The Halcyon

[dingit]

Anyone watching? Loving it so far.

Predictable, easy watching, fabulous 40s fashions. Very nice antidote to the brutal and grisly stuff.

Have they cancelled home fires? I love that!

Yes Millimat ITV cancelled Home Fires last spring just after that cliffhanger ending. There was quite a social media campaign about it and even a petition trying to get ITV to change their minds but to no avail. I suppose they didn't want two WWII dramas at the same time. I enjoyed Home Fires as a reasonable Sunday night drama but it was also one of the few strong female led dramas with roles for some mature actresses and was good at portraying the important role that women played in the war effort.

Home fires was one of my favourite programmes
I'm enjoying the halcyon though.

Is anyone else still watching it?

I am, I am enjoying it!!

Still watching, a bit slow last night but still enjoying it. The young guy playing Freddie 's younger brother is good, a bit like a young Toby Jones. Just hope the manageress girl is not going to end up with the boring American. I want to see his mother's face when Freddie tells her he wants to marry her enemy's daughter! Not likely to happen though.

I'm still watching but despite being a lover of period dramas I'm finding it very predictable and the characters lacking in any emotional pull. The review in the Radio Times for next week says the episode shows glimpses of what the series "could have been". At the moment it just seems very fomulaic relying on the usual cast of upstairs/downstairs characters none of which we really know or care about very much. There's nothing to actively dislike about it and I'm sure I'll carry on watching as there's nothing else on a Monday that grabs my interest but as lovely as it looks I wish it was a bit better. I'd like to be a little bit emotionally invested in the characters or at least intrigued by the plot and I haven't been yet.

Just watched Monday's episode up in catch up. I really wanted to like it but after this one, I'm giving up. The characters and actors playing them are just lifeless. The manager's daughter and the new Lord Hamilton are particularly wooden. It's hard to care about storylines if you don't care about the characters.

Is anyone else baffled by Kara Tointon's accent? She does such a strange accent that I've never noticed from her before, it's like a comedy cabaret voice...
I CANT BELIEVE THEY CANCELLED HOME FIRES!
Why?! It was so popular. They did this with Crimson Field too, it's so annoying. You get into a series and its axed with no outcome.

Missmouse I know what you mean about Kara's accent it is a bit weird. I also have to say that although she has a pleasant singing voice and can carry a tune it's not really right for the period or style of the time and I'm surprised they didn't dub it with something more authentic. I think Beverley Knight was singing in an earlier episode in the Cafe de Paris and I understand Jamie Cullum is in next weeks (apparently he wrote the series music too!).

Yes, Home Fires, what a thoroughly annoying decision. If it's any consolation both series are now on Netflix but seeing as it has such a stupid ending it hardly seems worth watching it as nothing is resolved.

Is Freddie going to die & Emma be pregnant?

I've been off lurgyfying (medical term) the last few days & it was v good for lurgy TV.

As the story's a bit predictable I was also watching the costumes & the opulence of the hotel & the hair. I was wondering how they got their hair so curly in those days. No tongs, probably not Little House on the Prairie rags

The Charity story was v dull & unbelievable. Why was she at the meeting in ep1 when they're discussing politics & she's like a adult toddler with her gin? Not to speak of her vile views.

I was bloody cross when they cancelled Home Fires too.

Fiderer it said that she had been to Germany and met many of the high ranking Germans. I can't remember why she was there, with another man perhaps, before she started with this one.

Yes, I got that but it was incredulous to the point of being ridiculous imo.

Many prominent people had contacts with high-ranking German officials at that time. In his broadcast O'Hara said (info from Toby) that the meeting was attended by politicians, diplomats & businessmen.

The only reason for her being there was that she was Hamilton's mistress. Which reflected badly on him & I would have thought he'd have been more astute.

I know it's fluff & lurgy TV but the whole storyline with her annoyed me

The annoying thing about the Charity story was that its only real point in the end seemed to be showing that his Lordship was unfaithful and there was no love lost between him and his wife.

There were some upper-class Nazi sympathisers and don't forget the British Fascist Party too, at least before the war. There were also many politicians in the early stages of the war after the fall of France who favoured an armistice. I supposed that the group at the meeting in the hotel were of that persuasion but it's hard to see how a woman like Charity would wield any influence unless she had the ear of high-ranking Nazi's. Once O'Hara had scared her off the idea of writing a memoir she soon disappeared off the scene and presumably everything related to that meeting has also disappeared from the plot?

I did like the way Garland scared her off by having the two on the street with their hats & macs

Yes, you're right, it was Garland and his two stooges who scared her off. I remember now it was O'Hara who told him she was going to write the kiss and tell book.

Don't know if anyone has seen it but Viv Groskop at the Guardian on line writes an episode re-cap each week the same way she did for Downton Abbey which is quite amusing and involves handing out awards for the "Best supporting Costume Moment," "Inevitable Downton Abbey Flashback Moment," and "Show Stopping Lines".

Thanks Rhubarb just checked it out, love those Guardian re-caps.

So upset about Home Fires, absolutely loved it.

Halcyon is OK but agree some of the characters seem a bit one dimensional and Kara Tointon doesn't seem quite right, not sure why.

What has happened to her hairline, poor woman?

I was very happy when the Chef was sacked

You just knew that poor little girl was toast once her mother made a point of going back to tell her she loved her. Tis always the way!

It's all a bit flat. The scene between the two brothers was supposed to be moving I suppose but it felt like a drama school audition. I just didn't believe that he was a pilot in a plane that was hit by enemy fire 😆

But she wasn't toast Bunty !
Freddie's reason for dumping the love of his life was just ridiculous - to save her from the sorrow if he dies.......not believable.

I know we're supposed to be rooting for Emma and Freddie but I just find them both so wooden and emotionless. The moment he said he was going to do something to make her stop loving him I had visions of him staging a tryst with a wedding guest. Maybe the amorous Lady Teresa would have obliged!

To be honest I'd rather see Emma and O'Hara get together as he at least has a bit of life about him, he fancies her and it's been obvious from the first episode that this is the love triangle that has been set up.

Interesting back story about 'Garland's' past although I suspect that may disappear into the same plot hole as Charity and the Nazi sympathisers unless of course they are banking on a second series and it all creeps out of the woodwork later.