strange and random happenstance

I've been a fan of Hayley Atwell's for what seems like forever, but looking at her credits it's been about twenty years starting with the Sally Lockhart films. But it was her portrayal of Agent Carter, giving us a non-superpowered kick-ass female lead in the male dominated Marvel universe that forever made me a fan. That and her hilarious lip-synch videos and self-deprecating social media presence. So I was aware of The Long Song since the day it first started filming back in 2018. And since the day later in 2018 that it aired in England. Nowadays with shows being shown almost simultaneously stateside thanks to premium cable channels and services like BritBox I kept waiting for The Long Song to finally air here. And I waited. And I waited. Seriously, Howards End with Hayley's portrayal of Margaret Schlegel ran on Starz and even re-aired TWICE on PBS and still I waited for The Long Song. Until finally it was announced as part of Masterpiece's 51st season in 2021. I would finally get to see the adaptation of Andrea Levy's book! And ironically, considering how long I waited to see this, I think 2021 was the perfect time for it to air. Right when America finally said enough and embraced Black Lives Matter on a scale it should have always been embraced. Though sadly since that time we've regressed, and it's more important than ever to look back and see the horrors of what we have done in the past and continue to do in the present. To know that this is our history. This happened and if certain people in power have their way it will happen again. To not flinch away from uncomfortable truths. And the truth of the matter is Hayley is nothing more than odious comic relief, as she should be in this setting. As she herself said "I play a heinous, vile old cow [as] Variety reviews my portrayal: 'an actor who typically radiates warmth, does a remarkable job of curdling the atmosphere of every room unlucky enough to have Caroline in it.'" And her partner in crime is Jack Lowden as the ambitious Robert Goodwin. If you've fallen for him as River Cartwright on Slow Horses, well, here you get to see his true acting chops, joining Hayley in camp odious and vile. I wish I could say I knew then that he'd be a star, but I so didn't. Because the real star of The Long Song is Tamara Lawrance as July. A slave who was taken away from her mother to be a plaything for Caroline. Who, despite everything, is a source of joy. Her life keeps beating her down again and again yet she is a "joyous survivor" as one reviewer said. And that's the heart of The Long Song, showing the horrors unflinchingly but celebrating the joy of surviving and creating a better world. Here's hoping we can rebuild and make a better world together.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Agent Carter, Andrea Levy, Black Lives Matter, Fifty-Five Years a Masterpiece, Hayley Atwell, Howards End, Jack Lowden, July, Marvel, Masterpiece, Sally Lockhart, Slavery, Slow Horses, Starz, Survivor, Tamara Lawrance, The Long Song

Masterpiece: America's 50-Year-Old Love Affair with British Television Drama by Nancy West
Published by: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers
Publication Date: November 24th, 2020
Format: Hardcover, 264 Pages
Rating: ★★
To Buy

"Fifty years, 450-plus programs, 2,250-plus episodes, and 250 awards: these are Masterpiece's achievements by the numbers, and they are a record to be proud of. Out of the thousands of TV shows produced in America since the 1950s, roughly thirty have reached the fifty-year mark. Most of these are soap operas, sports, or news programs. No other primetime dramatic series comes close to Masterpiece's longevity nor has won as man Emmy, Peabody, or Golden Globe awards. On a less tangible level, few programs have cultivated as loyal a viewer following." In 1961 when Minow gave his infamous "Vast Wasteland" speech television was undergoing a sea change. Gone were the anthology series and high art television produced in New York City, Kraft Television Theatre, CBS Playhouse, Goodyear Theatre, and Playhouse 90, and in were the lowbrow comedies produced in LA. In fact Gilligan's Island openly mocked Minow with their eponymous boat. But when The Forsyte Saga aired in 1969 on NET, the forerunner to PBS, the way back to quality anthology television and out of the "Vaste Wasteland" was apparent. Everyone was talking about the Forsytes and three months after its finale it was on Stan Calderwood's mind when he was in London. Stan would go on to be the first president of WGBH and he cold called the BBC. He needed content for the newly formed PBS and the BBC had it. A deal was quickly struck and on January 10th, 1971 Masterpiece Theatre launched with The First Churchills. A show not without its flaws, too many wigs and maybe a little too racy, but their audience was hooked. By the time the first season finished in 1972 they knew they had something special. Even Minow approved. The show, while initially more focused on literary adaptations, knew that if they maintained the same thematic relevance of tradition, nostalgia, and conventionality, they would maintain their audience because these are all things that Americans crave that their own country is unable to provide, especially in the sphere of television. Masterpiece Theatre was aspirational television. Just by being a viewer you were being educated and thought of as bettering yourself. Checking out history books from the library to compliment your viewing wasn't unheard of in the many letters they received from viewers over the years. While this occasionally has led to the show being viewed as having a superiority complex that only caters to white upper and middle class viewers the fact that after all this time it is still around, still competing, speaks to its success. In fact, while America is called a country without traditions, it certainly has created one on Sunday nights around the television.

