Welcome to an impromptu edition of the Risky Regencies JANE AUSTEN MOVIE CLUB!
Today, we’re going to branch out beyond Jane Austen adaptations, and talk about the recent adaptation of CRANFORD.
And in our upcoming schedule: the first Tuesday of June (June 3), we’ll talk about CLUELESS…and the first Tuesday in July (July 1), we’ll talk about the 1980 miniseries of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, the one with David Rintoul and Elizabeth Garvie. Please join us!
So…did you watch any of Cranford? What did you think?
Cast etc are listed here for your discussing convenience:
CAST:
Miss Deborah Jenkyns — Eileen Atkins
Miss Matty Jenkyns — Judi Dench
Mary Smith — Lisa Dillon
Dr. Harrison — Simon Woods
Harry Gregson — Alex Etel
Martha — Claudie Blakley
Dr. Morgan — John Bowe
Miss Pole — Imelda Staunton
Mrs. Forrester — Julia McKenzie
Mrs. Jamieson — Barbara Flynn
Caroline Tomkinson — Selina Griffiths
Miss Tomkinson — Deborah Findlay
Bertha — Hannah Hobley
Jem Hearne — Andrew Buchan
Helen Hutton — Hester Odgers
Lizzie Hutton — Rosy Byrne
Sophy Hutton — Kimberley Nixon
Walter Hutton — Haydon Downing
Reverend Hutton — Alex Jennings
Mr. Carter — Philip Glenister
Mr. Johnson — Adrian Scarborough
Lady Ludlow — Francesca Annis
Captain Brown — Jim Carter
Jessie Brown — Julia Sawalha
Sir Charles Maulver — Greg Wise
Miss Galindo — Emma Fielding
Margaret Gidman — Bessie Carter
Bella Gregson — Emma Lowndes
Malachi Gregson — Andrew Byrne
Mrs. Rose — Lesley Manville
Major Gordon — Alistair Petrie
Mrs. Johnson — Debra Gillett
Job Gregson — Dean Lennox Kelly
Clara Smith — Finty Williams
Mr. Holbrook — Michael Gambon
Kate — Imogen Byron
Bessie — Hannah Stokely
Mulliner — Roger Ennals 
Gypsy Woman — Patricia Leach
Farmer Graves — Andrew Westfield
Jack Marshland — Joe McFadden
Assistant Auctioneer — Adam Henderson Scott
Mrs. Goddard — Andy Rashleigh
Peter Jenkyns — Martin Shaw
SCREENPLAY: Heidi Thomas
DIRECTOR: Simon Curtis and Steve Hudson
All opinions welcome!
Cara
Cara King, who has more than two candles
Hi, Cara! I watched Cranford and loved it–though it was really a combination of Cranford and My Lady Ludlow by Gaskell. (I did my senior seminar on Cranford so I used to know it backwards and forwards–unfortunately that was longer ago than I care to admit.)
I thought this production was really well done and they managed a nice balance between the humor and the sadnesses. I think it’s been a while since I watched someting on Masterpiece that made me LOL and cry too…
And it took me the longest to figure out where I’d seen the red headed doctor before. Duh, he was Bingley in the latest P&P…
Thanks for the info on My Lady Ludlow, Manda! I confess I’ve never read any Gaskell, and I was wondering what other novels this adaptation was based on!
I did manage to spot the young doctor as Bingley — so similar, and yet so different! 😉 I take no credit for spotting Greg Wise, though, as I knew in advance he was in the cast.
On the other hand, even though I knew going in that Julia Sawalha was in this, and I’ve seen her in several other things, I still didn’t recognize her! (For those who didn’t spot her either, she plays Jessie Brown, the invalid’s sister who wanted to marry Scottish Major Gordon.)
BTW, I’ve only seen the first two hours so far…hope to see more tonight!
Other casting things I noticed after looking things up…the maid, Martha (the one who never says “madam” when she should) played Charlotte Lucas in the recent movie of Pride & Prejudice.
And Mary Smith’s stepmother, the annoying one who really wants to marry her off, is played by Finty Williams, who’s Judi Dench’s daughter.
