Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial

Subject: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Fliss
Date: 14 Jan 08 - 04:06 PM

I watched the first episode last night and really enjoyed it.. I dont tend to watch long running serials as I usually miss episodes.

Yes I know I could video the series, but Ive never learned how to used the wretched recorder. Thats what I had kids for and now Ive have grown up and left home I have never bothered to learn.

... however... having got Virgin Media TV I can watch the repeats.

I started reading 'Lark Rise to Candleford' years ago when I was staying at a friends house. I never got to finish the book. So the series will come fresh.

I gather Dawn French's character isnt really like that in the book... but what the heck.

Must try and get the books in large print from the library for my mum, think she will like them.

Ive trawled the internet tonight for any info on the music used in the series.... any ideas who was playing fiddle?

cheers
fliss

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Splott Man
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 05:01 AM

I tuned in eagerly, having produced a production of Keith Dewhurst's musical play many years ago. I wasn't disappointed. I thought the look and feel captured the original very well, and the character of Dorcas was so close to our casting as to be uncanny.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 05:10 AM

The "original" Lark Rise To Candleford is not Keith Dewhurst's late 70s National Theatre drama production but a trilogy of semi-autobiographical novels published by Flora Thompson in 1945.

The only information that seems to be available about the music in current TV adaptation is that the composer is Julian Nott.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: greg stephens
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 05:30 AM

I never saw the play, which I gather had a lot of folkie stuff in it. My recollection of the book, admittedly of thirty years ago when I read it, was the lack of music. I seem to recall the author pointing out the lack of local music in the pubs, no fiddles or serpents or concertinas that I recall. Can anyone confirm this who has read it recently? I can't seem to find my copy to check.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Anne Lister
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 05:41 AM

I remember the NT productions with huge affection - they were two distinct plays, Lark Rise and Candleford. All in a promenade setting, which meant at one stage I was severely tempted to get involved in the action - when they were about to take an old chap off to the workhouse and I felt (as all of us did) that they shouldn't.

Missed Sunday's episode, though - we'll have to catch up with it later.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: GUEST,Terry McDonald
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 05:56 AM

The Albion band did an excellent album based on the NT production. In the book(s) Flora Thompson recalls the old men singing in the pub and mentions one old chap who always sang The Outlandish Knight - it was his song and no one else would dare sing it.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 05:59 AM

Is it a bit Rosy English Village Life?

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Anne Lister
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 06:33 AM

Nope - not as I remember it, at any rate!

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: GUEST,clockwatcher
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 07:38 AM

Well, I thought it was all a bit boring (and I'd been really looking forward to it).

What's more, it didn't seem to make any attempt to be anything like the book.

Oh well, back to the Albion Band album, then.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: GUEST,Wyrd Sister
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 07:44 AM

'Rosy English Village Life?'

I don't think the books are, but the TV adaptation certainly struck me as that way inclined. Sunday night fire-and-slippers stuff.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: GUEST,guest
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 10:27 AM

Martin Carthy was in the 70's theatre production

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Fred McCormick
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 10:31 AM

I thought it was dreadful and can't decide which it most reminded me of, The Archers, The Larkins, Upstairs Downstairs or a bad adaptation of a Thomas Hardy novel.

The pity is that Lark Rise to Candleford is a wonderful book which should be read by everyone remotely interested in folk music.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Jeanie
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 11:20 AM

I haven't watched it yet. Exactly this time last year I was just starting rehearsals for a stage production of Keith Dewhurst's 'Candleford', which was just magic from beginning to end for all of us who were involved in it.

I *will* watch the TV adaptation, but I'm rather hesitant. From what I have seen of the publicity shots etc., (and confirmed by the comments on here about 'rosy English village life') it looks to me as if they have glamorised it rather much: all looking far too smart and far too many bright colours. We on-stage villagers were far from glamorous and the general costume colours were greys, blues, browns. (I will never forget my incredibly scratchy wool skirt). Even Miss Lane, although smarter, was not in any way 'fancy'. She and Sir Timothy were also rather older - which I think is correct for the storyline in the original. Why television has to do this glamourising beats me - do they think we will only watch costume dramas if everyone and everythng is pretty to look at ?

I wonder if they will have that wonderful conversation in the post office about slugs ? And will those old soldiers come in for their pension and talk about India ? Hope so - that is a lovely scene in the stage play.

- jeanie

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Splott Man
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 11:52 AM

I stand corrected. I shall be more careful with my words next time.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Jeanie
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 12:37 PM

Sorry, Splott Man- I have just re-read your first post. My own comments were not meant to be directed against yours in particular !

That's the thing about interpreting plays and characters for the stage/screen - even when they were originally written as plays, and even more so when they are adaptations of novels - there are many, many ways of staging them, and especially if the story or the characters or previous actors who have played the part are well loved and fondly remembered, it is a thankless task to try and please all of the people all of the time.

As a for instance, I'm looking forward to seeing Zoe Wanamaker and Simon Russell-Beale in "Much Ado" - far more 'elderly' for the parts than is usually cast, and I know that eyebrows must have been raised, but by all accounts, their age brings a whole new perspective on the play. Apparently, they also wear mixed period costume - some modern, some Elizabethan. Not sure what to think about that until I've seen it.

- jeanie

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 05:32 PM

There are some familiar faces from the Cottesloe in the BBC production. For instance, the actor playing the old boy who sings (?) played Jesus in the 1984/85 Mysteries, and the pub landlord doesn't do a bad Brian Glover! But it should be possible to dub on some National Production music on a version from BBC iplayer

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: GUEST,The Mole Catcher's Apprentice
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 05:37 PM

"But it should be possible to dub on some National Production music on a version from BBC iplayer "

and it would be completely out of place in the television production. There is a whole world of difference between the NT productions of Lark Rise and Candleford and that of the BBC version.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: greg stephens
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 05:46 PM

A comment earlier said anyone who is interested in folk music should read the book. As I mentioned, I can't find my copy. So, what is there about folk in the book? I can't remember much at all.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Alan Day
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 05:51 PM

I would be grateful for the words and history behind the song the old man was singing,It was not until he stopped singing did I recognise it.
When I am old and in my grave etc
I have an old concertina book and the person who compiled it late 19th Century has written these words on the front cover.
His writing was in ink and smudged and some of the words are not easy to read.
Thanks
Al

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: vectis
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 07:12 PM

Missed it! Is there going to be a repeat before Sunday evening anywhere?