If you're a fan of beautifully made books this will be an offense to you. What I thought would be a coffee table sized tome with copious pictures is a small volume that looks like it was made by a nearly defunct university press. The paper meets the "minimum requirements" for "Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials" and that is patently obvious. The font is minuscule and appears to have had no typesetting. The photographs are laughable and misidentified. As another reviewer pointed out, why is the the British DVD cover for Sherlock even in here instead of a picture from a press kit? In other words, if you were looking for a book whose very presence was worthy of a show named Masterpiece, this is not it. If you're a fan of Masterpiece though, this book might give you a little more of an historical framework with regard to the political climate when the show was formed and the fact that it lacks diversity. But that is all. It reads like a textbook, which isn't surprising as Nancy West is a professor at the University of Missouri. Though it doesn't read as a very good textbook. It reminded me too heavily of the introduction to television and film books I read in my undergrad comm arts classes. Except that this book has constant niggling errors. I mean, come on, when Wolf Hall aired it wasn't the only Tudor show to air in almost twenty-five years! Just a decade earlier Henry VIII starring Ray Winstone aired as did The Virgin Queen starring Tom Hardy. And yes, I know I shouldn't be saying that Robert Dudley, the 1st Earl of Leicester, is the star of a show about Queen Elizabeth, but come on, it's Tom Hardy! And I'm sorry, but misidentify Brian Blessed in a photograph is actually a crime in my world. One would think creating a framework for this book wouldn't be hard, Nancy West could have even used The Best of Masterpiece Theatre from the thirty-fifth anniversary as a starting point, but no, instead she's all over the place. She's discussing personality traits of Worricker, a series literally no one watched, and doesn't really talk about shows from the seventies or eighties, focusing more on her favorite actors. Which is where this book gets weird. As you trudge through the morass of text the author's personality comes out more and more and she's a bit of an odd duck. She starts lusting after the vicars on Grantchester and any attractive man she feels needs a qualifier. I get that Andrew Davies and Pride and Prejudice paved the way for this, but in a scholarly approach to the history of the show, maybe talk about it in some sort of discourse, don't just drool. But the main problem of this book is that she hates America. She hates everything about this country from its supposed lack of culture and tradition and its need to psychoanalyze itself to its television. What did Thomas Magnum ever do to you!?! You know some of the biggest names from Masterpiece appeared on Magnum, P.I.? Ian McShane? Jenny Agutter? Francesca Annis? Julian Glover? Peter Davison? Any of these ringing a bell? Nope? Actually, not surprising. None of them are hot vicars. And yes, I think she's a fan of Fleabag. But if you want to read a book by a fan of this show, might I suggest Rebecca Eaton's autobiography? You'll get more insight than you'll ever find here.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: America, Anthology, Aspirational, BBC, Brian Blessed, Elitist, Fifty-Five Years a Masterpiece, Masterpiece, Nancy West, NET, Nostalgia, Rebecca Eaton, The First Churchills, The Forsyte Saga, Thomas Magnum, Tradition, Tudor, WBGH

Making Masterpiece by Rebecca Eaton
Published by: Penguin Books
Publication Date: October 29th, 2013
Format: Kindle, 320 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