Cara
I missed “Cranford,” but I’ll be sure to catch it when it reruns. That’s an impressive cast.
I really loved “Cranford,” and was sorry to see it end! (I did see they are making a “Christmas in Cranford” to sort of tie up some loose ends, but it won’t be out until December 2009!! Ack!). I enjoy these “portraits of a community” stories (like “Middlemarch”) that blend all aspects of life, the tragic and the absurd. I hope they keep doing high-quality series like this one, and that “Bleak House” from a few years ago. 🙂
I did see they are making a “Christmas in Cranford”
Oh, that’s neat, Amanda! I hadn’t known that.
I do hope it will have ewoks in it. I mean, all Christmas specials have ewoks, right?
Cara
I have a confession to make.
I haven’t seen ‘Cranford’ yet.(I’ve DVRed it).
I was just popping by here (because I remembered it was Tuesday) to see if anyone else knew that Saffy on Ab Fab is Lydia from the BBC version of P & P. This led me to google AbFab which brought me to Cranford where I also wondered just who the good doctor was. Turns out he is also played Gaius Julius Caesar on HBO’s Rome.
Santa
Who’s off to bed now….
I didn’t see it either. I caught half of the first half but missed the second entirely. Even forgot to DVR it.
Santa, I did know that Lydia was the daughter on Ab Fab…I was living in England when that P&P came out, and all the papers made a very big deal about what a very different character Lydia was for Julia Sawalha!
And then she was also in Martin Chuzzlewit, and a bit different again…though not as different as she was here. (As I mentioned above, I didn’t recognize her!)
I haven’t seen Rome, so I wouldn’t have recognized the good doctor from that… Caesar, though? Nice. 🙂
I just finished watching it, and I did like it a lot. A bit sadder than I expected, though! But also very funny.
Must say, I was ready to shake the Julia Sawalha character when she turned down the good Major because her dad might be lonely if she left. That’s martyrdom, if you ask me… 😉
Cara
My first reaction to Cranford was “My God, I’m glad I didn’t live in 1842!” They were dropping like flies! It had a higher body count than Rambo!
However, after getting past that first reaction I really enjoyed it a lot. Parts of it were very sad, but it was on the whole very funny and enjoyable. And what a terrific cast! Judi Dench, Eileen Atkins, Michael Gambon, Imelda Staunton…it’s enough to make your head spin. And the younger cast members were also excellent. Kimberley Nixon is very pretty, but I think I prefer Lisa Dillon–something about a woman in glasses, I guess! 🙂
Todd-who-is-glad-that-he-didn’t-live-in-1843-either
I missed it but have added it to my Netflix queue–which is growing nearly as fast as my TBR list!
I still haven’t seen part 3 of this but what I have seen is absolutely perfect. I’m lost for words (for once!).
You know, the more I think about it, the more I can see interesting little things (and themes) in Cranford.
It struck me most of the way through that we really never saw a scene that had a mother and her child…barring one brief one with Mary’s stepmother.
There are fathers and children…but almost no mothers and children (though we do have one mother whose child won’t visit!)
There are two men willing to wait a long time for the woman they love.
There are two men who cause huge trouble by their pranks.
There are three women expected to care for siblings.
Comparing this to the BBC’s many Dickens adaptations, it strikes me there are a lot more women in this — particularly single women.
And the most touching scenes in Cranford never involved romantic love, I think.
I particularly liked the complicated characters — Miss Deborah and Miss Pole come to mind. Most of the hardhearted found they had some pity in them.
In some ways (not counting medicine) Cranford does seem like a lovely place to live…though in other ways, it would be sheer hell. 🙂
Cara
Cara wrote:
In some ways (not counting medicine) Cranford does seem like a lovely place to live…though in other ways, it would be sheer hell. 🙂
From what I hear, small town gossip is still alive and well. And not just in small towns! In some ways, a university department or school is rather like a small town…you find everything out by hearing from someone who heard it from someone. I imagine a lot of offices and other businesses are the same. Even in the big city, we find smaller communities that we’re a part of. It must be part of human nature to seek that out.
Todd-who-never-ever-gossips