The Village anyone?

[PenelopePisstop]

Just starting, I'm looking forward to this.

[BrandNewRetro]

It took a bit of getting used to but I liked it. When John Sim started caressing his floor was when I realised I was won over.

[Clayhead]

I liked it, am intrigued.

[Darkesteyes]

I liked it too. i like my drama gritty and realistic. I wasnt tuning in expecting to see a Hans Christian Anderson version of the past.

Love John Simm and Maxine Peake. Two of the best actors this country has.
Theres an interview with Maxine in the latest issue of Psychologies for anyone on this thread who might be interested.

[Darkesteyes]

Interview with John Simm.


www.ethical-hedonist.com/john-simm-on-playing-princes-rebels-a-time-travelling-policeman-rock-legend-by-alison-jane-reid_1463.html

[DrCoconut]

About the standing up. It was normal in many families especially old fashioned chapel goers for children to eat standing up. My mum remembers getting a chair as a real rite of passage. And that was in the 60's. I'm guessing it was much more widely practised back when this is set. Therefore making the older boy stand is a way of putting him in his place and reminding him who is boss.

[Still18atheart]

I didn't think it was brilliant but I thought it was good. Will watch again, according to the reviews next weeks is less depressing.

[AllOverIt]

I liked it. It was really realistic.

Many men joined the war at the beginning as they were so impoverished. They knew that by joining they'd get three meals a easy, and the pay was relatively good. No one knew what a bloodbath it would turn out to be.

In terms of chances if coming back, statistically over the 4ish years of war, 'only' 1 in 5 died. However the Pals Battalions that Joe was joining meant that if one operation went badly for their particular unit, huge numbers of men from one particular village would die or return injured. That's why you sometimes see large numbers of names on war memorials in seemingly small villages. It's also why they eventually stopped Pals Battalions.

[DCIlouisemonroe]

Well I tuned in not expecting to like it generally hate period dramas.

Liked it....

[ProfYaffle]

I enjoyed it too. I'm not a fan of the more cosy period dramas. I liked seeing a realistic portrayal of working class life.

I'm researching my family tree at the moment and just about everyone married at 20/21, like an alarm goes off and they just grab the nearest person of the opposite sex and right age so they can get married on cue. I often wonder what sort of marriage those people lived through and imagine many of them ended up like this one.

[diddl]

Well, after all I said I will probably give it another try, as it is the sort of thing I usually enjoy.

Although I didn't like the father, I'm wanted to know what has gone wrong.

Is he drinking because its gone wrong with the farm?

Has it gone wrong because he drinks?

Didn't the wife help with the farming-would she have done?

Did anyone ever watch Heimat?

[ProfYaffle]

I wondered that too, why wasn't the older son working on the farm? Why wouldn't he keep the younger one off school to work on the farm? (not ideal but better than starving surely) What was the thing she has forgiven him for? And the neighbour who paid his slate in the pub, does he know something about why he's in his current mess? I felt sorry for him when he was laying on the floor.

[BrandNewRetro]

What was Heimat?

I'll be watching again too, I'm hoping life will get better for people overall as the century progresses.

Really looking forward to how they deal with the 70's/80s!

[BrandNewRetro]

I felt sorry for him when he was laying on the floor too.

[ProfYaffle]

Heimat's a German TV programme with a similar format, went on for hundreds of hours or something. I've not seen it.

[diddl]

Heimat

[carabos]

Turned it off after the "Lady Chatterley" sex scene. Honestly how unoriginal was that. The little boy was horrible, the female teacher was horrible, the father was a caricature, the Juliet Stevenson character was a caricature. In all, tedious and one- dimensional.

[Pan]

This is my part of the world, so it was nice to see it and do a bit of location spotting.
But it was pretty relentlessly grim, and as carabos says too many of the characters were uni-dimensional, though the following episodes can put that right.
The pacing was awful though. But what a massively impressive cast!

[PuppyMonkey]

I liked it too. The little boy lives in the area I cover on my local newspaper and I had to interview him the other day.

Those saying you didn't like the father - have you thought maybe you're not supposed to like him?.

[Pan]

I'm expecting some redemption of the father - surely he can't be this menacing for another 5 episodes!

[eatyourveg]

Didn't hear I vow to thee my country, the soundtrack to the trailer, it was a lovely version but wasn't at the opening titles. Had I fallen asleep and missed it being played at the end?

[LittleBairn]

puppy well obviously we are not supposed to like him otherwise they wouldn't have made him an abusive bastard...

It's just cliched crap that men in them days were well ard but meant well but led a poor tough life.
I fully expect he will have full redemption by end of the series. But I won't be buying into it abusive bastards are always abusive bastards regardless of era and hardship.

[ShipwreckedAndComatose]

Well, perhaps we will make that judgement if it turns out you are right about the plot. but until then, lets just wait an see what happens

[5Foot5]

Well I thought it wasn't too bad either. It's the eve of the Great War and a poor rural area so I think grim is what you should expect really.

I am going to give it a bit longer.