Rebecca Eaton was born in 1947 to an English Literature professor and an actress, both of whom where alcoholics, which led to her being a very organized, hypervigilant child working to meet everyone's needs. The show that would come to define her life is, as she sees it, stories about families. And her family circumstances led to her, in essence, producing their lives. She was there to keep everything on an even keel. It's no wonder that she ended up one of the most famous executive producers in television history. Spending much of her childhood in books when not managing her family she received an English degree from Vassar and on August 9, 1969, she left New York for London to begin her job at the BBC, it just happened to be the same day as the Manson murders. She knew nothing about radio, or even that the job was in radio, all she knew was that she could live in London for a year and that's where she wanted to be. This was when her love affair with England truly began. Meanwhile America's love affair with England was also beginning in earnest. With the airing of The Forsyte Saga in the same year Americans couldn't get enough period dramas from across the pond. PBS was officially formed in 1970 and in 1971 Masterpiece Theatre was launched with The First Churchills, a show no one, particularly the host Alistair Cook, who would be on one year contracts the entirety of his twenty-one year tenure, liked. The show was entirely paid for by Mobil, with the first season consisting of thirty-nine hours of already-made BBC drama. Mobil believed in affinity marketing, if Masterpiece Theatre was beloved and classy, they would be viewed the same way. But it was a delicate dance that would end spectacularly after thirty-three years. By the second year of Masterpiece Theatre Rebecca was already in the door at WGBH in Boston. She was producing non-fiction shows and documentaries. She developed a strong reputation and work ethic and when the second executive producer of Masterpiece Theatre died of Cancer Rebecca was offered the position. On the same day she learned she was pregnant. She took the leap and ended up on the journey of a lifetime. When British tastes started to change to modern fare and the backlog of shows that Masterpiece Theatre could buy dried up, Rebecca was the one leading the charge to not just produce shows that were already in the pipeline but to suggest and shepherd new shows. And thus Middlemarch and The Buccaneers were made. Which lead the British to see that there was still an interest in period dramas. But Masterpiece Theatre and Rebecca would again and again come up against changing audiences and expanding markets and, in a rather remarkable show of vengeance, how petty HBO could be. Yet they weathered the storms, they rebranded, and while The Buccaneers was a resounding hit, they were always looking for their next Upstairs Downstairs or The Jewel in the Crown. Which would unexpectedly arrive in the form of Downton Abbey. A show Rebecca initially turned down but everything worked out. Because as she's said, "I've been very, very lucky in my career, in spite of myself."

Historically I have never been a fan of Rebecca Eaton. The reason is twofold. The way her name appears in the credits of the shows she has executive produced makes her seem, to me, and apparently others, above Masterpiece. That she is somehow better than her job title and that she alone should be getting credit for a show she might have had no involvement in other than buying it for distribution. It has never sat well with me and has made me think less of her. The second reason is more to do with my local PBS station, WHA-TV. They are not well run and their practices can be a bit sus. Rebecca Eaton was coming to do a big event for WHA-TV which is located on the UW-Madison campus within Vilas Hall which houses the departments of Comm Arts and Theatre and Drama. I was invited because not only was I a Theatre and Drama alumna but a PBS supporter. I was excited. Then the day before the event they sent out an email saying that the event was free but meeting Rebecca cost extra. I remember it as a hundred dollars, my Dad thinks it was more. I mean, I know they need to make money, but it was badly timed. Why not have a great event with Rebecca and have her ask for donations not demand an entrance fee right before your partygoers head out the door? Needles to say I did not attend and that was the last fuck I had to give with regards to my local PBS station. Therefore I approached this book with mild trepidation. Booked as a biography of someone I don't really like I think the average person would question my sanity. But my love for Masterpiece is so great that I will endure any hardship. I mean, just the lengths I go to to watch old shows is staggering and so much more energy than I expended downloading this to my Kindle. Plus I got it on sale. I was actually expecting it to be more of a autobiography given some reviews I had read. But it's not really her bio, just a bio inasmuch as how her upbringing prepared her for the job and what was happening in her life to frame her state of mind while dealing with Masterpiece. Because that's whose biography this is, this is Masterpiece's. Rebecca just happened to be there for a lot of it and was able to get the stories. She's a plainspoken writer who relies too much on aphorisms and platitudes, but she's willing to admit when she makes mistakes and that she was always constantly learning on the job. She never stopped. She openly admits that they could have had Colin Firth in a wet shirt back in 1996 but she was convinced that viewers wouldn't care. She was wrong and it made her realize that adaptions of classics aren't one and done but cyclical. Each generation wants their own version. But the incident of losing out on Colin Firth just demonstrates how myopic she can be. She never thought Mobil would leave, she never thought that HBO would be a threat, and seeing as this was written before the streaming boom, one can only imagine what that has done to their numbers with so many outlets vying for the same content. But what made me sad reading this book is that it was the introductions of Alistair Cooke and Russell Baker and Diana Rigg and Vincent Price that set Masterpiece and Mystery! apart and that is gone with the changing times. This is true lost media and I mourn its loss. At least Alan Cumming makes up for a bit and that's down to Rebecca. So I guess I can say I've changed my tune with regard to her. But not in regard to WHA-TV.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Downton Abbey, Executive Producer, Fifty-Five Years a Masterpiece, Masterpiece, Masterpiece Theatre, Middlemarch, Mobil, PBS, Rebecca Eaton, The Buccaneers, The Foryste Saga, The Jewel in the Crown, Upstairs Downstairs, WGBH

