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(More customer reviews)English country life could never have been as poetic, pictorial, and enchanting as this dramatization of the lives of those living in and around the two 1880's towns of Lark Rise and Candleford. Even the DVD's music puts a sanguine sugarcoating on the period. All of this is to the delight of the viewer of this masterfully done TV series sure to endear any North American who has a tender video heart toward Victorian Britain. Perhaps, consider it a British mutation of "Little House on the Prairie" or "The Waltons."
This set of 4 DVDs, 10 episodes totaling 582 minutes, is actually a 9 1/2+ hour saga (continuing panorama of human relationship) of the commoner village and the more sophisticated Candleford. The short 8-mile separation allows for much intermingling, bigotry, conflict, forbidden love, political and economic interaction. It is not a family saga, not a nobility bloodline dramatization, but a saga of struggles and lifestyles of different kinds of personalities, each caught in their own born-into world, and interacting with another different, and not always understood, class of folk.
Darling Laura Timmins (Olivia Hallinan), oldest child of a Lark Rise family, is sent off to Candleford to learn the trade of postmistress. She is the spark caught between the two towns (sometimes world's different.) Her mentor, Dorcas (Julia Sawalha), has a personal secret. There is the expected, token-gentry, rich, Squire family, Sir Timothy (Ben Miles)& Lady Adelaide (Oliva Grant). The rest of the regular cast (at least 20 appearing in all 10 episodes) is an assortment of either the die-hard, disheveled, working class or the Candleford higher class, but yet short of nobility range. It is the individuals that make this spectacular (or fill in your own highest superlative.)
One episode travels into the next with carryover from earlier material. If you have the time, it's best to watch it as a near 10-hour feature production. What a horrible time the original TV viewers must have had waiting for the next installment. Each episode has multiple plots so it is impossible to break down the episodes into short summaries. And with carryover from one episode to another, it's more like moving to Lark Rise or Candleford and living with the good people (and the bad). A delightful scenic experience even Disney has never matched.
Ah, but the folks you will meet. Dr. Seuss eat your heart out. Queenie (Linda Bassett), an old bee keeper, is married to ole Twister (Karl Johnson) and both will make you laugh and cry, perhaps in the same scene. Pearl (Matilda Ziegler) and Ruby (Victoria Hamilton) own Pratt's General Drapers & Haberdashers. They represent the best of fashion and fitness, just ask them, as they spurn much gossip and controversy. Thomas (Mark Heap) is a postal delivery man who helps keep Christianity alive and aloud. Portly Caroline (Dawn French) a mother with her man off to sea, divides her time between frivolity and beer and would make a fine Viking helpmate. And dear, dear old housemaid Zillah (a standing O for Liz Smith), is the life and death of every party--a quirkiness totally lovable. Assistant gamekeeper Phillip and melodean-playing Alfie vie for Laura's affection, while her ma, Emma (Claudie Blakley), and pa, Robert (Brendan Coyle) try in vain to keep sanity to the comings and goings of life from "Lark Rise to Candleford."
Oh and more, locations and sets to die for a vacation in. Costumes to dazzle, delight, and disgust, depending upon the event. Every emotion you have ever felt in your past will be repeated sometime throughout this English town saga. The adapted books by Flora Thompson have never been read by this reviewer, but I can't imagine them being as fine as this TV series (and I'm a book lover). A superb British cast has perfected this story.
Subtitles? Yes!
Bonus? "The Making of Lark Rise To Candleford"
Recommendation? BUY NOW! EXPEDITE SHIPPING, it's that good.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Lark Rise to Candleford: The Complete Season One
Olivia Hallinan, Dawn French, Julia Sawalha, Liz Smith, Brendan Coyle, Claudie Blakley, Mark Heap, Ben Miles, Olivia Grant, Linda Bassett, Karl Johnson. When young Laura Timmins leaves Lark Rise for a job at the local post office in Candleford, it feels as if she is departing to a different country. Her new life under the wing of the independent and effervescent post-mistress, Dorcas Lane, is eye-opening and exciting, but as Laura witnesses the scandals, feuds and struggles of the villagers and townsfolk, she realizes that she too has to face the future. Having turned her back on her childhood hamlet, she must find her own path to womanhood.
Click here for more information about Lark Rise to Candleford: The Complete Season One
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