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 07:26 PM

Vectis - signed repeat Thursday at 1.55am. 5303031 if you want to record it!

Kitty

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 09:03 PM

Alan: similar words to those can be found on the fly-leaves of thousands of old bibles and school books, samplers and the like (and gravestones, too), dating back several centuries. See at least one previous discussion here for numerous examples from the UK and America.

I don't think it was ever a song as such, though doubtless it has occasionally been sung. The tune used here struck me as a modern make-me-up from someone who isn't very familiar with traditional English music, but of course I could be quite wrong about that.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 16 Jan 08 - 03:34 AM

Lark Rise To Candleford on the BBC iPlayer.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Fred McCormick
Date: 16 Jan 08 - 04:17 AM

greg stephens "A comment earlier said anyone who is interested in folk music should read the book. As I mentioned, I can't find my copy. So, what is there about folk in the book? I can't remember much at all."

Well, there's the famous chapter on The Wagon and Horses, which is directly concerned with the singing sessions which were held in that pub.

Over and above that, the book is about the transition of the village which Flora Thompson grew up in, from a small scale intimate community (the kind of society in which folksong traditions flourish), to becoming a part of modern society (where they don't).

And over and above that, folk music, like any social phenomenon, needs to be understood in terms of the people who created it. Reading books like LRTC can open a window on those people.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 16 Jan 08 - 05:24 AM

I, too, was looking forward to 'Lark Rise to Candleford' - but found it much too 'Laura Ashley' for my liking. Unfortunately, I only caught a couple of episodes of 'Cranford' - but that was much more convincing.

Watching 'LRTC' I got this sinking feeling that the old world of rural England is now, more or less, forgotten. I'm sure that someone will remind me that it was nasty, brutal and smelly (I've no doubt that it was!) but there was something rather admirable about it - particularly the labouring folk who worked so hard for pitiful wages and, if we think of them at all now, are dismissed as 'yokels' or 'bumpkins'. Their 'Old World' (by which I mean their inner lives, rather than their material circumstances) has been swept away - much like the once beautiful English countryside has been swept away.

If you want to understand them, and to understand where many of us came from, then you need to read the books of Flora Thomson, Richard Jeffries, W.H. Hudson (my personal favourite), Thomas Hardy, George Bourne, John Clare etc. And, of course, we should not forget the beautiful music that they left behind.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: GUEST,Edthefolkie
Date: 16 Jan 08 - 06:38 AM

I thought Fred McCormick, Les and others hit various nails on the head in earlier posts. Poor Flora must be spinning like a top.

Most of it seemed (to me anyway) to be a pseudo Larkins/Upstairs Downstairs farrago directed at the post Songs of Praise Sunday evening audience, and no doubt also directed at sales abroad, where they love Ye Olde Englande fayre.

Apparently there are squillions of hour long episodes, which is a sure sign that substantial non-Flora Thompson padding will be added (probably lots of Dawn French Mummerset Earth Mother type nurdling, oh God).
   
The only good thing IMHO about this effort is that it appears to have prompted Ashley Hutchings to take a new Lark Rise show on the road.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: GUEST,kurbee
Date: 16 Jan 08 - 11:08 AM

I understand the theme music for Larkrise to Candleford is written by
Julian Nott. Does anyone know what the title is or how to get hold of a copy?

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 16 Jan 08 - 11:19 AM

From Wallace & Gromit @ Aardman Animations, possibly?
All links to J Nott lead nowhere.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: GUEST,The Mole Catcher's Apprentice
Date: 16 Jan 08 - 12:09 PM

There's more than a few film music websites and a minimal Wikipedia page on said Julian Nott, but none of the are particularly helpful in identifying the music to Lark Rise to Candleford (the tv series. His official website has been down since November 2007.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 16 Jan 08 - 01:20 PM

"A comment earlier said anyone who is interested in folk music should read the book. As I mentioned, I can't find my copy. So, what is there about folk in the book? I can't remember much at all."
One of the characters 'Old David' sings Lord Lovel in the pub as I remember it.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: GUEST,Terry McDonald
Date: 16 Jan 08 - 01:25 PM

Ah, it was 'Lord Lovel', was it? I remembered it as 'The Outlandish Knight' but never mind!

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: GUEST,Eye Lander
Date: 16 Jan 08 - 01:39 PM

Well I haven't read the books, but I certainly enjoyed a wonderful hours television last Sunday and look forward to the next episode.

I am easily pleased.

Jillie

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Brian Peters
Date: 16 Jan 08 - 01:52 PM

"Ah, it was 'Lord Lovel', was it? I remembered it as 'The Outlandish Knight' but never mind!"

When I saw it at the NT, Bill Owen (he of 'Summer Wine') most definitely sang 'Outlandish Knight', ending with the not entirely traditional line: "And she chucked the old sod in the sea!"

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Fred McCormick
Date: 16 Jan 08 - 02:14 PM

Re., my earlier comment; "Well, there's the famous chapter on The Wagon and Horses, which is directly concerned with the singing sessions which were held in that pub."

On the strength of this lot, I've started re-reading LRTCF, which I haven't done for many a long year. Unfortunately, however, while I'd like to amplify what I said about the Wagon and Horses chapter, I'll have to go off memory because I haven't got that far yet.

In any event, FT describes how the singing sessions in the Wagon and Horses had become symbolic of the drift away the old rural folkways which had been the staple fare of village life. IE., she claims that the singing had become dominated by young lads who sang mainly music hall songs, and that the older singers were ignored or at best tolerated out of respect for old age.

Towards the close of the chapter, the dialogue goes something like "What Master Davy, not sung yet? Come on, let's have Your Outlandish Knight." Outside, the women in the cottages near by would say "They'll not be long now. Davy's just finishing his Outlandish Knight".

