The Larkins - Sunday night reboot of Sunday night The Darling Buds of May

[MacMahon]

What do we think?

Another ruined classic.

I've read Lark Rise to Candleford, My Family and Other Animals and The Darling Buds of May many times.
I sometimes wonder if the scriptwriters have read the books at all.

I wanted to like it , but I couldn't , Marriette sounded a little too posh , Bradley hasn't got David Jasons timing and I think it was too PC just for the sake of it .

I preferred CZJ to the new one. I'm happy with characters of different ethnicities being used in historical dramas as it gives black actors more opportunities.

It does give black actors more opportunities, but that may have to be balanced against authenticity? If you're going to set something in a certain time and place, be honest.
Maybe create more roles for ethnic groups in contemporary dramas or set them elsewhere.
I just think it's a bit dishonest to suggest they would have been included and equal, therefore the struggles were unnecessary.
Although maybe that gets addressed later on.

Apparently Christopher Timothy couldn't do a decent Scottish accent so they dropped it!

I like the new ACGAS for all it has modern bits in. This one doesn't seem authentic and is rather clunky but I had read it's a opener to introduce everyone, maybe it'll improve with a story. DS12 said he enjoyed it so maybe I'm just getting old

The Larkin's is clunky I meant

I really wanted to like it , i absolutely loved the original , the books are some of my favourites , but was really disappointed .
I think Ma was well cast , Pop not so much and Mariette wooden .
Visually attractive scenery ,poor story ,worse script ,and i thought the fairground chap being wacked with the wood a bit unnecessarily violent !
It's always a let down when a tv production fails to live up to the hype.

Awful. For some reason I don’t like the actress playing Ma. Irrational dislike.

It’s too fake.

@HollyBollyBooBoo

Crikey it's terrible!

It really isn't terrible but...

I didn't watch the original all that much. I do think CZJ was beautiful but went off her in later years as an actress. The new actress is lovely.

Perhaps because I'm watching as a series on its own I can enjoy it without comparing.

[quote SandysMam]@Maireas I completely agree about Marianne being miscast. They went for someone who looks a bit like CZJ but she wasn’t particularly magical at all.[/quote]
She looks nothing like CZJ and I thought she was very pretty. Not a huge fan of CZJ tgese days. I love Bradley Walsh.

I'm undecided so far. I love the David Jason series and reread the books frequently and I was looking to a new interpretation.

But...it was oddly disjointed and a bit charmless. It seemed to want to showcase the beautiful Kentish scenery yet there was no connection between the characters and their surroundings.

The Larkin family were a bit unlikable in general. The vicar I found quite amusing. I couldn't really understand Pop's plan to help Edith. The whole cast seemed to be sleepwalking through it.

I dunno...I'll keep watching and hope it gets better!

I am desperate to love it-I love sunday night, glass of wine, dog and lovely telly.

Like when Downton was on-looked forward to it.

I have such hopes-Simon Nye who wrote the Durrells wrote it so I am not going to give up yet but a teensy bit underwhelmed.

And its really not Bradley Walsh's fault that he is just sooooo Bradley Walsh!!

Also finding I am still seeing the actress who plays Mariette as Siena on Bridgeton!!

@mumsiedarlingrevolta

I am desperate to love it-I love sunday night, glass of wine, dog and lovely telly.

Like when Downton was on-looked forward to it.

I have such hopes-Simon Nye who wrote the Durrells wrote it so I am not going to give up yet but a teensy bit underwhelmed.

And its really not Bradley Walsh's fault that he is just sooooo Bradley Walsh!!

Also finding I am still seeing the actress who plays Mariette as Siena on Bridgeton!!

I knew I recognised her but I didn't know where from. I usually IMDB.

I’ve put things to rights by going back to the original… now half way through episode 2! It’s great 👍 full of golden bucolic gorgeousness and bountiful charms.

I wanted to like it but it was just badly acted. Bradley Walsh seemed to be playing himself (or maybe Bradley Walsh constantly plays a character?), the kids were clearly reading lines rather than being natural with it and their outfits were too "new" and needed scruffing up a bit.

I'll watch again next week but not holding out too much hope

I liked it more than I expected to but agree with the comments about the language and some of the casting not feeling very authentic. The original was so good it’s impossible to better (although some of the kids in that are awful actors!)

Bradley Walsh doesn't have the same presence as DJ. The music was annoying. But to be fair there no point in doing a straight remake, it was never going to be as good.

The original made me want to live in Kent. And now l do

@user7692398242

No one is going to state the obvious then? Far too woke and PC for me. Coming from Kent in those days, believe me, it just wasn't like this. I can't bear the tick box exercises and the nepotism.

I absolutely agree

I’m a another who wanted to live in Kent because of 1990’s version and now do!

I quite enjoyed the new version but I don’t think it can be improved…

You just know that when casting was envisioned, someone somewhere thought ‘We absolutely cannot have an all white principal cast because we’d get criticised in the media, forget about authenticity, we need to keep our shareholders happy’. It’s pathetic.

i like the fact that its more diverse. hated the original tax man, so this one has to be an improvement.
weirdly, I found the girls wearing trousers to school the oddest bit. as a child of the 60's I can't imagine it.

I wasn't allowed to wear trousers to school in the sixties and seventies.
I think Call the Midwife may have done a better job on diversity, but i will try the Larkins again next week. I thought Bradley would have been good in this role, maybe we know him too well as Bradley and not as a character actor.

Mumsie, we were hopeful on seeing Simon Nye wrote it but actually switched off after half an hour or so.

I love the books - quite edgy for the time, and not saccharine in the slightest - Ma is my favourite character.

The David Jason /Pam Ferris version was enjoyable - the first series followed the actual stories very closely, sanitised but fun for a Sunday night.

The new version was very disjointed - yes, they have to set the scene and introduce the characters but you don't need to throw the kitchen sink at it.

I think Mariette was incredibly well (or at least expensively) dressed, because Pop is proud of her looks and prepared to fund her wardrobe - Bates always described her clothes in great detail, I well remember the 'lime green shantung'.

To me, the voluptuousness of the books would have been an antidote to post war grey old Britain.

Voluptuousness is a great word im going to try using it at some point soon.

@1AngelicFruitCake

I can’t watch it, I’m back on itv player watching the original. Love -the way Pop cheers up Edith 😄 -Charlie and his awkwardness -the way the children look nothing like each other

• Ma and all her cooking… I love it all!

The children sounded nothing like each other either! I can’t remember if the original Montgomery was from the North or the Midlands, but he clearly wasn’t from Kent.