BBC Serial Mania ...cont'd

Some of you will probably think I'm nuts. In some ways, I guess I must be. To devote so much time and energy to these shows. "Wives and Daughters" (1999) was once again adapted by the Andrew Davies from Elizabeth Gaskell's last novel. (The link here is to the ebook available from Project Gutenberg, which offers a host of free e-books. I guess they are able to do this mainly due to the expiry of the copyrights.)

One of the stars of the serial is Francesca Annis. I was a huge fan of hers from way back in the 70s, when she acted as Lillie Lantry in another BBC serial, "Lillie". Of course, she was also quite well known for the fact that she was in a long relation with the much younger Ralph Fiennes.

Michael Gambom won a BAFTA for his role as the squire. He is of course much better known now as the actor who took over from Richard Harris as Albus Dumbledore in the last Harry Potter movie.

A couple of young actresses were very impressive as well. Justine Waddell and Keeley Hawes. It's amazing how different they can look. All three pics in this blog has Keeley Hawes in them.

As with these period dramas, there is always a lot of repressed emotions and lots of goings on about honour. But the language and the acting, as I've said time and again, is what draws me to them.

Charles Dickens' "Our Mutual Friend" was the one I spent this Sunday with. This was the last novel he had written.

This adaptation by The BBC produced 1997, adapted by Sandi Welch. It starred Paul McGann and Anna Friel.

In the TV series Lost, character Desmond Hume keeps Our Mutual Friend close by, as he has read everything Charles Dickens wrote except it, and plans to have it be his last thing read before he dies.

The story was convoluted and there was a host of characters but once again the Beeb was able to channel everything into an engrossing 6hours, resulting in a BAFTA for Best Serial.