Apologies if I haven't got that quite right, but as I previously mentioned, it's many a long year since I last read the book. Anyone who wants to check for themselves is welcome to do so, and enjoy a captivating read at the same time.

Incidentally, taking it up once more has reminded me what a beautiful writer Flora Thompson was. And it brought home to me not only how much that first episode travesties rural English society, but the extent to which it also travesties one of the finest accounts of that society in the English language.

Anyone fancy tarring and feathering the production crew?

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Fred McCormick
Date: 16 Jan 08 - 02:17 PM

Sorry, I hadn't seen Brian Peters' comment when I posted my last posting. It was The Outlandish Knight without a shadow of a doubt.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: GUEST,Terry McDonald
Date: 16 Jan 08 - 02:41 PM

I'm glad it's the Outlandish Knight - I've not read the book for twenty or so years and was prepared to believe I'd made a mistake and replaced one great ballad with another.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 16 Jan 08 - 05:28 PM

"and it would be completely out of place in the television production. There is a whole world of difference between the NT productions of Lark Rise and Candleford and that of the BBC version."

Just your opinion - not very adventurous are you! It's amazing what can be done.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: GUEST,The Mole Catcher's Apprentice
Date: 16 Jan 08 - 06:28 PM

"not very adventurous are you! It's amazing what can be done"

the whole world suprisingly enough, doesn't revolve around what folkies want..and from what I've seen I wouldn't want the music from the NT productions to have anything to do with what's basically a soap-opera (think The Archers)...gawd! Flora must be revolving in her grave at fairly high rate of speed

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Fred McCormick
Date: 17 Jan 08 - 04:58 AM

Just to correct something I said earlier. The folksongs quoted in the Wagon and Horses chapter include:-

The Barleymow
King Arthur
My Father's a Hedger and Ditcher
I Wish, I Wish
A seven verse fragment of Lord Lovell
A complete version of The Outlandish Knight minus the parrot episode and with "tumbled him into the sea", rather than the Bill Owen's "And she chucked the old sod in the sea". This is sung by Old David, not old Davy. Old Davy was a character in the Ealing comedy film, The Maggie.

Both ballads are sung after the younger singers have decided to "give the old 'uns a turn" and both are used by FT to symbolise the passing of older folkways. I think the reason The Outlandish Knight stuck in my mind, apart from its relative completeness, is that it's the last song sung of the evening. Also, FT's preface to it; "Probably a long chain of grandfathers had sung it; but David was fated to be the last of them. It was out of date, even then, and only tolerated on account of his age."

Sad that such a magnificent ballad should be tolerated purely because of the age of the singer. However, FT was presumably reporting second hand, or maybe quoting songs she'd heard round the village, for I can't imagine she'd have been privy to these singing sessions. Therefore, two thoughts occur to me.

Firstly, she may have preferred to overlook the importance of seniority in village life. In other words, the older singers may have been saved until the last out of respect for the status which would have been attached to old age.

Secondly, I don't know when FT wrote LRTC. However, the first of the trilogy was not published until 1939, and probably written after 1907 - the year when Cecil Sharp first published English Folk-Song Some Conclusions. The point about that is that her comments on the decline of folk song echo some Sharp's comments in EFSSC a little too closely for comfort. I suspect that she may have been relying more on Sharp than on her own memories.

These points for me in no way detract from the book's significance. LRTC is partly fictionalised, but that makes it no less important than the works of Thomas Hardy, which somebody mentioned earlier.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Arnie
Date: 17 Jan 08 - 05:14 AM

So where were the larks? The book mentions that the song of skylarks was ever present over the village, but the BBC sound dept. obviously couldn't find their skylark tapes for this adaptation. Slight thread drift, but has anyone watched Jam & Jerusalem? All the music is performed by Kate Rusby which enticed me to watch the last episode - quite enjoyable.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Fee Lock
Date: 17 Jan 08 - 09:29 AM

Snippety snip from Shimrod:

>Watching 'LRTC' I got this sinking feeling that the old world of rural England is now, more or less, forgotten. I'm sure that someone will remind me that it was nasty, brutal and smelly (I've no doubt that it was!) but there was something rather admirable about it - particularly the labouring folk who worked so hard for pitiful wages and, if we think of them at all now, are dismissed as 'yokels' or 'bumpkins'. Their 'Old World' (by which I mean their inner lives, rather than their material circumstances) has been swept away - much like the once beautiful English countryside has been swept away<

Forgive me ... but no anaesthetic, no dentistry, no antibiotics; no minimum wage, no employee protection, walking to & from work and indeed working in all conditions, doffing one's hat to gentry; washing a family's clothes in the pot by hand & mangle; early & lingering death from pleurisy, TB and childhoods blighted by polio; near-starvation conditions every January; marriage at 14, first child at 15 & giving birth to aunts & uncles at the same time as becoming a grandmother ...

Flora Thompson's books are a brilliant view into a world that has indeed gone, but she makes it absolutely clear that even as late as the 1880s the people she was writing about were little more than serfs.

Fee x

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 17 Jan 08 - 09:46 AM

Thanks Fee, says it all!

Cheers

Les

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Captain Ginger
Date: 17 Jan 08 - 09:53 AM

I have to agree that the BBC adaptation is a chintzy travesty of the original (and where the f*** did the Dawn French character come from?), but it has persuaded me to buy the re-release of the Albion album (now on iTunes).
The Cottesloe production was one of those life-affirming gems of theatre - one of many such done there which featured John Tams and Ashley Hutchings - and I feel hugely privileged to have seen it.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 17 Jan 08 - 10:24 AM

Dear Fee Lock,

I just KNEW that someone would be unable to resist telling me all those things. I hope you feel better for getting all that off your chest! I feel like someone who has been told, "whatever you do, don't press that red button!" ... and I went and pressed it - doh!!

The point that I was trying to make is, just because those old folk had it hard, doesn't mean that we should forget them.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 17 Jan 08 - 10:55 AM

That was my take on what you said Shim. It's just that some of us sometime do get lost in Merry England?

