Having watched both episodes, which span several weeks/months, it strikes me that the weather must have been so much better back then - why, it was one long summer!

I haven't read the book, and so enjoyed the programme moderately. But as a storyline it carries little "punch", and so ends up as a series of tableaux as much as anything. Yes, I can see that the Dawn French character is played over the top, perhaps too much so, but I am a DF fan and therefore excuse her trespasses.

I will watch the series to the end. But unlike, say, the BBC's Pride & Prejudice, I probably will not watch it again later when it is repeated.