Lark Rise To Candleford
As readers of my Internet-reviews know by now, I am enamored by great – or even good – acting. I love watching creative artists inhabit characters that look and sound as though they were very much of the period their characters live in. It takes dedication, hard-work, much studying and an innate psychological understanding of humans and how we interact with our environments to pull it off.
This leads me to yet another DVD collection of terrific period story-telling: the BBC film version of the collection of semi-autobiographical tales by Flora Thompson, taken from her 1943 novel, LARK RISE TO CANDLEFORD.
Season One was broadcast in the U.K and U.S.A. in 2008, and Season Two in January of 2009. Season Three is airing in the U.K now, presumably to be followed shortly here on PBS.
So, you best go out and purchase (or rent) Seasons One and Two, lest you not know who these lovely characters are and why they are entertaining us doing what they are doing. It is very easy to fall in love with this romantic hindsight-view of a small country town (Candleford) and its even smaller country cousin (Lark Rise) during the middle-1890s. The title refers to the journey a young sixteen year old Lark Rise woman, (Olivia Hallinan), education (such as it was) over, and off to apprentice for her mother’s cousin, Dorcas Lane (Julia Sawahla), in the post office in Candleford. That’s the arc of the story we all get to join in on. Her lessons become ours, as life intrudes (as it will) on everyday activities.
Her continuing life-education is the theme, As she learns about life during a simpler time, we are also in the charming arms of talented, glowing actors. Each episode features a large cast of a dozen or so characters on full-term contracts. Then they add on characters for a limited run of one or two episodes, all of them illustrating life as it was. A woman running a postal office? Practically unheard of, but (according to the fantastic research reflected in the bonus documentaries) should she marry, she could not continue in that job. Or two sisters running their own millinery and fashion shoppe? Sure, it’s their business, but should they marry? He’d take it over. Women couldn’t vote; the landed gentry ruled over the townsfolk and farmers, but change was in the air and this series explores the varied strands of evolving democracy.
All the technical aspects are thoroughly researched, so the look of wealthy and poor alike is scrupulously accurate. And that means we can relax and just enjoy the story-telling.
Producer Bill Gallagher has overseen both years and written perhaps half of the scripts. He and producer Susan Hogg (season one) and Ann Trickleford (season two) have kept faith with the knowledge that doing a project creatively and correctly allows for great audience appreciation. Not to mention actors’ love. The directors include Charles Palmer, John Greening, Mark Jobst and Alan Grint.
As stated above, watching British actors do it up right is its own joy. Julia Sawahla as Dorcas; Olivia Hallinan as sweet-faced Laura; her wise parents, Claudie Blakley and Brendan Coyle; Liz Smith as a doddering old housekeeper; Mark Heap as a dogmatic, but kind, religious zealot; Dawn French and John Dagleish as a poor but feisty mother and son; and especially the extraordinary Linda Bassett and loveable Karl Johnson as elderly bee-keepers are the sort of actor one must adopt as one’s own. The second season kept up the regulars and added Jason Merrells as a potential love-interest for Dorcas.
This is a keeper of a series. For now, you’ll have to buy them separately, but I have no doubt in a year or so, the entire collection will be there for you to add to your own collection.