Death Comes to Pemberley BBC1

[bisjo]

Anyone watching? It is so slow. I'm not sure I'll be watching parts 2 and 3 or even the whole of part 1.

ridiculous ending and agree with you Diddl, the idea that Darcy a stuck up 18th century aristo would welcome a bastard child living on his estate is bonkers.

Not sure about that, wasn't it considered the gentlemanly thing to see that the rellies' bastards weren't left to starve? It's not as if it was Darcy's bastard, after all.

Col FW was involved in trying to pay off Wickham but didn't get to the point of proposing to Georgiana.

bastard children might have been taken care of financially but they were always packed off somewhere

Yes - as with Sense and Sensibility. Colonel Brandon's first love ends up dying alone with a bastard child and he takes care of the child as his ward but there's no way she was tripping around his estate.

Feel sorry for the character assassination on Wickham's father. Previously a hghly esteemed steward to the late Mr Darcy yet now apparently had a dalliance which produced Mrs Younge ! Not sure when he would have supposedly had the opportunity or means to fit that in. Louisa got shipped off to Highbury in the book iirc (ref. Emma)

Oh, I assumed Mrs Younge was just a normal sister of Wickham's, although it makes no sense that Darcy would have placed Georgiana with her in that case. Why did she need to be his sister in any case?

I thought there was more than a suggestion in the adaptation that Wickham could have been Darcy's half-brother. In Pride & Prejudice Jane Austen is very clear that old Mr Darcy treated Wickham almost like another son out of love for both the boy, who was clearly very endearing, and his father, who was an old family retainer and Mr Darcy's right-hand man. However, I can see that tongues would have wagged when it became known that Wickham, the steward's son, had been left a fairly substantial sum in old Mr Darcy's will. I wonder if Mrs Wickham was a good-looking woman?

It wasn't explained in the adaptation how Mrs Younge and Wickham could be sister and brother but not meet until they were both grown up. Presumably they had one parent in common, not both, but which one? Can anyone who had read the book fill the background in?

It isn't really explained in the book either. Just that Wickham senior had had a bit on the side and somehow they had found each other after his death and contrived the scenario where she became Georgiana's companion and thus enable Wickham to try to elope with her. She is supposed to have run a boarding house in London for respectable men with more than a hint of blackmail.

Thanks, LIZS. I also thought there was more than a whiff of incest in that storyline. Mrs Younge seemed a bit too devoted to Wickham.

Yes - Wickham was living with her in this boarding house when he abandoned Lydia, it's where Darcy finds him (at least, it definitely is in the Ehle-Firth P&P, I think it's mentioned in the book).

Mrs Younge definitely seemed a bit overly invested in Wickham. Hard to believe you would chuck yourself under a carriage for a brother you only met as an adult? Would it have made more sense if she were not his sister but a widow pining for him?

In the adaptation, it seemed to me that there was room for doubt about what happened when she went under the carriage. She was distracted by grief so could have set off into the road without looking. Equally plausibly, she could have done it deliberately. Nasty way to go, though.

I think Mrs Y was meant to be suffering from Genetic Sexual Attraction, which would result in that kind of overpowering emotional reaction.

Ok. I missed the last episode grr and can't find it on iPlayer. Can someone sum up in a few lines for me please?

iPlayer if you do want to watch it, demented.

Mrs VaughnRice - I thought the same. She was in love with her brother but they couldn't reproduce so that's why she wanted the baby...

Tom Ward(?) who played Col FW in this was in the 1995 BBC series as one of the soldiers, wasn't he?

Also in Vanity Fair as George someone?-also a soldier!

It must be thought that he looks good in uniform!

THAT'S where I've seen him- thanks! I loved that adaptation of Vanity Fair. That was written by Andrew Davis too, like the 1995 P&P.

Silent Witness too

George Osbourne.

Can't help thinking of

George Osborne, actually! Would not normally nitpick over a stray u but I try not to think about George Osbourne too much...

I'd completely missed the fact that he was in P&P. I feel a re-viewing of my boxed set coming on!

Finally caught up with this!

Well I agree with pp that think it was better that the book which tbh was pretty rubbish, also cringed at Lydia saying 'you know' am sure Jane Austen would not approve!!

However did find it watchable.

I'm wondering if the prog makers just couldn't be bothered to find more children to have in it, in the book e and d have two boys and another on the way, the Bingleys have about 4 children. I'm guessing Lydia must have fertility problems as not had any but obv not a problem for Wickam to up duff some poor girl.

Thought Lydia had four children in the book? I must be getting it mixed up with another P and P spin-off.

Yes,mixing it up with "Pemberley" by Emma Tennant (can't recommend that,either.)

Maybe it was budget cuts. AMM doing her own hair and makeup (and making do with one costume), one child actor instead of several. Maybe it was filmed in Chatsworth covertly on a quiet open day.