Cranford

[MarsLady]

Wonderful

Message withdrawn

Loved it! Made me happy

Miss Deborah is gone !!

• and the little boy...

I howled when Walter died. Awful
Especially as croup can be dealt with so effectively in the developed world nowadays
I was upstairs wrangling dd when Miss Jenkyns left us

and sad for Jessie too...

do you think that the blessed Septimus might be gay ?

I have not read the books so was very shocked when miss Jenkins keeled over. Eileen Atkins is fabulous.

Sadly I saw the writing was on the wall for wee Walter when jessie told him not to sit on he damp grass...DD used to get coup - terrifying now, never mind in those days when leeches were one of few options.

Dh and I both reckon Septimus is gay. Quite a sad episode really. Dh sat shaking his head at the end 'I can't believe they both kicked the bucket...'

I think she is a fine alternative to Charles Dickens (LOL at the association of the Pickwick Papers with a lack of decorum and gentility, good old Mrs Gaskell) with regards to Woman's Lot in Victorian Society MaryAnn.
Cranford was definitely Mrs G coming out to play, her other novels are very hard-hitting. Ruth is about a single mother and utterly devoid of Dickens' rather sickly indirectness on this matter.

Message withdrawn

I haven't worked out any of their names

Can someone tell me the link between Thingy Wise, the milliner woman and Francesca annis (lady at big house).

Message withdrawn

The milliner is a baronet's daughter fallen on hard times, I think, who Lady Ludlow patronises to help. I think there's an interest between her and Mr Carter.

Is Very hard on poor Captain Brown that the adaptation makes him responsible for bringing the railway to Cranford when in fact he is knocked down and killed by a train on about page 10 of the book (I think).

I think that's called a spoiler

No, not a spoiler. At least not intended as such. I assumed they'd amalgamated him with another character and done away with his accident altogether. In the book he dies before almost any of the events recounted in the first two TV episodes. I certainly didn't mean to pre-empt the TV show, and if I have then I am very sorry!

I think the milliner is a poor but respectable ward who has been set up in a suitable trade for a lady, by Francesca Annis
Greg Wise is presumably another local toff of roughly the same age who grew up with with the milliner and Septimus (possibly also the other six sons who died)
They have rather overdone Francesca's white lead...dd shrieked, "Is that lady dead?"

watched double episode last night...dh and i loved it....tears and laughter and all in period costume with the most starstudded luvvie fest ever....what's not to love?

oh Imelda Staunton had me in stitches when she was talling about the maid being suitably compressed for a diminutive house.
ah dear the cow in the babygro'
so sorry that eileen atkins is out of it.
loved michael gambon too.
what a cast !

Brilliant adaptation.
I too howled at Walter's death
Marina: yes about Francesca Annis & the white powder - looked like ectoplasm. The "I had 7 children and he's the only one alive" and the croup certainly shows the brutal side of 19th C life.
The "suitably compressed maid" was hilarious - in fact I can't remember a programme that had me in tears of laughter (the cow!) and sorrow and also desperately trying to memorize lines because they were so sharply funny.
Michael Gambon is terrific.
Septimus def gay.
Julia Sawalha's also v good.

Loving it, it really is great entertainment

Ahhhh.... sob sob! On top of Paul Dombey kicking the bucket on R4 this week, this was too much!! Blubbed like a girl

I liked the detail about the collar being a secret 'between me and the cat'.
Am a bit upset about Julia Sawalha (sorry can't remember any character names) - can't she write to him in India and say 'it's ok, I can marry you after all'?

Felt sorry for the woman with the new silk dress who fancies the doctor

yes, I was thinking she should tell him she could marry him, but I'm sure that wouldn't be the done thing...an eeew at the lace collar being worn after all that !!