The Pursuit of Love

[NurseButtercup]

Oh the absolute irony of the words of the character played by Dominic West in this trailer!! Wasn't he start shagging Lily James when he was filming this TV series???

This will be on BBC from 9th May - looks good.

Thank you, I'll look into reading one of them.

Interview with Emily Mortimer on 6Music this morning was toe-curling.
Also, I like Andrew Scott but I swear if I hear another posho harp on about how much they love Andrew Scott I’ll lose my shit.

Andrew Scott's performances always seem quite samey to me.

@Serpenta I don’t disagree. It’s Uber cool to love him though.

Yes, he comes in for a fair amount of gushing that's for sure.

The poshos go mad for him.

This is well worth a listen.
Sam Leith talking about ‘The Pursuit of Love’ with Laura Thompson, who has written extensively about the Mitfords, including a biography of Nancy.
www.spectator.co.uk/podcast/laura-thompson-life-in-a-cold-climate
Laura also discusses Nancy Mitford in this Backlisted podcast which focuses on ‘The Blessing’, one of her other books, and a favourite of mine.
www.backlisted.fm/episodes/4-nancy-mitford-the-blessing
I’m afraid I hated last night’s offering from Emily Mortimer and Friends and Family....but do hope it persuades more people to read the wonderful books. Including Lucy Mangan.
This adaptation is so much better - and very well cast.
www.amazon.co.uk/Love-Cold-Climate-Rosamund-Pike/dp/B001ARYYPO?tag=mumsnetforu03-21
@reprehensibleme - agree with you!

Just read the book. Amazeballs, impossible not to love.

@LWOTT

The poshos go mad for him.

posho actors love to cheer actors they see as being 'plucky working class underdogs'. So even though Andrew Scott is very middle class and went to a private school, being Irish he still fits this category for the poshos

Yes. Agree about Andeew Scott. Seen one, seen all.

I can't get too worked up about Diana being separated from her very young children at a time when her Nazi chums were planning the Holocaust. She and Mosley married in Berlin at Goebbels' house with Hitler as the guest of honour.

I’ve just remembered what else I found highly dubious about the Moseleys. Maybe I’m being extremely unfair the timing of the death of his first wife incredibly convenient.

Diana always claimed later that she left her first husband (a Guinness?) in the hope of hanging around being besottedly useful to Moseley, despite his marriage. I distinctly remember reading it hearing that when I was younger and thinking “huh?” Do people really do that?

Then, in short order, the wife is dead of something natural but incredibly convenient.

Maybe I should channel my energy into crime fiction.

Oops sorry. Editing mash up there.

I first saw Andrew Scott in a ITV drama The Town. He was good in that and also the film Pride but smaller part.
Don't rate his OTT roles.

Thank you for the précis @Supersimkin2 and sorry to make you squeak. I will fill in the gaps, I promise.

Replying to a pp. I don't think that we were meant to infer that the 'merlin party' had turned up to the ball dressed as they were portrayed in screen. I viewed it that they were exotic, flamboyant and louche and as different to the other guests as fish and fowl. As viewed through the eyes of Linda and Fanny. In real life they would have been dressed similar to the other guests but in a bohemian way. I also think that the outfits were meant to seem a bit odd and not terribly nice - I think that was the vibe and part of the eccentricity - so went with the no education for women, misogyny, violence and landed gentry.

Does anyone else want to see a tv dramatisation about the Mitford sisters after reading this thread? 😆

@AndreaMarteau

Does anyone else want to see a tv dramatisation about the Mitford sisters after reading this thread? 😆

I'm sure there was a series a long time ago based on Jessica's book Hons and Rebels.

@SoupDragon yes exactly. It's a particular style, very Wes Anderson-esque and of course intentional.

@EuroTrashed

@SoupDragon

That quick cut editing is also for the short of attention span

It's just a "design" point. I'm surprised you can't see that with your oh so superior intelligence.

So we’ve uncovered Emily Mortimer’s login at least

Of the decent Mitfords, I think we can include Pam and Deborah under the heading surely? I’m also inclined to think that most of them ducked their political preferences from the men they fell for - Diana not a great fascist when with Bryan / Decca not a communist until Esmond and unity’s hitler encounters came initially through opera / Bayreuth and Wagner; she was far from the only English Toff to meet and hang out with him (cf the royal family), but he was so effusive about her aryan ideal beauty and she just fell for the flattery. (We are also happily unused to the generally accepted appalling levels of anti semitism that existed at the time; a lot of 1930s/40s fiction is breathtaking in how casually it’s presented)

There are lots of programmes, and interviews with Mitford sisters on YouTube.
This is interesting - ‘Nancy Mitford: A Portrait by Her Sisters’.
Also includes an interview with Gaston Palewski, Nancy’s great love, to whom ‘The Pursuit of Love’ is dedicated, and on whose character she based Fabrice de Sauveterre.

We are also happily unused to the generally accepted appalling levels of anti semitism that existed at the time; a lot of 1930s/40s fiction is breathtaking in how casually it’s presented)

Yes. A book often recommended on Mumsnet, and one I do like myself, Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day (late 1930s) has anti-semitism in it.

Apparently Emily Mortimer has a nepotistic approach to casting

^^ not really surprised..

@AndreaMarteau
I'd love a regular ( no faffy, arty farty depiction ) dramatisation of the Mitfords.

I'd love too a series on Queen Victoria, her children and their descendants.
It would be expensive to do but could be a real cash cow very popular.

@LunaNorth

I don’t like Lily James’ face. She doesn’t look like a pleasant person, despite her beauty.

And considering she shagged someone else's husband, it's fair to say (IMO) that she's not terribly nice! And neither is he, I'm not blaming just her, I know he's the one who was unfaithful... but, she didn't have to, I doubt there's a shortage of single men who'd hook up with her.