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.

An earlier period, but I’d love to see a dramatisation of the race to produce an heir to George IV on the death of Princess Charlotte. I think there’s a very funny drama to be made from all these middle aged men racing to ditch their mistresses and be the first to marry a princess and get her up the duff. Also a sad and poignant one, but I don’t want to watch that one at the mo.

I'd love too a series on Queen Victoria, her children and their descendants.

I started counting and tracing down the lines of all Queen V’s descendants during a particularly bad bout of insomnia. (Online, I mean, not in the archives.) Obviously, I knew they’d be loads, but I think you could probably sink the IOW with them in another generation or so.

Quite instructive the way almost all the lines of descent, excepting the main heredity line, slowly peter out from royal, to terribly grand, to gentry and then mildly posh. Quite topical, too.

@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere you should write that up as a treatment. Better yet, draft it and copyright it. Don’t leave the idea for someone to pinch!

@Rhannion

Tbh I don’t fancy this at all. The book is great, but trailer looks like a Duran Duran video.

So true ! Every single costume drama adaptation of a classic novel I have seen recently has been style over substance. Sexed up, huge costume budget, everything else woeful. This looks as though it is another.

@LadyEloise yes to both! Instead of another drama/documentary about the wives of Henry VIII or an Austen adaptation (much as I love her).

@supercritter I can't believe she actually said that out loud, but at least she's honest

@thefemaleJoshLyman

So, Christmas 1927. Deciduous trees in full green leaf. I know I'm a pedant but this really annpys me!

Yes, so annoying ! Also totally wrong underwear for the period.

@LadyEloise

@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.

Did you see the series about Victoria and Albert on ITV? I quite enjoyed it - but I won't be able to rewatch it because that idiot Lawrence Fox plays a key role. He's actually quite good, but I can't bear to watch him on TV.

@UCOinanOCG

God this is shit

I haven't watched it yet, but after scrolling through almost three pages of 'its shit' I might give this a miss.

The ITV Queen Victoria drama has Vic looking like a beauty queen rather than the potatoey faced woman she really was. Can't take it seriously.

I haven't watched it yet, but after scrolling through almost three pages of 'its shit' I might give this a miss.

@NurseButtercup - that was my exact thought last night, had planned to watch it at 10pm and after the first page of "it's so rubbish" thought we might give it a miss - decided to give it a go for five minutes and very much liked it. I would not have thought I would like something so panned by so many, but there you go. Just goes to show I probably shouldn't pay that much attention to online reviews in other spheres as well!

The script was quite entertaining in places, but I found Lily James SO irritating with her massively overdone emotional reactivity and all the endless and pointless lesbian overtones, not to mention the total disconnect of the music that my belief couldn't be suspended that far and we turned it off

Sorry, can't get my head round Dominic West as Uncle Matthew at all. I can still remember the original version with Judi Dench as Aunt Sadie. I have noticed Assaad Bouab though (Hicham in Call My Agent) so might give it a go....

Merlin brought his own house party guests to the ball late in the evening as they were invited to make up the numbers. There were few young men available.
Davey's extreme hypochondria isn't mentioned so far.
The book is a subtle satire on between the wars, upper class English aristocracy who were, are, all perceived as half bonkers and it's all narrated from the point of view of one person. To be fair it's prob difficult to convey that accurately on screen.

Hmm. I watched the first episode.

I liked the comedic moments. I liked the 'look' and also the music.

I hated the hinted-at lesbiana, and am irritated by the sheer nepotism of it all (so much for diversity eh BBC?)

@2Rebecca

I'm enjoying it. A pleasant change from political campaigning. Total froth and I do like Moriarty

So did I, but I think we are in the minority. I think Dominic West's uncle Matthew is exactly how I imagined him.

It is many years since I read the book, but I loved the way that they captured the spirit of it, and I loved the soundtrack.

Unlike many mumsnetters I don't have a photographic memory of books I have read, so I can't comment on how much this has stayed true to the book. But I will definitely watch the rest of the series.

I don’t understand why the intellectually superior posters on this thread bothered to watch it TBH. It isn’t meant to be serious high brow drama.

And why all the Lily James hatred?

@JaniieJones

I quite like it, it's a bit silly like Brigerton and Catherine but amusing ish.

Glad it's not just me 🤣 I've watched two episodes, it's light and silly, I'm ok not entirely liking my main characters (I do love The Great). Actually you should try The Great @JaniieJones

Andrew Scott needs to stop overacting, he's good enough. I don't like the modern music or the insertion of modern film and photos.

I really enjoyed The Great. Elle Fanning was fab.

I meant to add that apart from that, I'm enjoying it! I like the era and the satire on the life of the upper classes. Diverting and entertaining.

I thought The Great was really well cast and wouldn't have cared if they were all brothers and sisters. It was also very witty. But that's the point about this production. Its neither well written nor well cast so the casting stands out.

@AndreaMarteau

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

Absolutely!! I would love that.

@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere

An earlier period, but I’d love to see a dramatisation of the race to produce an heir to George IV on the death of Princess Charlotte. I think there’s a very funny drama to be made from all these middle aged men racing to ditch their mistresses and be the first to marry a princess and get her up the duff. Also a sad and poignant one, but I don’t want to watch that one at the mo.

Me too! The Duchess of Kent racing in a carriage to give birth in England. Would be a great series.

I was discussing this with my English/film studies teacher mate today (she lasted 30 minutes) and having taught Romeo and Juliet for years and using the Baz Lurhmann version, she agreed that many of his techniques, modern music, freeze frame with character titles were ground breaking and innovative but now look tired and try hard. The main point for me though was I really didn’t care about any of the characters. They were dull.

There are no 'period dramas' anymore. Bring back the 1990s!

I loved The Great although I couldn't quite cope with the little sister in My Neighbour Totoro and the boy in About A Boy doing all that swearing and shagging. That's me showing my age I suppose. For some reason blatently messing about with history is better than messing about with an already wiity and wonderful book.

I reread The Pursuit of Love earlier this year and storywise the first episode didn't take any serious liberties with the plot, just a few anachronistic issues (like the masturbation comment, didn't the Mitfords learn about sex from a farming book?). It did include some of the best lines although watching it with DH I laughed more than him because some slipped past so quickly like Fanny telling Linda that Tony knowing everything was precisely the issue. I though Fanny was far too pretty (much prettier than Linda), quite liked Dominic West's performance actually, there's no point aiming for subtlety with Uncle Matthew and he's precisely the right age, Baron Redesdale was born in 1878 so was 50 in the late 1920s. Lord Merlin was always fat in my head but I though Andrew Scott was sexier in this than in Fleabag, the sexy priest was a fuckup though which is never attractive whereas Lord Merlin is the only adult who seems to understand and actively try and protect Linda from herself and therefore is a good egg. Interestingly DH thought it was a stand alone drama and said 'well what happens next?' when I told him it was a 3 parter. I think it's missing the subtlety and poignancy of the book which takes away from the joy of it. And just realised that Emily Mortimer is playing the Bolter which mean she's given herself the best line in the whole book.

For anyone who hasn't read the book go and read it now because it's wonderful, very funny, and so sad as well.