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Brian Peters
Date: 17 Jan 08 - 12:12 PM

>> I think the reason The Outlandish Knight stuck in my mind, apart from its relative completeness, is that it's the last song sung of the evening. Also, FT's preface to it; "Probably a long chain of grandfathers had sung it; but David was fated to be the last of them. It was out of date, even then, and only tolerated on account of his age." <<

I'm sure Fred doesn't need me to point out the The Outlandish Knight has been collected many times since Flora Thompson wrote 'Lark Rise'. If you want a pub example, Hockey Feltwell was still singing it in the Nag's Head, Southery, Norfolk, in 1959 - as demonstrated by the wonderful Veteran release 'Heel & Toe'. He had a version of 'Lamkin', as well.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: RTim
Date: 17 Jan 08 - 01:10 PM

Flora Thompson did not start writing until she was very much older and living in Bournemouth.

Tim Radford

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: RTim
Date: 17 Jan 08 - 01:15 PM

My memory may be a little skewed on this one, but anyone interested should look at the following site for loads of info, on FT, etc.

http://www.johnowensmith.co.uk/flora/

Tim Radford

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 17 Jan 08 - 01:28 PM

"It's just that some of us sometime do get lost in Merry England?"

The thing is, Les, not only are we not allowed to 'get lost in it' we can't even discuss it any more.

There seem to be 'standard' (PC?) views on everything these days - and woe betide those who stray (or even appear to stray!) from the 'party line'.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 17 Jan 08 - 01:40 PM

I bet you will stray where you want Shim. It can be uncomfortable if you fall in / out with the various tribes.

I remember seeing Woodfiddly, I think they were called, at Sidmouth. I think they did a lot of Playford. They were dressed like something out of a restoration comedy. In a way that was authentic but it didn't suite me and my tribe.

I think song has survived amongst the rural working class whilst dance has survived a bit further up the social tree. And I think that lies at the heart of some of our folk tribalism.

Or maybe not!

Cheers

Les listening to :Paddyrasta

Paddyrasta

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 17 Jan 08 - 01:41 PM

Double blue clicky I claim a free pint!

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: GUEST,The Mole Catcher's Apprentice
Date: 17 Jan 08 - 01:45 PM

"and where the f*** did the Dawn French character come from?"
that character is in the Lark Rise section of the book, but she doesn't behave at all the way Dawn French portays her and is, indeed, a much more minor character all round.

what I should have said in my previous posting is Laura Ashley Meets The Archers, and folk music actually plays little part in the books. Indeed there is a scene where a melodeon player is actually playing "the popular tunes of the day", to quote Flora Thompson, and that the "old ways" were fast dying out, even then.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 17 Jan 08 - 02:42 PM

Better those than the practice of young oiks today riding very noisy scooters in a very dangerous manner with their friends on their equally noisy mini motos, with no lights and no crash helmets.

"but she doesn't behave at all the way Dawn French portays her and is, indeed, a much more minor character all round." - and that, is a very long way round!!

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 17 Jan 08 - 03:34 PM

Les - I too remember Woodfidley. Led by David Slater IIRC. Mike Ruff was one of the dancers.

Kitty

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: GUEST,The Mole Catcher's Apprentice
Date: 17 Jan 08 - 05:29 PM

"slight drift, but has anyone watched Jam & Jerusalem? All the music is performed by Kate Rusby which enticed me to watch the last episode - quite enjoyable"
and much thanks to Ray Davies for providing the theme( for those who don't know it's The Village Green Preservation Society)..who says Ray isn't a folkie?*LOL*

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 17 Jan 08 - 06:42 PM

with their friends on their equally noisy mini motos, with no lights and no crash helmets.

I'd love to run one of those over. the only thing that has stopped me (twice!) in the past is thinking "Well, he must be someones' son..."

One of these days;-)

Cheers

Dave

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: RTim
Date: 17 Jan 08 - 06:45 PM

Woodfidley are named after an enclosure in the New Forest - probably now cut down since it became a National Park.

Tim Radford - who knew many of the dancers way back in the 1970's

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 18 Jan 08 - 03:13 AM

Whoops sorry - misremembered after 30 year; of course it was 'The Outlandish Knight'.
Brian, as you say, The Outlandish Knight lived on in the tradition - and still does to some extent.
It is particularly popular among Irish Travellers, from whom we recorded around six very full versions.
One singer we got it from, Bill Cassidy, learned it from his father (who can be heard telling stories on the Pavvee Point CD 'Whisht'), as did his brother Andy. Bill sings it completely in traditional, highly decorated style, while Andy, whose taste tends towards C&W, sings it like a cowboy song.
An example of Andy's singing (as a boy) can also be heard on 'Whisht' singing 'My Rifle, My Pony and Me'.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Brian Peters
Date: 18 Jan 08 - 04:16 AM

"Bill sings it completely in traditional, highly decorated style..."

...and you've just named one of my all-time favourite recordings of a traditional singer, Jim.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Folk Form # 1
Date: 18 Jan 08 - 05:17 AM

Anything with Dawn French in it is well worth a miss!

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: GUEST,The Mole Catcher's Apprentice
Date: 18 Jan 08 - 11:19 AM

"Anything with Dawn French in it is well worth a miss!"

that's your opinion sun-shine..

unfortunately though Lark Rise to Candleford is one to be avoided.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: GUEST,The Mole Catcher's Apprentice
Date: 18 Jan 08 - 11:56 AM

THE hamlet stood on a gentle rise in the flat, wheat-growing north-east corner of Oxfordshire. We will call it Lark Rise because of the great number of skylarks which made the surrounding fields their springboard and nested on the bare earth between the rows of green corn.
- Flora Thompson(1876 - 1947) Lark Rise to Candleford

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Jan 08 - 04:28 PM

So it did!!!

http://www.4shared.com/file/35232542/a185dfa2/LarkRise.html

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Banjo-Flower
Date: 19 Jan 08 - 07:20 AM

http://www.bondle.co.uk/personal_pages/sarah/flora.htm

Gerry

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 19 Jan 08 - 07:32 AM

I was disappointed. It felt as if someone had decided to apply the TV Little House on the Prairy approach to 19th century rural England. Everyone and everything was scrubbed shiny and clean and cosy.   And of course there was Dawn French - as Rockin' Reeler said, a good reason to give any programme a miss.