You know, five years ago when Masterpiece, no longer Theatre, celebrated their fiftieth anniversary and I dedicated several months on my blog to said celebration? Well, spending that year watching old British shows kind of became a habit. In other words, I started watching shows for the fiftieth anniversary and, well, I just never stopped. And now it's the fifty-fifth anniversary and I have watched so many shows in the intervening five years, not all done for Masterpiece, but, well, almost all done for Masterpiece. Or at least PBS. I mean, I had to get Ballykissangel in there somewhere. What this means is that I couldn't let the fifty-fifth anniversary pass without another celebration. I was like a kid in a candy shop searching out old Mobil posters I'd never seen and trying to find just one more series that hadn't been released in any format stateside. YouTube is, surprisingly, my friend now. It might be the biggest shock of the last year. Shows I'd never thought I'd be able to see were available, and shows that I thought I'd hate, well, it turns out I owe the seventies production of Poldark a big apology. Masterpiece helped form who I am, creating a love of literature, art, and England. I have recently made it my goal to somehow watch every show ever aired on Masterpiece. It might take another five years, meaning there's already a sixtieth celebration in the offing, but until I succeed, possibly by bribing PBS employees to help a girl out, let's celebrate what wonderful shows I have watched in the last five years. Are any of them your favorites? I mean, how could you not love All Creatures Great and Small or Downton Abbey? Or are there certain ones that left you cold? For example have you developed an extreme aversion to Ben Cross? Because I know I sure have. Here's to Masterpiece! It's a piece of us all.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: All Creatures Great and Small, Anglophile, Ballykissangel, Ben Cross, Downton Abbey, England, Fifty Years a Masterpiece, Fifty-Five Years a Masterpiece, Masterpiece, Masterpiece No Longer Theatre, Mobil, PBS, Poldark, YouTube

