Jamaica Inn

[thenightsky]

Is it just me or is anyone else struggling to hear what they are saying? I feel like I'm listening through cotton wool ear plugs.

[PootlewasthebestFlump]

I'm glad I read this thread - we were away and watched episodes 1 and 2 on a tiny camping tv and had no problems hearing the dialogue. Came home and caught up on episode 3 on our big screen tv and could not hear a word. I have no idea how they got out of jail, why the vicar did what he did or what 'Er n Jem agreed on at the end.

Real shame. I enjoyed it apart from that except that the end totally lost me.

[Twinklestein]

Was it just me who wanted her to go back to reliable Ned? A choice not afforded her in the novel. The other guy was David Essex meets Fergal Sharkey...

[tobybox]

I've finished the book now. I noticed she twisted her hands at end when trying to decide whether to follow her head, and go back to Helford, or follow Jem further North, and when she made her decision, "set her face" towards their destination.

That reminded me far too much of Aunt Patience for my liking!

[boogiewoogie]

I watched it on I player and I didn't encounter sound problems there.

Overall I enjoyed it, I get what others mean about Joss not being what they imagined. He does look slight in this version but I think he has the right amount of menace about him a convincing shred of decency towards Mary and Patience.

I did feel sorry for Ned but he is not Mary's equal and is suited to Jem better.

[OneEggIsAnOeuf]

It's difficult to talk about the drama without reference to the book, so please don't read the following if you don't want the book discussed.

Re the vicar, i think one of the things that let the drama down was the lack of explanation as to why he chose the path he did. It left him looking like a pantomime villain. He talked about the church being a lie and about the power of the pagan gods and that was about it. In the book much is made of his appearance and otherness, which is lacking in the tv version, and it is this that separates him out (he is an albino and is described as having male and female attributes). I think i read that his sister was added to reflect this female dimension (she's not in the book), but i don't think it worked.

He describes a sickness of the soul (or something like that) caused by the modern age. I think in referencing the pagan gods he may have been referring to how in ancient times someone like him would have been seen as something special, rather than something to shun (the theory that shamans and holy men may have been people with disabilities or characteristics that set them apart from the ordinary, making them closer to the spiritual). I imagine that his uniqueness meant his journey to adulthood may not have been particularly easy given the times he was living in, and he sought solace in the church, but found he had no faith in it.

The book doesn't really make clear why he turned to wrecking (other than giving him a sense of power over others) or how he had so much power over Joss and his men, but i would think fear of that which is different may have played a part, the recognition of something that is truly rotten at the core, and for Joss the relationship works well. He probably wouldn't have been able to manage such an enterprise on his own, and his role gives him standing and respect among his community.

It is one of the main themes, how that which appears dark and evil (Joss) is eventually revealed to have a streak of decency (or at least did once), whereas that which appears light and good is the true evil.

[TheWomanTheyCallJayne]

It may have been Joss's horse and she took it what with Joss not needing it and all.

[Twinklestein]

I wondered why it didn't look like any bit of Cornwall I'd ever been to. Why on earth would you film it in Yorkshire? I don't believe Yorkshire is cheaper.

Watched the beginning, forwarded through the middle and watched the last half hour. It's difficult to make du Maurier dull, but they managed.

I thought Jem looked like your average scally, was disappointed he wasn't better looking.

All in all, meh.

[MorrisZapp]

Look Pixel, it's the countryside innit. People just have horses, don't they? Especially in ye days of yore.

Anybody who has read the book able to give more flesh to the vicar? Why was he deemed so scary that the scariest man I've ever seen in my life was scared of him?

Keep the thread alive! Don't leave!

[SteadyEddie]

I did enjoy it in the end, but I have to say that I didn't like the 'glammed up' ending.

[Pixel]

I thought she had her own horse that he nicked for her in episode 1

Ah but it was a different horse. The one he gave her was a short chunky cob with a white blaze. The one she appeared on at the end was a more thoroughbred type with a tiny white star. As a horse owner I notice these things .

[2rebecca]

If you don't want to know the plot why are you reading a thread about a TV series that has just finished?

[MorrisZapp]

I've never read the book but in the tv show he was a horse thief of no fixed abode, well known to the constabulary.

Mary on the other hand values hard work and detests any kind of dishonesty, until a handsome man does it of course.

I give it six months, as my gran likes to say.

[LaVolcan]

That's not a spoiler BTW for those who haven't read the book. How it might all turn out is left to the reader's imagination.

[LaVolcan]

Didn't the book imply (or state outright - can't remember) that Joss had been as a young man like Jem, before he took to drink and became bitter and twisted. So it could follow that Jem would follow the same path and end up beating the spirit out of Mary.

[OneEggIsAnOeuf]

Sorry - i wasn't giving anything away (other than the lack of Ned) - just my take on it so don't let it spoil your reading of the book. You could imply the same about Mary and Patience from the tv adaptation without any reference to the novel. I do think Jem loved her, but as time goes by i suspect it will be very much in his own way. Other interpretations are available!

[tobybox]

Oh no. Please no more book spoilers - he is coming across so nicely in the first few chapters that I will be :( if he turns out to be a proper heartbreaking scoundrel!

[MorrisZapp]

Today's Mary is tomorrows Aunt Patience.

Stubble and breeches are the rocks that many a good woman have been wrecked upon.

< eerie bell>

[OneEggIsAnOeuf]

I don't think they could have had her going back home with Ned as he doesn't even exist in the novel, and his presence in the adaptation was rather one dimensional.

I've always read it that by going off with Jem Mary was following the path her Aunt Patience took - she is described as being full of life and spark before her marriage to Joss. They both followed their hearts rather than their heads.

[tobybox]

Nah, if she was any other kind of girl she'd have ended up like her Aunt Patience, but she's got spark, which Jem likes, therefore I can't see him running off with any other woman any time soon.

I'll read the book before I'm certain on that point, however.

[2rebecca]

I thought she had her own horse that he nicked for her in episode 1. As he told her he has a series of women I see it ending badly with a few months of lust and poverty followed by him moving on. She should have stuck with boring but dependable bloke and a steady income. She seemed stronger than him mentally so I'm sure she could have persuaded him ribbony bonnets weren't her style and pushed the snobby relatives away a bit and immersed herself in the farm.

[tobybox]

I assumed she stole the horse. because she's all evil now, innit.

[Bunbaker]

They mentioned the poor sound quality on the news and on the One Show. How can they have got it so wrong? I could hear the news perfectly.

[Pixel]

Watched to the bitter end (with subtitles on) but was glad when it was finished tbh.
I didn't actually like Mary enough to care if she got drowned, she was rude and sullen and a bit stupid and had an annoying voice.

Felt a bit sorry for poor old Ned though. Did Mary just take off after Jem without saying anything to him? She did catch up with Jem quite easily. And where did she get the horse?

[tobybox]

Bloody hell, so that was the guy I was eyeing up in T'Mill a few months back.

It's a shame the series had so many sound problems. If it had been more popular, it could have been his big break.

[SwedishEdith]

@ a spike of females googling Matthew McNulty. I loved this and wish it'd been done over more episodes now.