Becoming a Doctor Who fan at the tender age of eight opened my eyes to the great canon of British television…and the 50 year output of BBC comedy and drama never ceases to put out classics and gems worth watching on a regular basis.
On that note, I’ve fallen in love with a new BBC series: Lark Rise to Candleford.
Courtesy of Wikipedia, here is the official description of the program:
Set in the small hamlet of Lark Rise and the wealthier neighbouring market town, Candleford, at the end of the 19th Century, the series chronicles the daily lives of farm workers, craftsmen and gentry, observing characters in loving, boisterous and competing communities of families, rivals, friends and neighbours.
This world is seen through the eyes of a teenage girl, Laura Timmins, as she leaves Lark Rise to start a new life under the wing of her cousin, the independent and effervescent Dorcas Lane, who is Post Mistress at the local Post Office in Candleford. Through them, viewers experience the force of friendship as they see each other through the best and worst of times. Lark Rise To Candleford is warm, funny, poignant, occasionally tragic but overall a celebration of the spirit of community; a love letter to a vanished corner of rural England and a heart-warming drama series teeming with wit, wisdom and romance.
Anchored by the amazing Julia Sawalha (who became a star as the put-upon daughter Saffie in Absolutely Fabulous), this is about as gorgeous, beautiful, irresistable and impressive an evocation of rural 19th century town & village life as I have ever seen it.
I’m sure some will dismiss it as soap, but serialization tends to bring that out in such people (usually the type who need the formulaic security of CSI). Lark Rise to Candleford is a series that requires an investment on the part of the viewer, and it rewards that investment in spades. It has made me laugh out loud, it has made me weep like a little girl, and it has left me in quiet, breathtaking contentment. It’s an unapologetic novel-for-television, chapter by chapter…completely romantic (in its classical sense) in design and execution. It evokes prosaic, historic English reality and mythical, pastoral loveliness simultaneously…
… and big, unapologetic sap that I am, I love it to pieces. It sweeps the viewer away to a place of golden sunshine and honest emotions (something very little formulaic American television manages in this day and age), and is a gem to cherish. It won’t be for everyone…but if you’re someone like me…someone who can be reduced to tears by shows ranging from The West Wing to Battlestar Galactica to Doctor Who…some who can lose themselves in the lush recreation of an earlier age…then take this recommendation and experience it for yourself. :D
Hmm…now I suddenly feel like reading a Bronte novel…
