Two Words, One Answer.
Drama Series:
 Poldark, Series 1 $69.99 As seen on Masterpiece Theatre ¡ÈRomantic adventure, complete with raging ambition, terrible betrayals, frustrated loves, daring deeds, and a marvelously dashing hero¡É ?The New York Times Hailed as a British Gone with the Wind, Poldark created a sensation on PBS¡Çs Masterpiece Theatre with its dashing, romantic hero and his infamous exploits. Based on the novels by Winston Graham, this classic miniseries demonstrates the enduring appeal of a gripping storyline and unforgettable characters. Returning to Cornwall after the American Revolution, Capt. Ross Poldark (Robin Ellis, The Good Soldier) finds his life at home has fallen apart. His estate is in disarray. His former flame, Elizabeth (Jill Townsend, Cimarron Strip), is engaged to his cousin. And his family¡Çs copper mines have become targets for the Poldarks¡Ç bitter rivals. Duels, smuggling, and attempted murders unfold as Ross strives to resurrect his fortunes and find true love. This spellbinding saga dramatizes the deep rifts in British society on the brink of industrialization, played out against the rocky, ruggedly beautiful Cornish coast. DVD FEATURES INCLUDE cast filmographies and historical background on Cornwall. 16 episodes; approx. 821 min.; 4:3 full screen; color; British drama; not rated; SDH subtitles  Edge of Darkness: The Complete BBC Series $34.98 Craigmills, Yorkshire, 1985: Ronald Craven (Bob Peck) is a detective with the West Yorkshire constabulary tasked with investigating allegations of corruption and ballot rigging within the infrastructure of the local miner's union. A widower who lives with his student activist daughter, Emma (Joanne Whalley), Craven finds himself confronted with the unthinkable when a shotgun-wielding assailant confronts him on the front lawn of his remote home and Emma is apparently 'accidentally' killed in the resultant carnage. A police manhunt is launched and as the grief-stricken Craven begins to make inquiries of his own, he inadvertently finds himself involved in a conspiracy that stretches from the corridors of Westminster to the stygian depths of 'Northmoor', a remote Nuclear waste storage facility on the Yorkshire dales, and which will take him far beyond the edge of darkness and into the hinterland where big business, corrupt government and state sanctioned execution walk hand in veiled hand. Make no bones about it, for a large swathe of the UK population, myself included, "Edge Of Darkness" is 'the' finest drama ever broadcast on British television and still the benchmark against which all others must be measured. Originally broadcast in the winter of 1985 at the height of the special relationship between Reagan and Thatcher, the Labour party's most militant incarnation, renewed violence in Northern Ireland, and at a time when the British public's dissatisfaction with the Conservative government's ruthless economic policies and relentless courting of multinational business interests had resulted in wide-spread suspicion and cynicism of the establishment, the series was a smash-hit ratings winner which was repeated almost immediately, swept the BAFTA awards (British Emmys) and made a house-hold name out of the late, lamented Bob Peck. Veteran screenwriter Troy Kennedy Martin's script, for my money, remains the most complex, nuanced, eloquent and haunting examination of a decent man caught up in the serpentine machinations of corporate power and closed government ever written. To label this series as merely a thriller alone is both erroneous and incorrect. It transcends the genre, incorporating elements of the political thriller, ghost story, vendetta movie, spy drama, western, film noir and magic realist literature, mythological fable, ecological treatise (James Lovelock's "Gaia Hypothesis" as set forth in his book, Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth, was clearly an influence), and all points in-between. Performances are, frankly, stunning. Bob Peck's turn as the stoic, slowly unraveling Ronald Craven is, to this day, one the finest pieces of screen acting that I have ever seen. You will never see a finer or more subtle depiction of a man who has been eviscerated by grief. His uncomprehending, hollow, dead-eyed stare will haunt you forever and the primal scream of sorrow and frustration which he gives rise to during his second confrontation with the man who killed his daughter is still one of the most chilling moments in television history. Matching Peck pound for pound is Texan actor Joe Don Baker, whose turn as the jovial, ambiguous CIA agent, Darius Jedburgh, provides some of the most memorable moments in the series: the revisionist "show-down and soliloquy" which occurs when Jedburgh confronts one of the series' principal antagonists at a conference in Gleneagles, Scotland, towards the close of the story, is still discussed in reverent tones in British drama and screen-writing circles to this day. Both actors are ably supported by a brilliant cast which features a smorgasbord of British acting talent including Ian McNeice, Zoe Wanamaker, Charles Kay, John Woodvine and Jack Watson. Apparently a big-screen remake of this series, featuring Mel Gibson, is currently in the offing. I can say, with absolutely no doubt in my mind, that it will never match the peerless brilliance and depth of the original. It is impossible to do justice to the complexity, elegance and eloquence of "Edge Of Darkness" in words - all I can recommend is that you rent or buy it, find a night when you are free and able to give yourself to it entirely, and truly enjoy the best of British. And if you, like I, find yourself haunted by Eric Clapton and Michael Kamen's haunting theme tune, "Obituary", you can find a superbly chilling live rendition of it on the live Clapton album, 24 Nights.  Lark Rise to Candleford: The Complete Season One $59.98 The series doesn't exactly follow the text, which reads like a documentary or commentary or diary/journal (which, of course, it was).I read it first in 1981 and reread it after watching the series a month ago. The series is lively, romantic, character driven, and fun--I fell in love with it. The book doesn't exactly plod, but the 1800s in the English countryside described by Thompson were far from glamorous. The series focuses on the second part of the book and Laura's move from Lark Rise to Candelford, whereas the book's main focus is the folk of Lark Rise, basically because Thompson didn't want their way of life to be forgotten in the mad rush to modernize and move on into the industrial age. If you can't read the text, be sure to watch the series as it attempts to cover the entire gamut from poverty to romance and from folklore to Paris fashion in the England of Laura's youth. The characters are well drawn, and I don't think you'll soon forget them. If you're looking for a photocopy of the book, however, you'll not get one. |
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