The original All Creatures Great and Small has always held a special place in my family's heart. My grandfather, who has to be held partially responsible for turning me into an Anglophile by having the rule that every Sunday when we visited the TV had to remain on AND remain on PBS, had the complete series of books by James Herriot that I ran off with. As for my father, let's put it this way, when one of my friends announced she was marrying a rural Canadian vet his first question was had they watched All Creatures Great and Small together yet. I have a sneaking suspicion that my parents didn't get an invite to the wedding because my friend knew the gift would be the complete DVD set of All Creatures Great and Small followed by incessant pestering if they had watched it yet. Therefore when the new series was announced it was greeted with incredulity in my house. How could they remake such a classic!?! My Dad was actually a little flabbergasted that I wanted to watch it when it started on Masterpiece. I told him my reasoning. First, it had aired in Britain earlier and all my friends there who had the same fanatical devotion to the original show that my father has fell in love with it. Secondly, it would be a return to something comforting and secure on a Sunday night, which I think we can all agree we need right now. On January tenth the first episode, "You've Got to Dream," aired and I KNEW my father was hooked by the fact he was copiously sobbing at the complicated labor of a cow. I was more shocked than anything though when after a few episodes he said he thinks that Samuel West is a better Siegfried Farnon than Robert Hardy. This is as close as it gets to blasphemy in my house. But the show is magnificent. It's a breath of fresh air, and those gorgeous Yorkshire landscapes! THIS is what Masterpiece Theatre has always been about. Tapping into the perfect dream of England, with a little trouble and strife along the way, but a happy ending to cap it off. Nicholas Ralph who plays James Herriot says he hopes next season that his character and Helen go on their first date after her engagement with Hugh was broken in the Christmas special. Personally a true happy ending to me will be their marriage! Or I will be willing to substitute Samuel West wearing those gorgeous knee-high leather boots in every episode.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: All Creatures Great and Small, And the Emmy Goes To, Covid, England, James Herriot, Masterpiece, Masterpiece Theatre, Nicholas Ralph, Robert Hardy, Samuel West, Siegfried Farnon, Veterinarian, Yorkshire

I've been a fan of Hayley Atwell's for what seems like forever, but looking at her credits it's been about fifteen years starting with the Sally Lockhart films. But it was her portrayal of Agent Carter, giving us a non-superpowered kick-ass female lead in the male dominated Marvel universe that forever made me a fan. That and her hilarious lip-synch videos and self-deprecating social media presence. So I was aware of The Long Song since the day it first started filming back in 2018. And since the day later in 2018 that it aired in England. Nowadays with shows being shown almost simultaneously stateside thanks to premium cable channels and services like BritBox I kept waiting for The Long Song to finally air here. And I waited. And I waited. Seriously, Howards End with Hayley's portrayal of Margaret Schlegel ran on Starz and even re-aired TWICE on PBS and still I waited for The Long Song. Until finally it was announced as part of Masterpiece's 51st season. I would finally get to see the adaptation of Andrea Levy's book! And ironically, considering how long I waited to see this, I think now was the perfect time for it to air. Right when America finally said enough and embraced Black Lives Matter on a scale it should have always been embraced it's more important than ever to look back and see the horrors of what we have done in the past. To not flinch away from uncomfortable truths. And the truth of the matter is Hayley is nothing more than odious comic relief, as she should be in this setting. As she herself said "I play a heinous, vile old cow [as] Variety reviews my portrayal: 'an actor who typically radiates warmth, does a remarkable job of curdling the atmosphere of every room unlucky enough to have Caroline in it.'" The real star is Tamara Lawrance as July. A slave who was taken away from her mother to be a plaything for Caroline. Who, despite everything, is a source of joy. Her life keeps beating her down again and again yet she is a "joyous survivor" as one reviewer said. And that's the heart of The Long Song, showing the horrors unflinchingly but celebrating the joy of surviving and creating a better world.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Agent Carter, And the Emmy Goes To, Andrea Levy, Black Lives Matter, BritBox, Hayley Atwell, Howards End, July, Marvel, Masterpiece, PBS, Sally Lockhart, Slavery, Starz, Survivor, Tamara Lawrance, The Long Song

