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World on fire?

182 replies

Namechange3007 · 29/09/2019 21:33

Anyone watching? Helen Hunt appears to have an entirely new face.

OP posts:
chomalungma · 11/11/2019 07:49

This show has just reinforced how hard it must have been to live under such a fascist regime. The things you have to do to be forced to survive and the repercussions you could face. I honestly thought she was going to be executed.

I can't imagine what the people of the Occupied Countries went through.

Readytogogogo · 11/11/2019 08:07

@definitelyrandom

I completely agree with you about Harry's accent and don't know why you're getting flack for bringing it up! I've said almost exactly the same to my husband. He should have a very upper class traditional BBC style accent - like his mother. Even if he was trying to sound less 'posh', his accent is still far too modern sounding.

OnlyTheTitOfTheIceberg · 11/11/2019 10:19

I came to the conclusion last night that the weak link for me is Lois. I said upthread that I find the reason for her not wanting to be with Harry (or saying as much at any rate) unconvincing and contrived, and she's one of the biggest anachronisms for me - an unmarried pregnant woman flaunting her bump in figure hugging dresses and working in a male-dominated environment right up to the moment she gives birth...I just don't feel that would happen in the working class north of the 1940s.

eddiemairswife · 11/11/2019 10:43

You are right about the maternity wear. At that time pregnant women wore maternity smocks and certainly didn't flaunt their stomachs. And of course that old cliche.... pregnant woman suddenly going into labour with agonising pains.

CoolCarrie · 11/11/2019 11:24

I agree the behaviour of Lois is very unlikely; even the most spirited , confident, and married women of that era wouldn’t be walking around pregnant in fitted dresses, and unlikely that people around her wouldnt be “off “ with her. And she gave birth without messing up her hair or smudging her lipstick which annoyed me. Lovely wee baby though. I don’t understand why she doesn’t have some compassion and understanding for Harry.

brieandcrackers · 11/11/2019 11:44

Gutted at that ending!

No sign of Tom for the whole episode - I know it points to him being alive but it's a pain that we'll probably have to wait a year to find out.

Also felt the Tom/Kasia reunion was a bit underwhelming (and too unbelievable even for this series). Hoping both survive!

Jan and Grzegorz at the hospital was very moving.

Clawdy · 11/11/2019 11:56

I agree the Lois storyline was very unlikely. Singing sexy love songs in a tight dress to a male audience, heavily pregnant.......can't see that happening in the 1940s. Or even now!

Rhubarb01 · 11/11/2019 17:23

I agree that the attitudes to Lois's pregnancy haven't been very realistic. I can understand Douglas standing by her, because he's a kind and peaceful man at heart and he loves her to bits, but there would definitely have been more general social disapproval. Of course, illegitimate birth rates would soon soar (especially when the glamorous G.I.'s arrive) but even then it was really frowned upon and very tough for young women who wanted to keep their babies. A lot of children grew up thinking their grandmothers and aunts were their mothers.

As for Vernon, as much as I'm sure there were open and fair-minded men around who wouldn't have blamed Lois for her situation, they would still be in the minority. The likelihood of a man like Vernon (higher social class, officer in the RAF - which was still pretty class conscious and stuffy at the start of the war) being so besotted that he wanted to marry her seem, sadly, slim.

Generally, putting that aside and thinking of series two in pure 'drama' terms, I can see potentially interesting scenario's depending on whether Kasia survives the attack in Poland and comes to England with Harry, or whether Harry ends up widowed and definitely single. Lots of awkward situations for Lois, Harry, Kasia and maybe Vernon if everyone survives.

And Clawdy I hadn't even considered that Randy might be Helen Hunt's son (can't remember her name right now) until you mentioned it. Interesting, perhaps it is him and not the doctor in Paris. If the doctor had been the son born of that attack, would she have told him? I don't know. I guess all will be revealed in time.

ThomasRichard · 11/11/2019 17:50

I thought Randy and the Webster were brothers and Nancy was their aunt?

The birth scene was Hmm Another 20-minute sudden-onset TV labour. They did get a young baby though instead of one that looked about 6 months old so thumbs-up on that.

I would have preferred the series to be 10 episodes long and have a proper ending. Last night just felt like they were cutting it off in the middle without wrapping anything up.

Vernon is lovely and I hope Lois doesn’t change her mind.

Rhubarb01 · 11/11/2019 17:55

To be fair, Nancy hasn't said directly that the doctor or Randy are her son, but when asked if she had a child, she said she had a son and the implication was that one of them, maybe the doctor because he was the one she called in the earlier episodes telling him to get out and go to America, were the son. Who knows, maybe it's neither of them.

OneForTheRoadThen · 11/11/2019 17:55

@Rhubarb01 I thought it had to be the doctor really as he is the one Nancy has photos of etc but when Randy came on the screen I suddenly thought how alike he and Nancy looked!

stumbledin · 11/11/2019 18:42

I hadn't realised this was the last episode. And as it was made before the 2nd series was confirmed it just had far too many loose ends.

