I watched this because I have been a Derek Jacobi fan since "I Claudius" and have been lucky enough to see him in the theatre on a number of occasions. He was fantastic as "Cyrano de Bergerac".
Has anyone since the episode of Frasier where he plays an awful Shakespearian actor? He won an Emmy for it.
Really enjoyable 95% hit for me. BBC double edged sword though. Big big bonus was ability to watch the story unfold without constant interuptions for adverts. That's the BBC at its best,
Sadly the other 5% failure bit, the BBC at its worse. The stupid stupid totally out of place, wholly unbelievable nonsense sub-plot involving the headmistress and the teacher. NO! NO! NO! Please don't spoil this for the normal public who just want to enjoy a depiction of the real world and not your London
metropolitan fantasy nirvana
The car park certainly isn't in Skipton. From what I know of the town, only some of the car chase scenes were actaully shot in Skipton, like the bit going found the roundabout.
think the car park is Hebden Bridge, as I've parked my car in one of those spots! It's just up the road from me
I was missing The Paradise, but I enjoyed this nearly as much. Looking forward to watching the rest of the series. I thought Anne Reid and Derek Jacobi were excellent.
[QUOTE= The stupid stupid totally out of place, wholly unbelievable nonsense sub-plot involving the headmistress and the teacher. NO! NO! NO! Please don't spoil this for the normal public who just want to enjoy a depiction of the real world and not your London
metropolitan fantasy nirvana[/QUOTE]
Normal=you and real world=yours ?
A very blinkered and narrow minded view I perceive.
It's in another class altogether to The Paradise. I thought that was pretty poor and gave up after a couple of episodes.
By not sticking with The Paradise you missed a little gem...imo
Admittedly it took awhile to get going but it perked up rather nicely
Last Tango however was good from the get go.
Really enjoyable 95% hit for me. BBC double edged sword though. Big big bonus was ability to watch the story unfold without constant interuptions for adverts. That's the BBC at its best,
Sadly the other 5% failure bit, the BBC at its worse. The stupid stupid totally out of place, wholly unbelievable nonsense sub-plot involving the headmistress and the teacher. NO! NO! NO! Please don't spoil this for the normal public who just want to enjoy a depiction of the real world and not your London
metropolitan fantasy nirvana
I accept your point of view, but really, what is "wholly unbelievable" is that all the (married with children) lesbians live in London.
Isn't it the case that Hebden Bridge has the largest proportion of lesbian inhabitants in the UK? I read that somewhere....
My one little complaint, it is basically a new version of "As Time Goes By" which I also love!
A few similarities, 2 older people meet after years. They both got married to other people. The reason they never saw each other again was due to a lost or undelivered letter. Her and her family are quite posh.
But it was still fantastic. Seems strange they had to leave Skipton to film the car park in Hebdon Bridge. Surely Skipton must have car parks! Although for those of us who have never been near there, we would never know!
I really loved it as well, Anne Reid can do no wrong whether it's radio or TV, and Derek Jacobi in a class of his own, my dad once sat next to him on a plane and he tells me it was the shortest ever flight he'd had to OZ. My only gripe would be the trailers, far too much of the story is revealed, if you were reading a book you wouldnt flick through later pages to find out what was going to happen.
Really enjoyable 95% hit for me. BBC double edged sword though. Big big bonus was ability to watch the story unfold without constant interuptions for adverts. That's the BBC at its best,
Sadly the other 5% failure bit, the BBC at its worse. The stupid stupid totally out of place, wholly unbelievable nonsense sub-plot involving the headmistress and the teacher. NO! NO! NO! Please don't spoil this for the normal public who just want to enjoy a depiction of the real world and not your London
metropolitan fantasy nirvana
Am I alone in finding this kind of knee-jerk, anti-London bias nothing more than inverted snobbery?* Particularly the notion that people who live in London aren't "normal", whatever that is.
Absolutely loved it. 6 episodes, great! Derek Jacobi couldn't put in a bad performance if he tried, same with Ann Reid. Genius putting those two together.
Anne Reid is phenomenal - one of the greatest actors of her generation and I would not hesitate to say one of the best television actors around currently. I've watched quite a few shows she's been in in the past decade - she stole the show for me in both the second series' of Five Days and Upstairs Downstairs (the latter something I found otherwise lacking). I forget from time to time how really good she is, until she comes back on screen with a proper meaty role to get her teeth into.
I thought the chemistry between her and Derek Jacobi was outstanding - both lit up the screen individually and when they were together. Collectively they have over 100 years of acting experience and it is so apparent, both because of and in spite of the realtively prosaic set up of the series. There is definitely a gap in the television market for this type of show. I can't wait for the rest of the series.
I loved this. I thought it would be good as both lead actors are brilliant. Anne Reid has played many different parts as has Derek Jacobi. I loved her in the letters programme with Maureen Lipman, she was so funny and I have not seen her or Derek Jacobi do anything mundane. Derek Jacobi was brilliant in I Claudius and wonderful in Cadfael and Dr Who. I think it is the diversity of the parts they play that makes them so good.
The story was funny and touching and I like the sub plots of the daughters and I am looking forward to how this develops.
