I am watching BALLET SHOES and it is HEAVENLY... do NOT miss it, you will cry and be sad forever

[Aitch]

ooooooh, only 20 mins in and am excited beyond belief. Harriet Walters is masterly, Emilia Fox a pleasant surprise as usuallly i find her a posho show-off.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

Oh, the poor lamb, Little

(It's like that awful joke about Kipling
"do you like Kipling?"
"I don't know, how do you Kipple?")

edam, do you have striking and/or stunning red hair too by any chance

But no one has mentioned the Trashing of Winifred

seemed like the screenplayer was working out a few ishoos with winifred because in the book she's so lovely and hardworking with 18 younger brothers and sisters and never any side to her, and she is kind of there to make PPP realise that they have quite a lot in fact, and in this she was vinegary and horrible and swans off to the Ovalteenies

So what's Apple Bough called now then. Apple Shoes? Music Shoes?

No, I wish! Just was genuinely puzzled that it was an issue, had never come across any criticism before. Read Anne of Green Gables not long after, though, but IIRC had the impression that it was some kind of old-fashioned Canadian phoible (like Rachel objecting to novel-reading because 'it's a pack of lies').

Choosy! I was wondering about Apple Bough too. String shoes?

I have to admit I havn't read the book and I did enjoy the programme but I suspect that if I had read the book I would feel that bits were rushed over, also the casting was a bit old.

Posy (Lucy Boynton) had a body double for dancing. The open auditions were a bit of a sham really. They asked for girls musch younger than the ones they eventually cast, much shorter, who could dance en pointe. They made a big thing of the accent thing "gals don't speak proper" but their casting requirements were unreasonable. As has already been said, reputable schools won't put girls en pointe that early now.

Just thought you might be interested in a child's perspective - DD1 (aged 10) is a big fan of the book which she has read many times. She liked the film on the whole and was pleased with the way the sisters were portrayed but utterly bemused by all the changes that were done to beef up the adults storylines.
IoS - it was really obvious from the backlit way in which Posy's dance scenes were shot that she wasn't doing her own dancing.

Agree about Winifred, one of the many changes I didn't feel was warranted. Noel Streatfeild must have been spinning in her grave at the Garnie - Mr Simpson - Theo lurve triangle.

Overall I really enjoyed it, although I felt it didn't do justice to Petrova. If I hadn't have read the book (a zillion times) I might have wondered why there even were three sisters.

I thought the doctors were fab, as were Eileen Atkins and Victoria 'fright wig' Wood. Emma Watson's hair really annoyed me though - one scene frizzy Hermione stylee, the next minute straight. I was trying to work out if it was to show her growing up (as she's too old to play Pauline at the start of the book really) but need to watch again to figure it out!

Back to the first page - 'What happened to P P & P ' was published in a puffin (?) collection of summer holiday stories I think, in the 70s - I had it once - basically what you'd expect though, Pauline stays in Hollywood missing the theatre (she never does act on stage again), Manoff's company goes under in the war but revives (in America?) afterwards, Nana & Sylvia swap places and Sylvia loves Prague, and Petrova practically wins the war by opening up trade routes.
All that about Amy Johnson was invented too of course. But I really liked that the adults were made more real (though not the love!); they don't have any 3 dimensionality in the book. Couldn't figure out why Sylvia had to be ill - she wasn't at all in the book.

You're right, Cockle. Did they go on holiday in the book? I can't remember.

Ah, choosy, I was just coming back to this because I remembered that I hadn't had a rant about Winifred and how badly they distorted her character. The outburst about Pauline looking right was said in despair, not anger, and she was lovely and saintly in the book. Rosa, dd was the same- couldn't understand why they did the whole Mr Simpson/Theo/Sylvia stuff and thought it was soppy. I wish we'd seen Christmas with the watch straps to match the necklaces, too

Oh, Marina, I think you're right, I'm so sorry WW. I did remember the dress, that was why they did the pageant, to give Selina a chance to wear it (was it from an aunt in America?). Not Party Shoes at all

Definitely did go on exactly the holiday described in the book. Also it is hinted that Garnie is getting ill and frail, but as all the adult characters are so sketchy, I do think they needed fleshing out for a film on at 8.30. Otherwise it would just be a teatime serial - though nothing wrong with that!

Ah, I thought so but couldn't quite recall. The bit about getting a telegram for the film casting rang true.

Do you know, I was SO looking forward to this, but was (I hate to admit it) a bit disappointed... I suppose it was inevitable really, as they had a lot of book to cram into 90 mins TV, and it was a very well-loved book for many of us. But it was like watching it on a camcorder speeded up, with one scene leading to another at dizzying pace, so that those of us who knew the book were thinking 'hang on though, where was the Bluebird? why was Posy's audition cut short?' and those who had never read the book at all must have thought it was quite a slight, if enjoyable, story, instantly forgettable.

I felt the same about Pride and Prejudice - the BBC serialisation did it justice, 6 hours' worth, while the Keira Knightly film just raced through it getting the story told, only touching on character and observation, the things that really made the book something generations have read and re-read, in passing.

watched this last night. Found it to be truely awful. Saccharine, no dramatic tension, lodgers were just shadowy figures. Intrigued as to the requirement for the lesbian couple. "events" just ocurred with no ryhme or reason.

I was warned it was a bit of a 'weepy'...was just a bit sad I'd wasted time watching it, I'm afraid. Are we really encouraging children to accept this as 'good film'?

The Bluebird bit in the book does go on and on and on though! Including pages of dialogue from the play. Even as a child I skipped that part. Posy's audition is very short in the book too. I think she just reports what happened when she gets back actually.
It would make a fab teatime serial though.
Agree re poor Winifred. Also Posy was only so horrible re Madame Fidolia because she disappeared to a sanitorium and nobody told Posy that she was really ill, so Posy thought she's just lost interest, and was v sorry when she realised she was seriously ill. Madame didn't have a stroke in front of Posy either. Garnie took her to the ballet.
Not that I've re-read it recently!

Lesbian couple are in the book. They are a couple of female doctors, retired together, renting a room, and in my edition with original illustrations, one is big & butch with a tie and the other is small and fluffy, just like on the TV. Lesbians did exist in the 30s!

yes, I know they did - Iknow a few from the south coast - interesting and charming people. Just wondered why here, that's all.

I agree, InnAFull.

I never read Ballet Shoes, but it was so obvious that the dramatisation skimmed through the story, with an ending so rushed that my third form English teacher would have told me off had I written such an abrupt ending to one of my own compositions!

I am resolved to go off and read it now, and then get righteously indignant over the discrepancies. Shame, because I had been looking forward to the drama.

Yes, I admit I was surprised to see it on at 8.30. Thought it would be a teatime thing.

gosh, you lot remember a lot of this stuff...

i LOVED it, i couldn't remember any of the mistakes (except about Posy's pointes) and thought it all tied together beautifully with the adults as a happy ending. boo to the (male) tv critics, they are wrong and secretly wish to be clarkson so have No Business Watching. but it would have been nice as a series, deffo.

I found it enjoyable, easy viewing, but certainly not as good as it was hyped up to be. Some nice scenes, and some good characterisation (Nana, Posy) but it didn't really have the emotional strength to 'work'.