I think its a shame when they have tried to be fairly accurate about the war, and its impacts that too often they must have thought for the characters that somehow they have to have a modern twist.

Agree with the comment up thread that Sean Bean and Lesley Manville have been more convincing. And for both of them, Sean Bean not want to be endlessly having to be violent on screen, and Lesley Manville endlessly type cast of a downtrodden not quite the right class support role. I think her character in real life would have been a complete pain in the neck, but she conveys so well being trapped into how she thinks she should behave and what she might, if only it was okay, want to do.

re the star crossed lovers - I think they will spin this out for 10 series, with one or other of them married to someone else, but when they are older with various off spring from various marriages Harry and Lois will meet again at some WWII reunion event. Grin

stumbledin · 11/11/2019 18:54

I think the comments about Lois flaunting her pregnancy are right. It just wouldn't have happened. But here is a link to a news story about how the author based Connie and Lois on female relatives! www.radiotimes.com/news/2019-11-10/world-on-fire-true-story/

Strangely for many women WWII offered an opportunity to lead an independent and social free life (my mum being one of them) but getting pregnant (ie the woman's fault) would have been hidden away, or one of those this isn't my daughter but my sister. One the reasons given for the high rate of breadowns among married women in the 50s was because it was like being shut up in a cage being sent back into the home after having been out in the world during the war. The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan (said to be the start of what became the women's liberation movement) sort of documents that.

Just add so sad about Helen Hunt, not only her dramatically changed face but her acting also seems to have got frozen. Sad

Rhubarb01 · 11/11/2019 18:58

@OneForTheRoadThen - apologies I hadn't remembered correctly who put forward the Randy/Paris doctor theory Blush I agree it's probably more likely to be the doctor, but Randy must be there for some reason. Maybe a bigger role in series 2?

stumbledin - like your vision, although we might be sick to death of them after ten years Grin

ColonelCathcart · 11/11/2019 20:16

I agree on all the Lois comments re the pregnancy and the likelihood of Vernon taking her on. I found Harry could only really do one face, sort of constipated anguish, which got a bit tedious. Also Helen Hunt seemed to only have one pitch/delivery for everything.

Girliefriendlikespuppies · 11/11/2019 21:02

Completely agree re the social shame of being an unmarried mother in the early 1940s. I gave birth in 2006 as a single woman and was aware of the stigma then!!

Darklane · 11/11/2019 22:09

Quite agree about Lois pregnancy, completely unbelievable. My best friend got pregnant in her teens, early sixties, & was absolutely terrified of telling her father.Northern town, working class area. We tried all the usual remedies at the time including her drinking a full bottle of gin, sitting in a scalding hot bath. To no avail & she “had to marry” the father. Later divorced. My mother told me in no uncertain terms that should the same happen with me I need not bother ever entering the house again.

TigerJoy · 11/11/2019 23:26

That ending is so annoying! I honestly thought they'd wrap it up

I've enjoyed and liked the characters, except for Lois, who just doesn't add up. She didn't tell Harry she loved him back, he goes away and comes back married to someone else, she figures it out and then sleeps with him out of spite and then breaks up with him? And then carries his baby and doesn't want anything to do with him? It just didn't hang together. It would have been better if they'd just slept together when he got back and then Harry had told her about Kasia, prompting Lois to be broken hearted and betrayed. She couldn't sing for toffee either.

I was also assuming Vernon was going to turn out to be a total creep / abuser. Why else would a man like that want to get involved with a poor single mother he barely knows? Maybe if they'd spent any real time together...

Anyway I loved the whole polish storyline and wished they had just built a show around that.

itstheyearzero · 12/11/2019 08:10

Can someone remind me who Randy is? Googling is not telling me much...

ThomasRichard · 12/11/2019 08:36

Randy is the ‘Canadian’ pilot with the moustache.

Girliefriendlikespuppies · 12/11/2019 09:16

I wondered who Randy was!! Was there any hint of him being related to Nancy? That completely went over my head 🤣

Agree that the Vernon/Lois romance is the stuff of fairy stories sadly. Can you imagine him taking her home to meet his family?? He'd be disowned!

ColonelCathcart · 12/11/2019 09:34

Someone upthread mentioned Albert’s poor French accent - why didn’t they cast a French actor like they did with the German/Polish roles?

CruCru · 12/11/2019 09:39

I was amazed that Lois was allowed to keep her job - being heavily pregnant on stage would have been quite shocking, even if the singer was married.

To be fair to Helen Hunt, I don’t think she has ever been an expressive actress. Someone once referred to her as Helen “two expressions” Hunt.

CruCru · 12/11/2019 09:40

I wonder if Lois and Vernon will tell people that Lois was a war widow - she wouldn’t have been the only one.

WaningGibbous · 12/11/2019 09:49

What was the point in that? I don't think I've ever been so cross about a series ending. Why not just add whatever is going in S2 on the end and have more than 7 episodes? It just stopped dead.