Really enjoyable 95% hit for me. BBC double edged sword though. Big big bonus was ability to watch the story unfold without constant interuptions for adverts. That's the BBC at its best,
Sadly the other 5% failure bit, the BBC at its worse. The stupid stupid totally out of place, wholly unbelievable nonsense sub-plot involving the headmistress and the teacher. NO! NO! NO! Please don't spoil this for the normal public who just want to enjoy a depiction of the real world and not your London
metropolitan fantasy nirvana
I understand your comment and believe it is valid. I am sure there were many viewers who tuned in expecting a simple straight forward story about a later life romance between two widowed people. In a story of this kind there was bound to be a large proportion of older viewers. My mother was one. And she was extremely disappointed with it due to the sub plots involving alcoholism, lesbians and broken marriage.
My mother (mid 70s) is recently widowed for the second time and hoped to get a little comfort from the series, albeit no doubt with some tears. Sadly she has decided not to watch the second episode precisely because of the sub plots which she found to be confusing, out of place and unnecessary. I feel this is such a shame, because the story between the older couple was beautifully told and acted, and I feel we should have more stories on the television about older people, to reflect more accurately the demographic of our society.
It may come as a surprise to some people, especially at the BBC, but there are millions of really ordinary regular families out here who are not perfect, and certainly have their problems, but don’t contain any of the sub plots in this story.
It may come as a surprise to some people, especially at the BBC, but there are millions of really ordinary regular families out here who are not perfect, and certainly have their problems, but don’t contain any of the sub plots in this story.
And probably many many more than that who contain at least one!
So do I take it we're supposed to assume that the head and the teacher are having a lesbian affair? The thought never occurred to me .... and I'm not sure why it should occur to anyone else.
So do I take it we're supposed to assume that the head and the teacher are having a lesbian affair? The thought never occurred to me .... and I'm not sure why it should occur to anyone else.
Comments
I watched this because I have been a Derek Jacobi fan since "I Claudius" and have been lucky enough to see him in the theatre on a number of occasions. He was fantastic as "Cyrano de Bergerac".
Has anyone since the episode of Frasier where he plays an awful Shakespearian actor? He won an Emmy for it.
loved it. that's all.
K
Sadly the other 5% failure bit, the BBC at its worse. The stupid stupid totally out of place, wholly unbelievable nonsense sub-plot involving the headmistress and the teacher. NO! NO! NO! Please don't spoil this for the normal public who just want to enjoy a depiction of the real world and not your London
metropolitan fantasy nirvana
think the car park is Hebden Bridge, as I've parked my car in one of those spots! It's just up the road from me
metropolitan fantasy nirvana[/QUOTE]
Normal=you and real world=yours ?
A very blinkered and narrow minded view I perceive.
By not sticking with The Paradise you missed a little gem...imo
Admittedly it took awhile to get going but it perked up rather nicely
Last Tango however was good from the get go.
Am I missing something here? What sub-plot? I assumed the young teacher was her deputy.
I accept your point of view, but really, what is "wholly unbelievable" is that all the (married with children) lesbians live in London.
Isn't it the case that Hebden Bridge has the largest proportion of lesbian inhabitants in the UK? I read that somewhere....
Lesbian Bridge I always call it when I pass through on the train!
My one little complaint, it is basically a new version of "As Time Goes By" which I also love!
A few similarities, 2 older people meet after years. They both got married to other people. The reason they never saw each other again was due to a lost or undelivered letter. Her and her family are quite posh.
But it was still fantastic. Seems strange they had to leave Skipton to film the car park in Hebdon Bridge. Surely Skipton must have car parks! Although for those of us who have never been near there, we would never know!
Is this going to be reflected in the programme, Hebden Bridge is not far from Halifax.
Am I alone in finding this kind of knee-jerk, anti-London bias nothing more than inverted snobbery?* Particularly the notion that people who live in London aren't "normal", whatever that is.
(* I live in Manchester.)
I thought the chemistry between her and Derek Jacobi was outstanding - both lit up the screen individually and when they were together. Collectively they have over 100 years of acting experience and it is so apparent, both because of and in spite of the realtively prosaic set up of the series. There is definitely a gap in the television market for this type of show. I can't wait for the rest of the series.
The story was funny and touching and I like the sub plots of the daughters and I am looking forward to how this develops.
I understand your comment and believe it is valid. I am sure there were many viewers who tuned in expecting a simple straight forward story about a later life romance between two widowed people. In a story of this kind there was bound to be a large proportion of older viewers. My mother was one. And she was extremely disappointed with it due to the sub plots involving alcoholism, lesbians and broken marriage.
My mother (mid 70s) is recently widowed for the second time and hoped to get a little comfort from the series, albeit no doubt with some tears. Sadly she has decided not to watch the second episode precisely because of the sub plots which she found to be confusing, out of place and unnecessary. I feel this is such a shame, because the story between the older couple was beautifully told and acted, and I feel we should have more stories on the television about older people, to reflect more accurately the demographic of our society.
It may come as a surprise to some people, especially at the BBC, but there are millions of really ordinary regular families out here who are not perfect, and certainly have their problems, but don’t contain any of the sub plots in this story.
And probably many many more than that who contain at least one!
Why, do they come from Hebden Bridge ?