BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre

Subject: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Jan 07 - 10:36 AM

Last night I watched, on PBS Boston, a program with results of a viewers poll of best of MT. I missed a portion of it and was wondering if the results of the poll were on the Website or can be found elsewhere. One of my all time faves was the Duchess of Duke Street but it was not mentioned. Was it a MP program ?
    If I had to name a favorite of mine it would have to be Jewel In the Crown. I see that Prime Suspect was mentioned but I thought that it had begun on Mystery.
Anyway, I am wondering if mudcatters have favorite MT shows.
Here are Mine.
UpStairs Downstairs
House of Cards
Jewel In The Crown
Sorrell & Son
Bleak House.

Some of the PBS shows that were great but apparently were not on MT were Poldar, Duchess of Duke Street and Tenko, which was fabulous.

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: Scrump
Date: 29 Jan 07 - 10:40 AM

I must admit when I first went to the USA (in 1974) and decided to watch Masterpiece Theatre, I was amused to see it was Upstairs Downstairs, which was just viewed more or less as a soap in the UK. That's not to denigrate the programme, I just thought it was a bit of a grandiose title (MT) for this programme. I had imagined Shakespeare or something! :-)

From the list you gave above, I'd vote for House of Cards. A pity they don't repeat that over here, although I guess it would lose its impact now, as things have changed a bit since it was first aired.

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: Scoville
Date: 29 Jan 07 - 11:06 AM

Our Mutual Friend was good. It's considerably rearranged from the book but not really to the detriment of the story, since it's long and Dickens' penchant for multiple story lines can get pretty complicated. There was a lot of very good character acting in it (suitably colorful but not over the top).

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: SINSULL
Date: 29 Jan 07 - 11:26 AM

The Norman Conquests was hilarious but my absolute favorite was The Jewel In The Crown. I wouldn't even answer the phone when it was on. Brilliant!

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: SINSULL
Date: 29 Jan 07 - 11:31 AM

Pride and Prejudice is a close second to Jewel. That kiss at the end...sigh

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: GUEST,petr
Date: 29 Jan 07 - 11:37 AM

danger uXB

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: Scrump
Date: 29 Jan 07 - 11:41 AM

Where?! :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: mrdux
Date: 29 Jan 07 - 12:25 PM

I, Claudius

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: Cluin
Date: 29 Jan 07 - 12:25 PM

"Jeeves and Wooster" and "The Irish R.M."

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Jan 07 - 12:33 PM

I didn't know that the Irish RM was a Masterpiece programme ?

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: Cluin
Date: 29 Jan 07 - 12:51 PM

The Irish RM was a Channel Four/RTE/Ulster Television/Rediffusion Films production, but it was carried on Masterpiece Theatre where we saw it on this side of the water.

Still have the soundtrack album in vinyl; I'll have to transfer it to CD one day.

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Jan 07 - 12:59 PM

I think the very first program they played was very good--or was it the second? Anyway, The Six Wives of Henry VIII was a good beginning back in the early 1970s. Right after was a good version of Last of the Mohicans, much more accurate than the more recent film version. I loved Jewel in the Crown, and like Mohicans, was so moved by the series that I read the books. It was a race to the finish, to go through the quartet plus the fifth book that wrapped up a bunch of story lines before the series ended.

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: number 6
Date: 29 Jan 07 - 01:09 PM

It wasn't on Masterpiece Theatre, but worth mentioning here ... it was a series on the Ontario Public TV back in the mid-1980's .... called Heimat ... a German production ... it was a chronicle of various families in a small German village from 1919 to about the late 1970's.

biLL

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: Micca
Date: 29 Jan 07 - 03:46 PM

Number 6 there were 2 more series of Heimat, and they are as good as the First, the second series is out Herman (Hermanchen,the child Maria has with Otto)at University and after in 1960s Munich and the 3rd brings it up to date starting with the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the re-unification of Germany. They are all equally fascinating!!

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: RangerSteve
Date: 29 Jan 07 - 05:36 PM

The first MT I ever saw was Tom Brown's Schooldays. It's still one of my favorites, although I haven't seen it since it first aired. I also agree with I, Claudius (possibly my favoritel), Jeeves and Wooster, and the Irish RM.

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: SINSULL
Date: 29 Jan 07 - 05:40 PM

There was one about women in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. It was shown in Canada and I caught bits of it when I was in Buffalo. Cruel and bitter.

