On Sunday nights I have a routine; my friend who comes over to watch the BBC drama 'Lark Rise to Candleford' with me. It's a bustles and bonnets type affair- she comes over around 6pm, we chat for a while and catch-up on any gossip over the last week, we watch a DVD episode from series 1 (she is catching up) then we watch the new episode whilst eating biscuits with cheese and caramelised onion chutney.
I love this programme; it's a real 'Sunday night' type of production that the BBC does so well. I watched the first series alone so having her come over and join me now is lovely; it's one of those feel-good programmes that take you back to days gone by where people lived their lives guided by delicate but distinct social and religious rules of society and etiquette. Where propriety ruled and things were done in accordance to what 'others might think'.
It's also very moralistic so raises a lot of debate between us regarding its many issues; the way women were at the mercy of their modesty and could only marry if they were asked, or if there were actually men of the same class in the vicinity (women didn't travel far) we discuss which things were better or worse compared with today and how our lives would've been if we were in their shoes. Not dying of cholera or in childbirth being a definite plus!
The thing I really love about it though, is that I get to see my friend for this shared Sunday routine and when she leaves I feel all warm and happy. And not because she's just gone home!
Wow, that sounds really lovely. I wish I had a friend instead of a husband. :P
ReplyDeleteI must admit - and it's not a very macho thing to confess to - that I love this programme. Before the Beeb even dreamed of producing it, I loved the book and feared that no television drama could do it justice.
ReplyDeleteI'm still not entirely convinced that it does, not least because it does veer away from the true depth of the hardship that was really suffered by the folk in villages such as these at the time.
But taken on its own merits, it's a very watchable series - and I am hooked :)