Season 6 - Madame Bovary (1976-1977)
Madame Bovary isn't exactly a show to watch for some light fare unless you like watching someone die from eating arsenic. Emma Bovary literally has a "breakdown" in each of the four episodes. And by breakdown, I mean she throws a shit fit and takes to her bed because she didn't get what she wanted and "collapsed." Such causes for shit fits range from abandonment by lovers to not liking the shitty town her husband has stuck her in because he lacks ambition to financial ruin. Literally the only one worthy of a breakdown was the financial ruin she brought on herself. Because losing it over a young admirer whom you gave a rug to, seriously!?! You have got to admit that in older literature it's sometimes hilarious what causes women to suffer. Especially when they blame her second breakdown on plums. Yes. A doctor and a pharmacist blame her "illness" on plums! The absurdity of plums aside, this is worth watching for two reasons, the first is Tom Conti. I believe I first some him in an adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's The Inheritance, where I first saw his patented air of benign absentmindedness. He is, in my mind, Mr Bennet in the flesh. Just sitting there in a room with a smile plastered on his face, exuding goodwill, and being baffled at the tumult around him. That is what he brings to Madame Bovary as her husband Charles. This wonderful vulnerable bafflement that makes you just want to protect him from his scheming wife. Out Emma! Let Charles just stick to what he does best and stop trying to make something of him. Ugh, if I had a husband as good as him I wouldn't treat him like filth. But, then again, by now you should have guessed I hated Emma. Though she did have a redeeming aspect, AKA, the second reason to watch this show, and that is that Emma was played by the always wonderful Francesca Annis! But the real reason is that this miniseries "reunites" her with Dennis Lill. Dennis Lill played Bertie, the Prince of Wales, in Francesca's career defining turn as Lillie Langtry in the miniseries Lillie. And while technically this was made first, I saw Lillie first, so I view this as them reuniting to have another affair. There should be some weird French or German word when you're someone's lover in different incarnations shouldn't there? Well, it sure tickled me to see them up to their adulterous ways once again. And it really tickled me when he dumped her ass. Oh, the blithe acting in that scene was perfection.
Last year I decided to watch a whole lot of old BBC miniseries that I had been meaning to get to with the loose theme that they all related to Edward VII. I watched Edward the King, because, Edward obviously! I watched two shows about Edward's mistresses, Lillie and The Duchess of Duke Street. Then I went more generic with The Edwardians and Berkeley Square bringing the viewings to a close. Berkeley Square was the only series I had actually seen before but now I can proudly say I've seen them all! As Patrick Stewart said, "I've seen everything." What's interesting about Lillie is that Francesca Annis played the character of Lillie Langtry in Edward the King and was so popular they made a whole series about the infamous mistress to the king and the famous actress she became from childhood to death, and the death was probably not meant to be hilarious, but she was picking fights in bars where you paid men to dance with you, so, that's on her. If the series had one fault it was that they didn't bring Timothy West back to play Edward, but I forgive them because I got to see a bitty baby Rupert Giles as Lillie's older brother in his second ever role! But while Francesca Annis, in my mind, didn't make that much an impression in Edward the King to warrant her own series there is one actor in her series that deserved their own. Lillie fell into the artistic community of the time where she quickly became it's star. She hung out with the likes of Millais and Whistler, her presence inspiring them. But the one historical figure she formed the strongest relationship with was Oscar Wilde. Now I am a huge fan of Oscar Wilde, I even wrote a lengthy paper on him for a class on writing for the threatre in undergrad, so I take my interpretations of Oscar VERY seriously. Stephen Fry is probably most famous to my generation for portraying the author, but no offense to Stephen, Peter Egan just blew me away. Peter Egan is still a stalwart British actor keeping his hand in the game, he was on this past season of The Spanish Princess AND he was on Downton Abbey. But forever more to me he is the only portrayal of Oscar Wilde I will ever think about. The pathos, the feeling, the tragedy, I don't know if I have ever, in my entire life, seen a better performance in ANYTHING! While I wish he had gotten a series of his own, Oscar's life is fully seen through the lens of Lillie's life. I'm just greedy because I want more. 