It could and should have been done so much better.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 19 Jan 08 - 11:53 AM

Ok, it's very good for what it is, but very bad for what it isn't. I'll miss Sally who drove the geese home and Bonnie Neighboring Boy, but I expect the Lark Rise Band will perform those!

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Compton
Date: 19 Jan 08 - 02:19 PM

Fliss wrote "I gather Dawn French's character isnt really like that in the book... but what the heck."

...Is Dawn French in it to make the masses watch it...or to put them off?

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Fred McCormick
Date: 19 Jan 08 - 02:19 PM

Wat the 'enry Meville is Bonnie Neighboring Boy ?

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 19 Jan 08 - 03:17 PM

I suppose what he's trying to say is "labouring".

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 19 Jan 08 - 03:25 PM

Rather a pleasant mondegreen though - perhaps it could catch on in other contexts. "Vote for your Neighbour Party candidate"...

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 19 Jan 08 - 03:59 PM

Ah, labouring boy of course, just listened to it again but it does sound like "neighbouring" when sung by Shirley Collins and Martin Carthy even if it makes no sense. That was the song that closed the show.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Jan 08 - 07:29 PM

Well once again Mudcat turns up grumps!

I am quite glad I have not read the book as I can enjoy the programme for what it was. Yes, they have prettied up late 19th. century rural England, but I enjoyed the storyline.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 20 Jan 08 - 07:55 AM

It will never be Lark Rise as we know it, it merely shares the name and characters. Out of interest, the Cottesloe production had just over 1 hour of music in many forms - from the full welly of the Albion Band to children singing and "turns" in the Coach and Horses. Even God sang!!

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Anne Lister
Date: 20 Jan 08 - 11:33 AM

I don't remember God in the Cottesloe productions ... he was, however, (should that be He?) in the Mysteries, produced by the same team, around the same time, and similarly with the Albions and friends.
Ah, those were the days!

Anne

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Captain Ginger
Date: 20 Jan 08 - 01:19 PM

Aye, that was the late, great Brian Glover in the Mysteries. Brings a lump to the throat and raises the hairs on the neck just remembering him. They were such fantastic productions.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Jan 08 - 01:27 PM

Ha ha, God like Allah was a woman. That's one for the robed ones to ponder!

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Fred McCormick
Date: 20 Jan 08 - 01:53 PM

I was just throwing out last week's Radio Times when I noticed the by-line, "your escape to a rural idyll starts here". How much do the good folks at Radio times think an Oxfordshire farm labourer earned in those days?

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Saro
Date: 20 Jan 08 - 04:08 PM

Going to The Mysteries was one of my best ever theatrical experiences, and not just because when everyone joined in the dance at the end,I got to dance with God! And with my husband watching as well!!   
But all the same, we've just watched Lark Rise, and though it isn't great, it makes a pleasant enough Sunday evening entertainment, and may prompt some people to read the far more wonderful book.
Saro

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Tootler
Date: 20 Jan 08 - 04:48 PM

Well once again Mudcat turns up grumps!

That was me. I had lost my cookie and not noticed, my apologies. Reading the subsequent posts, I have no reason to change my view. Some folk are never happy unless they have something to moan about.

Just watched tonight's episode and I thought it was very well done. As I said earlier, I cannot judge how true it is to the book as I have not read it (them as there were several), but taken in its own right it was well done. Although late 19th cent rural England was somewhat prettified, the story itself was not over sentimentalised.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Surreysinger
Date: 20 Jan 08 - 05:38 PM

Ah, the Mysteries - I saw it at the Edinburgh Festival, at the Assembly Rooms, and remember Brian Glover, and Jack Shepherd, and the wonderful Robert Stephens as Herod .... stunning stuff, and oh so much longer ago than I care to think about !

I have to admit that I couldn't bring myself to watch LRTC on the box, as I am far too fond of the books, and what I had seen in the Radio Times, and in the way of trailers suggested a rather sanitised and unfaithful rendition of their content. (The NT production is not relevant in the context of considering the TV serialisation, as they are both only adaptations of the true original, each different in their own way ... and the TV production is an adaptation of the book not the play). It seems from the above comments, and a discussion which ensued about the production before a performance of "Down the Lawson Track" in Guildford last night, that I was right to be dubious and avoid it.... the words "soap opera" were used at one point!1

Re the book, the last paragraph of the chapter entitled At the Wagon and Horses was the one that I found memorable...

"Songs and singers have all gone, and in their places the wireless blares out variety and swing music, or informs the company in cultured tones of what is happening in China or Spain. Children no longer listen outside. There are very few who could listen, for the thirty or forty which throve there in those days have dwindled to about half a dozen, and these, happily, have books, wireless, and a good fire in their own homes. But, to one of an older generation, it seems that faint echo of those songs must still linger round the inn doorway. The singers were rude and untaught and poor beyond modern imagining: but they deserve to be remembered, for they knew the now lost secret of being happy on little".

Incidentally, the book is full of other snippets - for instance the chapter on Country Playtime has a number of children's games (mostly singing games), and in "Over to Candleford" various songs such as The Old Armchair, and the Gypsy's Warning are mentioned - as well as full words of The Garden Gate, which was a song published in "English County Songs" by Lucy Broadwood and J A Fuller Maitland in 1893 ..... plenty more examples to be found throughout the book.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 20 Jan 08 - 05:40 PM

Super programme indeed - could have done with adverts to allow time to pop into the kitchen!

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 20 Jan 08 - 05:43 PM

And Claire Skinner also played Fanny Dashwood in Sense & Sensibility!

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: The Doctor
Date: 20 Jan 08 - 06:39 PM

And Linda Bassett also played Mrs Jennings in S&S, Julia Sawalha also played Jessie Brown in Cranford, Claudie Blakley also played Martha in Cranford. We can't begrudge any one the work but it can be a little distracting, with three productions in quick succession.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 20 Jan 08 - 07:23 PM

Not to mention Gerard Horan appearing as the publican in LRTC on BBC and as the policeman in Kingdom on ITV shortly afterwards...

