At the other end of the social spectrum we meet the impoverished Gregson family; Gregson seems to be a deadbeat, his wife struggling to take care of their kids and make ends meet. Their eldest son Harry tries to help his mother but is too young to do much.
With summer winding down and schedules returning to normal, we're getting back into the habit of gathering to watch a movie on Sunday nights. Last Sunday we watched the first episode of the 2007 BBC series Cranford. This is an adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's 1853 novel by the same name, though it apparently also draws a bit from three of her other works: The Last Generation In England, My Lady Ludlow, and Mr. Harrison's Confessions. I've read several of Gaskell's books- North and South, Wives and Daughters, and Mary Barton- but have never read Cranford or the other books mentioned above so am watching the series with only a vague notion of what it's about. I did give a copy of the book to one of my sisters along with the DVDs of Cranford last Christmas (this is what we're watching) so she has a better idea of what's going on than I. So far, Cranford doesn't seem to have much of a plot; it's more of a series of vignettes involving various members of the town of Cranford. This is an observation not a criticism, because these vignettes are interesting and often quite humorous. My sister says that the book is like this and is related mostly in a series of letters to one of the main characters- Miss Mary Smith- who is a frequent visitor to the town. The BBC series however does not employ letters to tell its story and, instead of Mary occasionally visiting, she moves to Cranford at the beginning of Episode I. Mary Smith is from Manchester and she comes to Cranford in the summer of 1842 to stay with friends of her late mother: the two spinster sisters Deborah and Matty Jenkyns. Soon afterwards, new neighbours move in next door- Captain Brown and his two daughters. The very prim and correct Deborah is a bit put off by the Captain due to his blunt habits of speech. He frankly admits that they've moved to Cranford because it's a fairly inexpensive place to live and he doesn't have much money. Deborah considers this discussion of personal finances to be crass and vulgar. They don't meet Brown's eldest daughter because she is bedridden and extremely ill, but take an interest in the younger daughter Jessie, who spends most of her time caring for her sister. Later in the episode, the ill Miss Brown dies while Captain Brown is away, and the women rally around to help Jessie- especially Deborah, proving that her bark is worse than her bite. Another incident which sets the town gossips aflutter is the arrival of the young (and single) new doctor Frank Harrison. He has come to assist his uncle, Doctor Morgan- the town's current physician- with his practice. Morgan worries that the townspeople, set in their ways, won't accept his young nephew as a doctor, but Frank wins them over with his first case. Local handyman Jem Hearne has suffered a compound fracture while doing some work for the Jenkyns. Dr. Morgan is planning to amputate the arm, which will mean financial destitution for Hearne who will no longer be able to do carpentry. Dr. Harrison intervenes, proposing to perform a new surgery, setting the bone and stitching the arm closed. The problem is, it needs to be done right away before infection sets in, it's night, and Harrison needs a lot of light to see what he's doing. He goes to the local store hoping to buy out all their candles but is told that they are sold out until the next shipment arrives. Getting wind of this, the ladies of Cranford spring into action, gathering up all the candles that they can find in town and bringing them to the doctor. This allows Harrison to operate without waiting until daylight, saving Jem's arm. In another story line, we meet local aristocrat Lady Ludlow, whose husband and most of her children are dead. Her one remaining son, whom she idolizes, lives abroad spending the estate's money and never bothering to come home. She makes excuses for him, but it's obvious that he's a selfish wastrel. Her estate is managed by the competent and conscientious Edmund Carter. At the other end of the social spectrum we meet the impoverished Gregson family; Gregson seems to be a deadbeat, his wife struggling to take care of their kids and make ends meet. Their eldest son Harry tries to help his mother but is too young to do much. Among the other residents of the town, we meet the somewhat eccentric widow Mrs. Forrester. In this episode, her cat swallows a valuable length of lace trim which requires the prompt use of a laxative and a Wellington boot to, um, retrieve the lace. I found myself quite enjoying this first episode of Cranford. As mentioned, there's no plot to speak of: we just sort of meander from one scene to the next, but these scenes are interesting and enjoyable. The focus of Cranford seems to be the women of the town; there are men, but they are more satellite characters, orbiting around the ladies and their concerns. As this is a BBC production, Cranford is a veritable "who's who" of British actors, from those you recognize at once such as Judi Dench, Julia Sawalha, and Imelda Staunton, to many more who look vaguely familiar and you eventually place as having been in some period drama or another. All in all, I had a good time watching episode one of Cranford and am looking forward to the next installment.
Comments
|
About MeI'm a lover of good books, classic movies, and well-written shows (as well as some pretty cheesy ones, to be completely honest). Categories
All
Archives
March 2024
Fun SitesOdds & Ends |