There are some miniseries that aired on Masterpiece that have never been on DVD or streaming stateside and this royally pisses me off. There are so many great shows that once you see them all you're left with is your memory. And I know, I know, this is how things used to be. You'd see a movie in the theatre or watch a show and until the advent of home recording devices in the eighties this was just how you lived, off your memories. The two shows I most wish to see again are oddly both based on Kingsley Amis novels, Lucky Jim and Take a Girl Like You. Take a Girl Like You aired during a headlong rush of chaos in my life that resulted in me eventually take some time off from school. This is a roundabout way of saying I caught a little bit of it when it first aired, really liked what I saw, but was unable to watch the whole thing until it aired again a few years later. But at least that time I was prepared with a shiny new VHS tape to record it on! I really should bust out those tapes. I think I even have the Colin Firth miniseries of Nostromo... And yes, I'm weird in that I have a VHS actually hooked up to a TV so watching it wouldn't be a problem... Now this is all I'm going to be thinking about for days! Oh, I think I have Lucky Jim too! The real reason Take a Girl Like You appealed to me was the period setting and Emma Chambers was in it. Emma Chambers, who is sadly no longer with us, is an international treasure for her portrayal of Alice Tinker on The Vicar of Dibley. Emma only had twelve credits to her name, but the effervescent if slightly dim Alice and her lovely turn as Hugh Grant's sister in Notting Hill made her an actress never to be forgotten. Of course these were very up characters, very verging on hyper, so the depressing drunk who is more than a little bit of a Nosey Parker she plays in Take a Girl Like You is a surprising and delightful change. My mom and dad would say a depressing change, but I liked seeing her range. I also happened to notice that Rupert Graves was in this, but this was still during the time I hadn't warmed up to him. It was the one two punch of V for Vendetta and Sherlock that did that for me. But anyway, once I saw the whole thing, Take a Girl Like You is an interesting look at a very specific time in England and the sexual politics of dating. I just wish I didn't feel like it dated me to say how much I liked it when it aired over a decade ago!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 2 comments  

Labels: Alice Tinker, Colin Firth, DVD, Emma Chambers, Fifty Years a Masterpiece, Kingsley Amis, Lucky Jim, Masterpiece, Nostromo, Notting Hill, Rupert Graves, Sherlock, Take a Girl Like You, The Vicar of Dibley, VHS

The Gillian Anderson version of Bleak House first aired as I was just getting back into Masterpiece. It's not that I'd taken time out from the show per se, it's just that life, combined with school meant that several seasons of Masterpiece were seen by me after the fact when my friend Jess would tell me to rent a specific show from Netflix. Yes, this was when Netflix was still only discs you sent away for. So I'd often spend the summer vacation watching the notable shows that had aired on Masterpiece earlier in the year and had now been released on DVD. The other reason I got back into Masterpiece was perfect timing. I could never watch the eight o'clock broadcast because other family members had the television at the time and for some reason our second PBS station decided to re-air that night's episode of Masterpiece starting around midnight. That meant I could finally curl up with my cat and be assured we wouldn't be accused of co-opting the television. So I settled in to watch Bleak House. The fifteen episode miniseries actually aired as eight on Masterpiece, so for eight weeks I was there for all the twists, turns, and explosive reveals of the people connected to the Jarndyce v Jarndyce case. And I kind of found it meh. I wasn't good at following the plot from week to week and just kind of forgot about it. Until I made a list of suggested viewings for a friend of my mom's and well, Nancy was VERY mad I didn't like Bleak House. Apparently it was her favorite. Therefore I had to give it another try. And yet she wouldn't give Poldark a second try!?! Just saying... So I sat down and watched all of Bleak House over three nights and you know what? I really liked it. I knew what was going to happen more or less so I was able to take joy in the characters, which is what this adaptation is all about. SHAKE ME UP JUDY! Also, Bleak House works better, in my mind, binged. Watching it over too long a period of time doesn't work. We are no longer in the age when we had to wait months for Dickens to actually write the next chapter, so why wait? That's right, why wait? Go watch Bleak House today. All of it! 

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Binge, Bleak House, Cats, Charles Dickens, DVD, Fifty Years a Masterpiece, Gillian Anderson, Jarndyce v Jarndyce, Masterpiece, Miniseries, Netflix, PBS, Phil Davis, Poldark, School, Shake Me Up Judy

