BS: Darling Buds of May (Brit TV series)

Subject: BS: Darling Buds of May (Brit TV series)
From: RangerSteve
Date: 03 Mar 07 - 04:40 PM

I'm in the U.S. I have seen and loved "Monarch of the Glen", "Ballykissangel", "Jeeves and Wooster", "The Irish R.M.", "Mapp and Lucia" (My personal favorite), and see that the company that I rent DVD's through the mail has DBofM available, but little in the way of description. So, is it any good or should I pass? I like British dramas that are at least a little light-hearted.

Thanks,
Steve

Subject: RE: BS: Darling Buds of May (Brit TV series)
From: GUEST,Canadienne
Date: 03 Mar 07 - 04:46 PM

The book is much better IMHO but it is "light-hearted"

Subject: RE: BS: Darling Buds of May (Brit TV series)
From: gnomad
Date: 03 Mar 07 - 06:52 PM

It is of a similar type to those series you mention. Like them, it is light-hearted, and conveys a rosy-lens view of life in the recent past in these islands. Based on those mentioned, I would expect you to enjoy it.

Cast includes David Jason, Pam Ferris, Catherine Zeta Jones.

You might keep an eye out for "Open All Hours", not such pretty scenery but good fun.

Subject: RE: BS: Darling Buds of May (Brit TV series)
From: TRUBRIT
Date: 04 Mar 07 - 12:53 AM

One of the stars of DBofM - David Jason - IMHO is one of the greatest comedy actors ever in British Theatre.......try and catch him in any version of Only Fools and Horses.........; there is a lot of London humour and it does help to have an interpreter but it is good stuff.......

DBofM was ok-ish -.....didn't make me jump up and down.

Subject: RE: BS: Darling Buds of May (Brit TV series)
From: terrier
Date: 04 Mar 07 - 05:54 AM

If you've read the book, the TV series is similar in name only, although I only got to see a few episodes on other peoples TVs, they were nicely done and entertaining. I agree with Truebrit about David Jason one of our best actors who is just as at home doing comedy as he is serious roles. Look out for the almost unrecognisable Catherine Zeta Jones.( Why would anyone be named after a tractor? ) ;~}

Subject: RE: BS: Darling Buds of May (Brit TV series)
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 04 Mar 07 - 05:56 AM

I thought darling Buds of May was horrible - really twee - pass the sick bucket time. It was inspired by the novels of HE Bates, who was fair enough, I suppose - his other big hit was a film version of Fair Stood the Wind for France. You couldn't question his patriotism.

Not in the same street as a writer though, as the waspish Mapp and Lucia.

EF Benson, the writer of Mapp and Lucia was on the edge of Wilde and Reggie Turners gay crowd of aesthetes at one time. he lived a more discreet and less tragic life that Oscar Wilde though - eventually ending up as the mayor of somewhere or other. If you really want to frighten yourself - check out his ghost story - The Hanging of Alfred Wadham, which used to be highly anthologised though you don't see it around so much in these less literary times.

Subject: RE: BS: Darling Buds of May (Brit TV series)
From: Cats
Date: 04 Mar 07 - 08:34 AM

Having been brought up in the area where DBoM was filmed, I can honestly say I thoroughly enjoyed the whole series. OK it wavers from the book in places but it was made for TV so has poetic licence. I think it is a very gentle series and the character played by David Jason, Pop Larkin, really reminds me of my dad! The accent is right, the attitude is right and the locality is right. Perfick. It all depends on what your taste is. Along the same lines, have you tried 'Cold Comfort Farm'? That one definitley has 'something nasty in the woodshed', but again, an excellent portrayal of rural England at the time.

Subject: RE: BS: Darling Buds of May (Brit TV series)
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 04 Mar 07 - 09:32 AM

Another He Bates thing was the film Triple Echo, with the late Oliver Reed. That was quite good - not what you'd call light hearted.

PM me your address and I'll send you a dvd of only fools and horses - if you can get into it -its better than dbof may. Its very Englsih though.

Subject: RE: BS: Darling Buds of May (Brit TV series)
From: TRUBRIT
Date: 04 Mar 07 - 05:05 PM

Cold comfort farm is a wonderful novel that I thought failed miserably as a film -- but why would one make a film of it? The pictures in the book are so much better.

Agree with weelittledrummer - Only Fools and Horses is very funny but VERY English -- although my American husband loves it (but he did live in England for 5 years). The DelBoy and Rodders are classic!

Subject: RE: BS: Darling Buds of May (Brit TV series)
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 05 Mar 07 - 11:53 AM

Very well acted, filmed and produced regardless of whether you liked the story lines or not. I did - Enjoyed the series very much.

Dave

Subject: RE: BS: Darling Buds of May (Brit TV series)
From: TRUBRIT
Date: 05 Mar 07 - 10:05 PM

Amen!

Subject: RE: BS: Darling Buds of May (Brit TV series)
From: Scrump
Date: 06 Mar 07 - 05:52 AM

Very well acted, filmed and produced regardless of whether you liked the story lines or not

I never noticed all that, I was too busy watching the young Catherine Zeta Jones :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Darling Buds of May (Brit TV series)
From: Helen
Date: 06 Mar 07 - 05:17 PM

Shakespeare, Sonnet 18:

    Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
    Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
    Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
    And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
    Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
    And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
    And every fair from fair sometime declines,
    By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:
    But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
    Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
    Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
    When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,
    So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
    So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

(Sorry! Couldn't resist!)

Subject: RE: BS: Darling Buds of May (Brit TV series)
From: GUEST,Mingulay at work
Date: 07 Mar 07 - 08:37 AM

I have always thought that the books and the TV series are a modern take on the sonnet and complement each other well. Although with global warming perhaps it should be changed to the darling buds of February.

Subject: RE: BS: Darling Buds of May (Brit TV series)
From: Mr Fox
Date: 08 Mar 07 - 08:08 AM

I'm not allowed to watch it. I'm diabetic and it's far too sugary.

Subject: RE: BS: Darling Buds of May (Brit TV series)
From: GUEST,petr
Date: 08 Mar 07 - 08:17 PM

I enjoyed it. so what if its sugary.

recently I purchased from a Czech Video outfit a TV series called
Cetnicke Humoresky, (Police stories set in Moravia between the wars)
it is similar to Heartbeat but much better. Unfortunately it doesnt have english subtleties so I had to translate for my wife.

regarding the Sonnets.
we keep a copy by the bedside and from time to time read it out to each other before turning in.