems contemplative and concerned, BUT... for some reason like that Peanuts character, he always seems to have a little cloud over his head. Despite everything he's done, started, and accomplished, his press remains awful. What is it he lacks in dealing with people?

I think perhaps one issue has been that  all these years he's been trying to manage  his own press by honestly  pouring out his feelings, doubts, insecurities, etc., in public and on paper, whinging, really, and maybe he has needed a better PR manager. Because it doesn't seem to be working. Maybe  the last half of the gigantic Smith book will do that for him.  He's at an age when people look back to their own legacy and want control of their lives. I wonder how history will see him.