I thought Beans Balawi did well!

Kitty

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Jan 08 - 04:15 AM

There has been little enough music and song in 'Larkrise' so far, but it has always struck me how the producers of these period dramas seldom get it right with traditional song; taking great pains to be 'authentic' with costume and location, but usually taking the soft option and opting for a 'name' who really hasn't a clue.
In my opinion, one of the notable exceptions was the job John Tams (?) did on the beautiful St Kilda film, 'Ill Fares The Land'.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 21 Jan 08 - 05:39 AM

I actually enjoyed the second episode more than the first. Apart, that is, from Dawn French playing Dawn French, and the fact that everything is a bit too sanitised.

There were some moments of great visual beauty (the woodland scenes with the convict and his wife, for example). But the overall visual tone is more Helen Allingham than George Clausen (anyone know the rural paintings of George Clausen? They are often very gritty and convincing - especially a poignant and powerful image of a ragged boy scaring crows at dusk).

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: GUEST,fogie
Date: 21 Jan 08 - 11:10 AM

What type was the melodeon that was sold by her son to help defer the custodial sentence ( I would have kept it and let her go down personally - I think her children would have been better brought up by the son and neighbours ) Where are social worker time travellers when you need them?
Little Laura has a smile reminiscent of Diana Rigg - ah youth !

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: GUEST,The Mole Catcher's Apprentice
Date: 21 Jan 08 - 11:33 AM

"There has been little enough music and song in 'Larkrise' so far"

I don't think it was ever the BBC's intention to include anything traditional. We take this production as we find, or don't watch it.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: The PA
Date: 21 Jan 08 - 11:54 AM

We very often spot equestrian mishaps in these kind of programmes, wrong breeds/types of horses, modern tack, the wrong type of trap or carriage for the occupant class etc etc, but you sometimes have to overlook them and not let it spoil your enjoyment of the story.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 21 Jan 08 - 12:18 PM

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.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 21 Jan 08 - 02:22 PM

"I don't think it was ever the BBC's intention to include anything traditional. We take this production as we find, or don't watch it."

That is your view alone, I'd wager a hat full of guineas against all of the songs you can sing!

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 21 Jan 08 - 02:32 PM

The Mole Catcher's Apprentice
My point was not on Larkrise so much as other productions which, in the past, have tried and failed dismally to present folksong.
Tend to agree about taking as finding: apart from obvious shortcomings, am quite enjoying this one, though, as has been pointed out, it doesn't bear comparison with the book
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 21 Jan 08 - 02:34 PM

I had never heard of the book so had no pre conceptions. I find it very slow especially after Cranford which seemed to pack so much into each episode. I am enjoying it up to a point but feel they could have shortened it quite a bit without losing anything.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: GUEST,The Mole Catcher's Apprentice
Date: 21 Jan 08 - 03:46 PM

My opinion is hardly objective here regarding the television series as Flora Thompson's original book is my favourite book of all time

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: GUEST,Fiddleplayer
Date: 21 Jan 08 - 07:06 PM

The melodeon belongs to Ruth Askew from Hampshire.
See www,forest-tracks.co.uk

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 22 Jan 08 - 03:04 AM

A fine example of a failure to use folksong effectively on BBC (Ulster) last night in the otherwise excellent programme 'Millies', about the women who had worked in the linen mills of Belfast.
Wonderful, strong interviews with the women, talking about the conditions and companionship, accompanied by watered-down 'revivalised' singing.
Pity!
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 22 Jan 08 - 03:17 AM

"Little Laura has a smile reminiscent of Diana Rigg - ah youth !"

Little Laura most recently played a teenage lesbian in the rather risque TV adaptation of Julie Burchill's Sugar Rush. And you thought butter wouldn't melt...

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: mattkeen
Date: 22 Jan 08 - 05:45 AM

Bloody hell - its Sunday night mindless entertainment.

Its "sin" in my mind is to perpetuate the rural idyll myth - but as mindless entertainment its well... mindless and entertaining

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Leadfingers
Date: 22 Jan 08 - 08:36 AM

Perhaps NOT worth getting a Television for though

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Leadfingers
Date: 22 Jan 08 - 08:37 AM

I'll have a 100 th though

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 22 Jan 08 - 04:44 PM

Did I see a plane going over in part 2?

Brian Glover sang in the National Production - any offers of which song?

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 23 Jan 08 - 02:50 AM

When Lark Rise was on at the National (must have been 1984) I remember John Tams turning up at our little studio one morning to edit the tapes. As we had just opened, I had no idea how to edit the tape and Phil (my partner in the venture) who knew about stuff like that, drove down from Castleford to serve our first customer.

Anyway Phil is busy there with the new Revox, splicing block and razor blade (how quaint was technology in those far off days!) and Martin Carthy's voice issues out of the speakers......

Bloody hell! says Phil,...... its Walter Gabriel!

That's one customer we didn't see again.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Anne Lister
Date: 23 Jan 08 - 03:31 AM

I couldn't recall Brian Glover being in the NT productions so I've just consulted my programme ... he's not in the cast list for either Lark Rise or Candleford, but he is in the central cast photo. With no role mentioned. So no, I have no idea what he sang! Can you remind me what part he played?

The date for the joint production, btw, was around 1979. Lark Rise had been on earlier.

Anne

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 23 Jan 08 - 04:36 AM

"Its "sin" in my mind is to perpetuate the rural idyll myth -"

Right! Case closed, then! One more thing that you don't have to think about.

On, off; left, right; black, white - and bugger the shades of grey in between!

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: mattkeen
Date: 23 Jan 08 - 04:58 AM

Not case closed at all - just not the front I choose to fight on. There are many other places where myths around the rural tradition, folk music (many of those perpetuated by those who say they love it)can be fought with half a chance of making some progress.