The original All Creatures Great and Small has always held a special place in my family's heart. My grandfather, who has to be held partially responsible for turning me into an Anglophile by having the rule that every Sunday when we visited the TV had to remain on AND remain on PBS, had the complete series of books by James Herriot that I ran off with. As for my father, let's put it this way, when one of my friends announced she was marrying a rural Canadian vet his first question was had they watched All Creatures Great and Small together yet. I have a sneaking suspicion that my parents didn't get an invite to the wedding because my friend knew the gift would be the complete DVD set of All Creatures Great and Small followed by incessant pestering if they had watched it yet. Therefore when the new series was announced it was greeted with incredulity in my house. How could they remake such a classic!?! My Dad was actually a little flabbergasted that I wanted to watch it when it started on Masterpiece a few weeks back. I told him my reasoning. First, it had aired in Britain in the fall and all my friends there who had the same fanatical devotion to the original show that my father has fell in love with it. Secondly, it would be a return to something comforting and secure on a Sunday night, which I think we can all agree we need right now. On January tenth the first episode, "You've Got to Dream," aired and I KNEW my father was hooked by the fact he was copiously sobbing at the complicated labor of a cow. I was more shocked than anything though when after a few episodes he said he thinks that Samuel West is a better Siegfried Farnon than Robert Hardy. This is as close as it gets to blasphemy in my house. But the show is magnificent. It's a breath of fresh air, and gorgeous Yorkshire landscapes. THIS is what Masterpiece Theatre has always been about. Tapping into the perfect dream of England, with a little trouble and strife along the way, but a happy ending to cap it off. Or at least there better be a happy ending, the whole season hasn't aired yet as I type this. But at least there's going to be a second season, hopefully with Samuel West wearing those gorgeous knee-high leather boots in every episode.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: All Creatures Great and Small, Anglophile, Fifty Years a Masterpiece, Grandfather, James Herriot, Masterpiece, Masterpiece No Longer Theatre, PBS, Remake, Robert Hardy, Samuel West, Veterinarian, Yorkshire

January tenth of this year marked the fiftieth anniversary of Masterpiece, no longer Theatre, but still Theatre in my heart. If you watched the "special" hosted by Alan Cumming you were probably just as baffled as I was that it was nothing more than an infomercial for their most recent seasons without touching on the glorious history and the wonderful shows they have aired over the past fifty years. Let's just do a really fast montage of the hosts to prove that it wasn't the biggest mistake of our lives firing Russell Baker, OK? Sigh. In fact the very touching tribute to Diana Rigg at the end of the second episode of All Creatures Great and Small this season was longer than the tribute to past hosts in a special about the show's history! My quibbles aside, Masterpiece didn't just change television, it changed me. It informed everything about me growing up. It was a touchstone, there every Sunday night, where I could get respite from the world and escape into a show before the onslaught of Monday morning. The theme music was used as the processional music for my eighth grade graduation. I have spent more hours than you can count going through shelves at used bookstores to find the old tie-in editions with the beautiful poster art that Mobil produced for each show. I learned about new shows wandering bookstores and seeing the newly released tie-ins for the upcoming season. I have found more favorite authors than I can count because of this show!  

My mind was expanded by the informed introductions and the wonderful presentations that made me want to go out and learn more. To read, to absorb, to understand, and thus did I become an Anglophile... And this might have always been my destiny, because despite never coming clean I still think there's a good chance my parents named me after the Bellamy's daughter Elizabeth on Upstairs, Downstairs, that's how deep my connection to this show is. I was born to it! Which is why I can not, no I will not let this opportunity to celebrate Masterpiece pass! I am dedicating the next few months of my blog to Masterpiece, and seeing as I've basically dedicated a lot of my life to it this isn't that big a change or surprise. But there's some gaps in my viewing, you know from before I was born or shows I couldn't find and my library didn't have when I first went looking. So I'm going to take a little peak at each season of Masterpiece, including the current fifty-first season! There are several shows that were revolutionary and way before their time. And then there are other shows that are like coming home. And very famous shows that just took old stories and made them new again. I hope you'll join me in this trip down memory lane. Feel free to share your memories of your favorite shows, you can be sure I won't hold back on mine!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alan Cumming, All Creatures Great and Small, Anglophile, Bellamy, Diana Rigg, Fifty Years a Masterpiece, Masterpiece, Masterpiece No Longer Theatre, Masterpiece Theatre, Mobil, Russell Baker, Upstairs Downstairs