I loved this five minutes into the first episode! It's hilarious, it's charming and heartwarming.
Someone who has read these stories from which the series was written has a lot of criticisms, & objections to significant changes. It's entertaining with what seems to be changes that are historically inconsistent.
There is much to love about this series. I have watched it so many times!
Cranford (2007-2010) is a BBC television series. It was directed by Simon Curtis and Steve Hudson.
Had to stop after 20 minutes. Everything's predictible.
"Cranford" is the type of drama, in writing (starts with a novel), acting and directing that the British do so well, a period piece that runs the viewer through the gamut of emotions -- frustration, anger, joy, relief, etc. -- in reaction to oh-so-subtle variations of human behavior, by illustrating the mores of the time, from quaint to maddening by modern standards on one hand, to the human generosity which defies them on the other.
First, I'm a big Elizabeth Gaskell fan. I had just reread Cranston last winter...
The series lack historical sense and is a typical effort of reworking 19th century themes in order to make them more palatable to 21st century taste. But why not stick to adapting contemporary fiction then?
The opportunity to watch so many of Britain's great female actors working together in parts that allow them to demonstrate just how good they are is one of the two immensely satisfying aspects of Cranford, the five-part, 291-minute drama imported from Britain by way of Masterpiece Theater. The other is the story itself -- a kind of Austen-like tale of good manners, gossip, punctilious courtesies and extraordinarily detailed production values.