I can't think of a single Masterpiece Theatre that was bad. Some were less good but none bad. My observation is that they are cast for performance quality not for star appeal. Hence Tom Cruise will never be asked to play Rochester or Madonna, Jane Eyre. At least not for Masterpiece Theatre.

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Jan 07 - 05:53 PM

I saw Tenko (the Japanese prisoner of war drama) on A&E, but never saw it broadcast on PBS. It may have varied from market to market. I thought it was marvelous. Also Nanny gave an interesting insight into the domestic side of child rearing in privileged homes. Came out at about the same time on A&E, though I always thought it was the kind of thing that should have been on Masterpiece Theater.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: GUEST,petr
Date: 29 Jan 07 - 06:38 PM

it think the Japanese prisoner of war camp
may have been Town Like Alice?
or something ..

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Jan 07 - 07:06 PM

I remember that one--they did do Nevil Shute's A Town Like Alice--and because there was violence (and in conjunction with other programs that were complained about) our little hick PBS station at the time (out of Killeen, TX, heart of the Bible Belt and where Fort Hood is located) censored it. They blacked out the screen during violence (in particular when he was crucified). They also censored an episode of Mystery! that week, an Emil Zola story with nudity. BUT, amazingly, they left a dramatization of Medea untouched.

I was never so glad to move out of a place as when we finally got out of Central Texas. That's where Dubya makes his home. . .

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 29 Jan 07 - 08:59 PM

One of my favorites, from an impressionable stage of my youth, was Elizabeth R, with Glenda Jackson.

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: DougR
Date: 29 Jan 07 - 11:34 PM

I was raised in Central Texas too, SRS. Served at Camp (now Fort) Hood myself. Marvelous place as I remember it. Must admit, though, that I was pretty glad to get away from it and move back to my home town quite near where our president has his ranch.

House of Cards is my pick for the best of Masterpiece Theater to date. I don't know why, but I thik the Brits have it over us many times over when it comes to producing quality TV series.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Jan 07 - 11:52 PM

I wasn't raised in Texas, DougR, I hail from Seattle. There's a lot in Central Texas that never set right with me. Living in the Bible Belt is tough when you don't share the religion and attempts are made regularly to cram down your throat by all and sundry. (The nurses at the hospital where I had my daughter actually changed my name on my wrist id tag because they wanted it to show that I was married when I gave birth; they couldn't accept that I was a "Ms" and I kept my own name after a number of years of marriage.) For all of that piety, the town where we lived managed to have a 50% high school drop out rate and the highest teen pregnancy rate in the nation a couple of decades ago. No way did I want to raise kids there. We got out as soon as we could once we had a child.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: Elmer Fudd
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 02:13 AM

I loved I Claudius. The Lily Langtry Series was wonderful as well.

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 08:58 AM

I believe that Anne of Greengable was MT and I loved it. Was theDuchess of Duke Street ever on MT. Loved that too.

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: Desdemona
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 01:12 PM

I, Claudius
Elizabeth R
Brideshead Revisited
Pride and Prejudice
Bleak House (we received the DVD for Christmas and just spent the whole of last weekend watching it!)

~D

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: Cool Beans
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 05:49 PM

I second Elmer's "I Claudius." Derek Jacobi was marvelous.

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: SINSULL
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 06:27 PM

I had forgotten about the Jersey Lily and all those wonderful glimpses of Whistler and Wilde.

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 08:09 PM

Here are some I remember (I consulted IMDB.com to get the titles right).

House of Cards/To Play the King/The Final Cut (did those have a collective title?) starring Ian Richardson as the evil Prime Minister Francis Urquhart.

A Very British Coup – Ray McAnally as a socialist Prime Minister

The Way We Live Now – David Suchet in an adaptation of a Trollope novel

The Darling Buds of May – David Jason as Pop Larkin

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: Arkie
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 08:10 PM

Many good ones listed and I especially liked the Irish R.M. and A Town like Alice. My favortie though was Poldark.

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: Cluin
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 08:16 PM

"Warrior Queen" and "Turn of the Screw" were good too.

A to Z Program listing history of Masterpiece Theatre on PBS

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Jan 07 - 10:03 AM

So many great programs. Thanks for the reminder!

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: ClaireBear
Date: 31 Jan 07 - 11:37 AM

I think the very first Masterpiece Theatre production was The First Churchills. It was a breath of fresh air after years of bad American television, and I watched it avidly.

Jude the Obscure was another one done early on.

And yet another vote for The Jewel In the Crown from this quarter. Wow, that was great work! California screeched to a halt whenever it aired.