THE biggest gain in my mind is the establishment of the degree at Newcastle


Quaker Grey is my colour actually -

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Marilyn
Date: 23 Jan 08 - 08:41 AM

"The Mole Catcher's Apprentice: Flora Thompson's original book is my favourite book of all time"
It's on my top five list too and is the only book I have ever kept in my bedside drawer for 30 something years just in case I can't sleep and want to dip into it at three in the morning! I've actually lost count of how many times I've read it.

WLD: "Anyway Phil is busy there with the new Revox, splicing block and razor blade (how quaint was technology in those far off days!)"
You mean they don't do it like that now? *g*

Just to add my fourpennorth: I really love the book(s) and am sad that people who have never read Lark Rise to Candleford will think that the TV adaptation is a true interpretation. For myself, I'm watching the series but as something new in its own right and trying hard not to pick it to pieces too much (difficult - particularly with the Dawn French character which is so wrong but... there you go).
It's pleasant watching but doesn't grab me the way the book does.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 23 Jan 08 - 10:09 PM

Maybe they'll give us something a bit harder edged next, such as Trumpton to Camberwick Green...

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Rapunzel
Date: 28 Jan 08 - 08:19 AM

Did anyone else marvel at the amazing melodeon on last night's episode - for the first solo piece it sounded just like an english concertina and then when he accompanied the singing it had the remarkable tone of a harmonium!

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 28 Jan 08 - 08:27 AM

Yes, what an extraordinarily versatile instrument (or could it have been a Streb?)

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 28 Jan 08 - 09:02 AM

I said to my wife last night (and I know nothing about squeeze boxes- or anything else for that matter) I bet tomorrow, someone on the Mudcat will complain he was miming to the wrong instrument!

RtS

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: stevep
Date: 28 Jan 08 - 10:25 AM

What puzzles me is that in the first episode, it was established that Candleford is eight miles from Lark Rise. So how come the penniless Dawn French keeps turning up at the post office? Does she walk (which would take her all day), or hitch a ride on a horse and cart?

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 28 Jan 08 - 10:52 AM

She walks, Steve, and it only takes a couple of hours.
My grandmother used to walk from her village to the nearest city once a week, to visit my Dad who was studying there and take provisions to him so he wouldn't have to spend money (they were dirt poor). It's a distance of some 15 miles.

And she'd walk home that same evening.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: GUEST,The Mole Catcher's Apprentice
Date: 28 Jan 08 - 11:06 AM

"I said to my wife last night (and I know nothing about squeeze boxes- or anything else for that matter) I bet tomorrow, someone on the Mudcat will complain he was miming to the wrong instrument!"

Well you know the old saying about if there's nothing to complain about you invent something......?

Charlotte

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Newport Boy
Date: 28 Jan 08 - 11:40 AM

There are plenty of accounts of substantial walks before the days of motor transport. I re-discovered recently one reference to Francis Kilvert, curate at Clyro (near Hay-on-Wye).

the walk over Newchurch Hill from Clyro to the valley of the Arrow was one of his favourites.

Kilvert discovered the lane past Veaullt Farm when he set out on a fine February day in 1870 to walk over the hills to Colva. He called at the cottage at Green Lane and went on with the son of the family, Price Price, 'a sturdy boy, with a round rosy good-humoured face and big black eyes' who had promised to show him the way. They walked over the hill to the Fuallt, failed to cross the swollen River Arrow by the bridge and had to go upstream across the Glasnant, then over 'the Reallt' (Yr Allt), along the road to the Wern and Pentwyn and by the field path to Colva church. At Colva he tried the echo in the churchyard and called at the Sun Inn in Colva. The parish clerk kept the inn, and Kilvert wanted to ask him for the words of some folk songs and traditional hymns.

I'd not noticed that last sentence before - I must try and track down any results.

The walk as described is about 10 hilly miles each way, and time would have been spent at the cottage, the farm, the church and the pub.

Phil

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 28 Jan 08 - 05:56 PM

Can I say that if Caroline was walking 16 miles a day she'd be a wee bit thinner maybe? I'm doing about 5 most days and it's working a treat...

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: GUEST,The Mole Catcher's Apprentice
Date: 28 Jan 08 - 06:23 PM

"she'd be a wee bit thinner maybe?"

another knock a Dawn French mayhap....all of which has absolutely nothing to do with this series.

Charlotte

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 29 Jan 08 - 09:19 AM

My only problem with Dawn French is her long standing ubiquitousness in the light of her woeful lack of any obvious talent; otherwise, or rather weightwise, she is a positive icon of natural female beauty, albeit an exception to a rather insiduous rule.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 29 Jan 08 - 04:57 PM

But there was a nice folk club atmosphere at the end!

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: GUEST,The Mole Catcher's Apprentice
Date: 29 Jan 08 - 05:21 PM

I'm wondering what contemporary folk clubs have to do with any of this
and it sure as heck isn't The Cottesloe Theatre.
then again I'm not obsessed by folk music, love it, but not obsessed by it

Charlotte

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Cuddles
Date: 29 Jan 08 - 06:08 PM

>"My only problem with Dawn French is her long standing ubiquitousness in the light of her woeful lack of any obvious talent;"


That's an unpleasant thing to say, and it is merely *your* opinion, which is not shared by thousands of others.

Dawn French is, in case you haven't noticed, one of our best loved comediennes. She's a witty and intelligent lady who can laugh at herself too. She's very beautiful inside and out and to be honest, I'd say that she has more talent in her little finger than many people in here who do nowt but moan about others, be they musicians or actors.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Cuddles
Date: 29 Jan 08 - 06:23 PM

"Can I say that if Caroline was walking 16 miles a day she'd be a wee bit thinner maybe? I'm doing about 5 most days and it's working a treat..."

Well bully for you!

Perhaps Caroline walked 16 miles a day then drank pints and pints to try and forget the cruel comments that some people, thinking themselves to be highly superior to her, may have enjoyed making about her body.

This may go completely over your head, but it's not what you look like on the outside, but *who* you are on the inside that matters.

