Will Anybody Be Watching Birdsong Tonight?

[NannyPlumIsMyMum]

I'm off to bed early tonight to watch CTM and then I'm looking forward to Birdsong. Will anybody else be watching it ?

Yes, she was Shirley Williams' mother, vital (useless) fact I can remember. I think it is worth remembering that War Horse is a kids' film. I was a wreck in it and DD (8) hardly batted an eyelid! There were a lot of adults at the cinema when we saw WH without kids and then it gets criticised for being "too sugary" etc, but it IS for kids, even 52 year old ones like me!!

You see, this is why I love mumsnet- I've managed to express feelings about a good drama, listen to other opinions/debate, fawn over a sexual actor (my face was superimposed over her's all the way through...), and have been educated towards some excellent literature. The same happenened with Sherlock and I'm now reading Conan-Doyle, I feel enriched. Obviously, I'm still invisible in the real world being treated like a cook, cleaner, general dogsbody..but by night, I'm flouncing around, in love, being intently stared at with adoration...ahhhh. Although, the glazed love look would start to get on my tits once I tripped over his shoes, cos non of them can put them away properly...

The character is meant to be a cold-fish who comes to feel intensely for his men, never taking leave - Firebrace is the emotional warmth - so think ER's portrayal of him is right. Stephen is trapped for 6 days underground and emerges as the only survivor to find the war has ended. In the novel, he returns to Jeanne and Francoise but doesn't speak for 2 years and he dies at 48 having never got over WW1.

Omg valentine I want to cry at your synopsis, never mind the book, which I am going to have to read now. I'm actually a bit nervous about reading it because I know it is so desperately sad, yet feel compelled to do so! Sovery, ditto about the interest in ww1 and 2.

Just finished watching Episode 2 this morning. Agree it was better than the first Episode.
I thought the saddest bit was when the elderly chaplain was on the building looking down at the Battle of The Somme, crying and saying "My poor boys...",making me well up now.
Very moving.

I've just watched Episode 2. I'm afraid to say (because I've liked him in other things) that Eddie R was the weakest link. Some of the scenes were genuinely moving and made me feel the senselessness, horror and waste of the war. But they were all scenes that foregrounded other characters over him ? the sequences with him and Firebrace in the tunnels, the group scenes before they all went over the top, the chaplain etc.

Eddie seemed to have one face on throughout. I get that his character was already a numbed and damaged man even before he got to the trenches of WW1, but I felt that in trying to show that, he just failed to show any kind of emotion or inner life or thoughts. Maybe the script should take some of the blame for that too, to be fair.

I suspect that this was supposed to have been his big breakthrough role, and that unfortunately it will not have been.

I do hope he does good work in the future though ? he is capable of it and is a tremendous actor when on form.

Joseph Mawle as Firebrace and Clemence Poesy as Isabelle were the standouts IMO.

at this being Redmayne's "breakthrough performance" Possibly the award winning broadway run and Oscar nominated film are more likely to give him a leg up in the profession.

The love story ruined what could have been a decent novella. I liked the relationship between the men - though I hated the forelock-tugging. I know it was a different time and place, but please.

I can't be shaken of the idea that tacking on a doomy romance was a cynical ploy by Sebastian Faulks and his publisher to pad it out and make it appeal to a female audience.

The publishing world was awash with WW1 books 20 or so years ago. Birdsong had to have something extra because war and men dying doesn't have wide appeal.

Pat Barker's Regeneration Trilogy was miles more moving and authentic in its portrayal of the experiences of the men and their attempts to build relationships with women than Birdsong.

The Monocled Mutineer was a fabulous WWI drama/romance based on a novel and true story. And it pissed off the Daily Mail and Norman Tebbit which is always a sign the BBC is on the right track.

Plus it had a young Paul McGann in it who beats Eddie Redmayne into a cocked hat

EvilTwins, I meant the one that makes him a household name, which he hasn't been thus far. And still isn't, I don't think.

Barely two years ago Redmayne did a shlocky Black Deathy supernatural crappy thing with Sean Bean who presumably had a tax bill to pay.

He couldn't get arrested.

The papers will have changed their minds after his sopping wet performance in Birdsong that lots of people watched.

limited, I guess you mean um, Black Death?

I love that kind of shite. I must watch it.

Sean Bean ... hmmmm. Filthy no doubt.

Dp made me watch that after he found it in Tesco's bargain bin. I know now why it was in the bargain bin.

Yep. There is a reason why one review said: Avoid Like The Plague

I'm still going to watch it!

I quite enjoyed it but didn´t like either the ER character or Isabelle/a(?)

Thought she was an absolute bitch for leaving him because she was pregnant.

Much preferred her sister.

Couldn´t decide if her really loved her tbh or was obsessed.