Years ago I read Flora Thompson's three little memoirs and since then have reread them several times- Lark Rise, Over To Candleford, and Candleford Green. They've stayed with me for 50 years, perfect vignettes of English village life in the transitional period of the Late Victorian Age. Recalled without romance or apology, Thompson nevertheless invests the time and places with the grace of her own memories. It's a shame that the writers of this series couldn't see the memoirs for what they were and instead obscured them with bad plots,cheap romance and ersatz emotion- like a venerable English oak being "improved" by glued-on plastic flowers.
But even discounting the wretched ravaging of a classic historical memoir, it's just another costume soap, and not a very good one. "Will The Beautiful Postal Carrier Choose the Good-Hearted Village Boy, or the Snobby Middle Class Rotter? Will The Village Slattern Go To Prison? How Will The Still Young And Beautiful Postmistress Resolve Her Unrequited Love For The Squire?" I mean, really. If you can't figure out those plot points you probably don't deserve to own a television.
But even discounting the wretched ravaging of a classic historical memoir, it's just another costume soap, and not a very good one. "Will The Beautiful Postal Carrier Choose the Good-Hearted Village Boy, or the Snobby Middle Class Rotter? Will The Village Slattern Go To Prison? How Will The Still Young And Beautiful Postmistress Resolve Her Unrequited Love For The Squire?" I mean, really. If you can't figure out those plot points you probably don't deserve to own a television.