"Yes, what an extraordinarily versatile instrument"

There really is no answer to that is there? ;-)

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 29 Jan 08 - 08:04 PM

I don't think it's Dawn's bulk that puts off those people who don't like her. It's the constant in-your-face jollity. Which is no doubt what the people casting and directing insist on. I imagine she probably gets a bit fed up of it sometimes.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Captain Ginger
Date: 30 Jan 08 - 02:38 AM

...that and the fact that her acting range runs from A to, er, A again. She's essentially an Eighties stand-up who has been given rather a lot of indulgence and some good-ish scripts.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: GUEST,The Mole Catcher's Apprentice
Date: 30 Jan 08 - 11:25 AM

Caroline Arless is a rather minor character in the book...the role, like that of Arwen in Lord of the Rings, was beefed up to benefit the star in the role. Personally I've gone back to the book in a big way and I'm listening to original soundtrack music to the National Theatre production.

Charlotte (somewhere between Lark Rise and Candleford)

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: GUEST,Mr Fox (at work)
Date: 30 Jan 08 - 11:48 AM

They seem to be trying to turn Ms French's character into a sort of early 20th century Pa Larkin as played by David 'cheeky chappie' Jason. In short, a grotesque caricature of the character as written by the original author in a terrible, saccarine version of rural life.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: GUEST,Edthefolkie
Date: 30 Jan 08 - 12:05 PM

Can anyone remember where the Great War memorial brass is with E. Timms at the bottom? Think it's Fringford but may be Cottisford.

(Certainly not Juniper Hill - poor little "Lark Rise" hasn't even got a church, just a phone box at the end of the road - still as isolated as in Flora T's time)

I've meant to make a pilgrimage in August when I'm in Oxfordshire for years but somehow other things always get in the way (like the bar at Cropredy!).

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: GUEST,The Mole Catcher's Apprentice
Date: 30 Jan 08 - 12:59 PM

"Can anyone remember where the Great War memorial brass is with E. Timms at the bottom? Think it's Fringford but may be Cottisford."

It's in Cottisford Church, Ed :-)


Cottisford Church

Charlotte (still on that road)

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: GUEST,The Mole Catcher's Apprentice
Date: 30 Jan 08 - 01:06 PM

right at the top of the page is a photograph of the Memorial Plaque with E Timms at the very bottom

The Memorial Plaque

Charlotte (at the church)

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Cuddles
Date: 31 Jan 08 - 06:13 AM

If anyone who may be reading this thread who hasn't yet got the CD, then you can read all about it below. As someone who has got it, I can thoroughly recommend it.

Lark Rise To Candleford CD

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Andy Jackson
Date: 31 Jan 08 - 06:50 AM

Have you all settled down now? Here's my two penn'orth.
Lovelt escapism Sunday night telly, and what's wrong with that? It's not onthe History channel and never stands up to be an accurate reflection of life as it was. I have the advantage of never having read the book, so I am thouroughly enjoying it. I also enjoyed the Albion Band treatment years ago, (it might have been at the crucible in Reading or similar). After the first prog I was straight on line and bought the CD. Oh what joy - what memories. But a DIFFERENT event to the TV programme. Note "different", not better nor worse. I will now buy the book and not look at it until the TV show has run its course.
As for the comments against Dawn French, well this is Mudcat after all and some love a moan about nothing.

And Re:
"...I'm not obsessed by folk music, love it, but not obsessed by it"
I am a bit obsessed by it but not the rest of the world feels like us. I spent all my life in Telly and sometimes I even had to add Country and Western as background music ( eugh ) but right for the programme at the time so there we go.
Can you immagine the outcry if the whole programme had Albion Band in the background. Just stick the cd on in the background next time you are watching and you will see what I mean.

Cheers, happy viewing,

Andy

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 31 Jan 08 - 02:42 PM

Are we all assuming that what the Albion Band did with Larkrise was good? Hmm; have to think about that one.
I agree with Andy - by no means perfect, but a pleasant enough way to spend an hour on Sundays.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: GUEST,The Mole Catcher's Apprentice
Date: 31 Jan 08 - 03:23 PM

"Are we all assuming that what the Albion Band did with Larkrise was good"

It was and still is...more music, that which didn't make it on the original recording, coming soon, courtesy of Ashley H and The Lark Rise Band.

Charlotte (All of a Row)

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 31 Jan 08 - 05:03 PM

Aye. It were thirty year ago, when I faced that old bull at Fishponds. It were the year my brother, James, married that Candleford woman. By hem, but she were near! She were that near she 'udn't give away enough to make a pair of leggings for a skylark.

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Compton
Date: 01 Feb 08 - 12:27 PM

I totally agree that LRTC is a pleasant watch on a Sunday night. I just hope that one day some TV company will produce Lark Rise to Candleford by Flora Thomson...from the beginning!!

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: GUEST,The Mole Catcher's Apprentice
Date: 01 Feb 08 - 12:32 PM

"some TV company will produce Lark Rise to Candleford by Flora Thomson...from the beginning!! "

with a soundtrack by....oh never mind.. ;-)

Charlotte (off in her pony and cart, whistling The Lad I Left Behind Me)

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Compton
Date: 07 Feb 08 - 09:54 AM

No, Mole catcher's apprentice...I counldn't care less about Mr. Hutchings soundtrack...it;s just that I have this book...which is a jolly ggod read...amd I amk sure that "The Early Years"..would make good TV...or would it have to be on Ceebeebies?

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: GUEST,The Mole Catcher's Apprentice
Date: 07 Feb 08 - 03:11 PM

Oh indeed it is a VERY good read, my copy is actually a few years older than I am, and I would welcome a production of Lark Rise to Candleford from the beginning, you, of course missed my point..but such is life.

Charlotte (Dare to be a Daniel)

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: Andy Jackson
Date: 10 Feb 08 - 04:11 PM

Well are you happy now? No Dawn French tonight.

;)

Andy

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: GUEST,The Mole Catcher's Apprentice
Date: 10 Feb 08 - 04:26 PM

that'll make the usual suspects happy *LOL*

Charlotte (makes no difference)

Subject: RE: Lark Rise to Candleford -BBC serial
From: irishenglish
Date: 17 Apr 08 - 02:17 PM

I'd like to see someone cut and paste this!