Product Description
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Cranford: The Collection (DVD)
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Adapted from Elizabeth kell's novels, the five-episode
miniseries Cranford focuses on female characters in the
19th-century British town to thematically contemplate encroaching
modernity in rural England. With the camera roving house to
house, each drama within the grander story is constructed of
scenes featuring dialogue between several gossipy ladies obsessed
with moral code, romantic ideas about courtship, and social
occasions. Three main characters, the ever-appropriate Deborah
Jenkyns (Eileen Atkins), her sweet sister, Matilda (Judi Dench),
and their younger, more savvy relative, Miss Smith (Lisa Dillon),
continuously weigh in on situations, providing a dependable view
when other ladies, like the nosey Miss Pole (Imelda Staunton) are
too judgmental. In fine period dress, the women of Cranford
remind the viewer of how little action was needed in their
small-town lives to provide unceasing entertainment. The
series'most intriguing aspect lies not in the ample female
conversation but rather in its display of earlier technologies
and ways of life. Part One, for example, quickly launches a main
narrative thread that runs throughout the series, namely the
arrival and assimilation of London doctor, Frank Harrison (Simon
Woods), into village society. Dr. Harrison's medical practices,
such as his refusal to amputate a man's arm because it's broken,
are all the more radical because they are so fundamental by
today's standards. In subsequent episodes, he recommends Miss
Smith get spectacles to cure her headaches, and saves his love's
life by cooling her fever after conservative doctor, Dr. Morgan
(John Bowe), recommends the old school practice of burying her in
blankets in front of a raging fire. In Part Two, Lady Ludlow
(Francesca Annis) throws a garden party at her estate, treating
all the women in their fancy hats to a new novelty: ice cream.
This scene foreshadows Ludlow's future concern at a railroad plan
involving her land that would connect Cranford to Manchester,
symbolizing the ruin of this idyllic setting. In fact, fluffy and
clever as some scenes are, death and rebirth assert themselves in
each showing, both physically and idealistically. Part Four shows
an auctioning off of a deceased man's antiques, and focuses on
issues of class and women's education, as Mr. Carter teaches a
peasant boy to read while his assistant fumes at her trappings as
a seamstress. Part Five ushers in a new period of medical
emergencies, securing Dr. Harrison's shaky position in town. In
total, Cranford offers a powerful, if sentimental, look at how
death begets life, love, and passion. --Trinie Dalton
The two-part saga Return to Cranford opens to a struggling
Cranford, a traditional English village that in autumn 1844 is
airing the conflicts that accompany progress. Miss Matty Jenkyns
(Judi Dench), after having closed her business in the last
series, is happily babysitting the child of her maid, Martha
(Claudie Blakley). This gives the ladies in town something to
gossip about, as does every other small event in this chatty
group. The same women populate this new Cranford--the snooty Miss
Jamieson (Barbara Flynn), nosy Miss Pole (Imelda Staunton), Miss
Forrester (Julia McKenzie), Peggy (Jodie Whittaker), and Erminia
(Michelle Dockery)--while a few new men added into the mix
creates options for love interests throughout. In Part One,
Peggy, visiting her dead her's grave, bumps into William
Baxton (Tom Hiddleston), a young and dapper gentleman who becomes
a central character in Cranford's growing divide between those
who want a railroad coming through town and those who don't.
While politics are sorted, scenes alternate between heated public
debates and domestic exchanges to make Return to
Cranford as charming as the first incarnations of this historical
drama. The emphasis on the ways the women in town navigate thorny
social situations remains primary in Return to Cranford. Babies
are born and the elderly pass away while the ladies busily decide
what to make of it all. While Part One focuses on catch-up,
showing where each crone stands on the latest current events,
Part Two attempts more to challenge outmoded cultural values such
as elitism and to show how the community members toughen up to
become a courageous bunch. Unfortunately, Miss Matty discovers
that solidarity is hard to come by in this small village, and
Part Two is as much about a town falling apart as it is about
ways to heal sore feelings and a violated landscape. Ultimately,
life marches on in this pleasurably fictionalized glimpse into
England's past. --Trinie Dalton