To not merrily give away my Christmas lunch to a German family I've never even met?

[HarrietKettleWasHere]

Ok not me but Jo March.

I'n watching the travesty BBC adaption of Little Women.

The mum comes home and makes them feel awful just as they are about to tuck in to all the lovely food, because of the poor immigrant family, who are, by all accounts, having a really horrible time. Even though Marmee has already given them all her firewood. And they skip out the door so jolly, with all their bacon, sausages and maple syrup, and cream that they get only at Christmas to bestow upon the family. Even selfish Amy!

I was just wondering if I'd have been quite so joyful about doing that at a similar age

Beth then gets scarlet fever from the baby, which goes to show no good deed goes unpunished.

It looks like it'll be a clementine for dinner, 1 segment apiece, but luckily the rich family from down the road then take pity on them and send a lovely ham.

This is lighthearted by the way. It can't be serious really because the adaption is quite awful.

I don't know is where they filmed it but it can't be Massachusetts as I keep hearing a Great Tit call and they don't have those there pedantic

Also Amy is supposed to be 12 and she looks 27.

What other classics has television managed to ruin for you with their adaptions?

I think I was about 11/12 when I read Little Women for the first time, and I remember smugly thinking that I would give away my breakfast too if required, and my Christmas presents too (as they also do, so Marmee can have nice things). Looking back, that was definitely a conviction born of the fact I knew I'd never actually be required to do so, because I definitely wouldn't have been so eager if it had actually been on the cards!

I also requested a copy of Pilgrim's Progress because they're all obsessed with it and make it sound so exciting. When my slightly bemused parents acquiesced I then discovered that Bunyan really, really isn't for modern preteens, even annoyingly precocious ones. I got about five pages in.

I loved Little Women the first time I read it. I then reread it a few years later and a good deal more cynical and realised that saintly bloody Beth is one of literature's most infuriating characters.

It felt a bit ewwwww in the 1994 film version. To me anyway.

I thought tonight's episode was a yawnfest.

I felt rather it was being implied Jo was a lesbian who settled for marriage to a kind man with a good intellect.

I'm not enamoured. I do love Meg though, she's stunning (have a bit of a girl crush on her) and she's made Meg more interesting than previous adaptations. Jo is good, Beth so so, Amy all wrong. Mind you my favourite adaptation is the 1949 one with Elizabeth Taylor as Amy, so that's a high bar to overcome.

On another point, the issue in Ballet Shoes is that they are asset rich with the house, but have basically no income since GUM buggered off. They are properl strapped for cash. I can't remember if they are legally unable to sell the house or they can't bring themselves to.

Pa admitted a little black girl to his school and it angered the rest of the paying parents, I thought?

Amy and Meg were always my favourites. I always found Jo a smug bully! Although I think burning her book was harsh. I love the 94 adaptation and I'm not sure about this one. Marmee is Susan Sarandon. End of. I also felt they lived in more obvious poverty in the 94 version.

Ashley Jensen!

And , thank you, you have put my mind at rest. that was niggling me!

Marmee had them play a game of Pilgrim's Progress around the house when they were little children! That sounded adorable and exciting when I was a teenager. Now I think it sounds bloody weird.

They were all so bloody virtuous.

Louisa May Alcott actually said she didn't put Jo and Laurie together just to piss her readers off!

Oh come on! I bet she didn't phrase it quite like that.

I have enjoyed this adaptation actually. Angela Lansbury was excellent.
I read all the book several times as a child and Little Men was my favourite even though horribly sentimental.

I had forgotten how funny some of the Little Women scenes are.

I thought it was Alcott's father IRL who created the school (is Plumfield supposed to be based on the idea later on?) and admitted the black student? Isn't Pa March a vicar in the book?

I loved the film adaptation of The Secret Garden too Harriet! :) I thought Mary Lennox was so tough and feisty - really wanted to be her growing up!

Haha it's not quite verbatim but she said she didn't put them together as that's what people wanted.

Sorry, just in the Ballet Shoes note, I can't express enough how much I hate that book. Such a disappointment as a ballet dancing teenager and classics bookworm.

GUM is such a fucking troll sending endless babies to his unmarried, young niece.

Also, the TV adaptation was awful. Mostly because I can't stand Emma Watson, and they planted Pauline firmly at the forefront of that adaptation.

Just saw the last episode. They ran though everything so fast!
I wouldn't marry Laurie, he got over Jo too quickly.

I can't remember, how did Pa March lose the family fortune again?

didn't he virtuously but unwisely lend it to someone in need who never paid him back?

I never rated the Elizabeth Taylor Amy as she looked about 30, this one does indeed have touch of the Bethany Platt about her

Pickled limes - wouldn't these be just what they say - limes which have been pickled? As in Lime Pickle (which tastes so good in a banana toastie)

There is a fab book called Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer which is all recipes for food from classic children's novels (anne of green gables' raspberry cordial, marmalade roll from the lion, the witch and the wardrobe etc). That has the recipe for Amy's pickled limes in it, i can't remember the details but i think they were sweet.

I love how they are described as "fashionable limes" in the book. And, oh the horror, Amy has to throw them out the window for the Irish children.

I hated Amy so much in the book. I would have pushed her head under the ice if she'd burnt my novel.

Also, the TV adaptation was awful. Mostly because I can't stand Emma Watson, and they planted Pauline firmly at the forefront of that adaptation

There is a gorgeous BBC adaptation from the 1970s which I think is on YouTube. And Pauline is perfect in that.

Emma Watson is genuinely terrible, agreed.

Sorry, just in the Ballet Shoes note, I can't express enough how much I hate that book. Such a disappointment as a ballet dancing teenager and classics bookworm.

Oh, I loved, loved, loved Ballet Shoes! Though, unlike Little Women, I've never revisited it as an adult, so it may well have glaring flaws (like Beth in Little Women being fucking awful) that I would now spot. I do remember feeling sad for the oldest one (Pauline?) who goes off to work in films despite not being that keen on it to help keep them all, and I do agree that, in hindsight, GUM was encountering a suspiciously implausible number of 'motherless' babies.

Thank you onewhitewhisker, I'll have a look.

Every girl loves Jo doesn't she? I never quite understood why she turned down Laurie.

Because she mistakenly believed Beth was in love with him

I haven't watched this version yet. I read all of the books over and over again as a child, and saw the 1949 version in 1949!! I was so disappointed in Elizabeth Taylor as a very mature 16 year old playing 12 year old Amy. I thought Margaret O'Brien as Beth was the best cast character as she was 13 at the time. Peter Lawford (Laurie) was 35!

Yeah GUM was a dick.

the actresses were all so pretty but yes, it was a pretty crap adaption.

Angela Lansbury was not the best person to play Aunt March and the dad is the murderer from the Good Wife which is all I can think about when I see him playing a loving father. ewww