Claire

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Jan 07 - 05:29 PM

Jenny was an early one also--I remember it made a brief sensation because a famous American actress was going to play the part of the famous American woman (who was Churchill's mom). It was Lee Remick.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Jan 07 - 05:32 PM

I don't see it by that name in the list posted. Maybe it was "The First Churchills"?

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: ClaireBear
Date: 31 Jan 07 - 05:52 PM

The First Churchills had Susan Hampshire as Sarah Churchill and John Neville as the first Lord Churchill. It was also set in the late 17th century, so it was a different story from many generations before the one you're describing. Come to think of it, I believe I remember the one you are talking about, but that came quite a bit later in Masterpiece Theatre terms as well as in historical terms.

Here's PBS' description of The First Churchills (from this site): "Based on Sir Winston Churchill's biography of his own ancestors, The First Churchills became a classic BBC miniseries, launching Masterpiece Theatre. In an age when few couples dared to marry for love, military genius John Churchill and tempestuous Sarah Jennings held out, bringing a rare example of fidelity and stability to the bawdy 17th-century court of Charles II and surviving five decades at the epicenter of England's political power."

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: ClaireBear
Date: 31 Jan 07 - 05:56 PM

SRS, I think this is the one you were thinking of: Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill

Claire

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: ClaireBear
Date: 31 Jan 07 - 06:09 PM

If you've enough patience, you can apparently wade through a complete Masterpiece Theater episode list here.

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 01:24 AM

Thanks, ClaireBear! I was swamped today or I'd have taken a detour over to IMDb and looked up Remick to find it myself. T(he rest of the week doesn't look much better.) This was a pleasant confirmation that I'm not losing my mind! And didn't that film have a great cast!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: clueless don
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 10:10 AM

I see that Pride and Prejudice has been mentioned a few times, but with no specification of which Pride and Prejudice. I have a soft spot for the version with Elizabeth Garvie as Elizabeth Bennet and David Rintoul as Darcy. It was my first exposure to the story, which may explain why it is my favorite.

Don

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: Cluin
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 10:12 AM

What was the one where Janet McTeer made having a harelip look sexy?

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 11:09 AM

I remember that--a very dark and brooding piece. And there was another one she was in later, something like The Red Velvet Dress.

I remember the Garvie and Rintoul version of Pride and Prejudice, but it has been so long I don't remember the particulars. I've seen several of them, and when I first saw the Ehle version it seem the closest to the story.

I just looked up Garvie in IMDb--she disappears in 1999. Gone to do other things, or to raise a family?

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: GUEST,Wordless Woman
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 03:43 PM

My Uncle Silas and The Darling Buds of May were enchanting! Likewise A Rather English Marriage.

Does anyone remember a series that took place in Japan? English woman comes to Japan in late 19th century/early 20th century – I think – and ultimately falls in love with a Japanese count. The title was Ginger something. The count was quite handsome.

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Feb 07 - 04:38 PM

Yes, that was a good one, poignant. The Ginger Tree. I told my mom about it, but she declined watching, having spent a fair amount of time in Japan after the war. She didn't want reminders.

For some reason IMDb has stopped listing characters in the order of their billing in the program. It makes the search a bit more difficult.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: GUEST,Jethro Bodine
Date: 02 Feb 07 - 02:48 PM

"Love For Lydia" Sure wish I could get a copy of it.

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: GUEST,Harry Greenwood
Date: 06 Mar 07 - 02:58 AM

I have enjoyed many,many hours of viewing excellent performances on Masterpiece Theatre but the most outstanding was Tenko. I have been trying to find the DVD for all segmants. No Luck..If anyone out there can help me find them (North American) format please e-mail me at [e-mail]
Thank you

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: Alec
Date: 06 Mar 07 - 12:32 PM

There seem to have been a lot of American fans of British TV dramas who have contributed to this thread,so this may be of interest:On Saturday, (U.K.) Channel 4 broadcast a list of the 50 best ever TV Drama Series',as compiled by TV Drama writers,producers & performers in the U.K.
Their choice of best TV Drama ever was The Sopranos.

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: ranger1
Date: 06 Mar 07 - 02:39 PM

My favorites are:
Henry V
The Shiralee
The Sharpe series
A Town Like Alice

Subject: RE: BS: Best Ever Masterpiece Theatre
From: Bert
Date: 06 Mar 07 - 05:47 PM

My favourites

Private Schultz
Piece of Cake
Goodbye Mr. Chips.