Steve Crook

For admirers of sublime writing, performing and everything else associated with TV dramas, I see that Mapp & Lucia (series 1 & 2) is now available on a double DVD from Amazon.co.uk and similar places.

I've included a lovely review of the first series which I think sums them up very well.

Steve

DVD Talk review by Holly E. Ordway.

There are some things that are easier experienced than explained, and Mapp & Lucia is one of them. Entertaining: yes; memorable: most certainly; easy to sum up: definitely not.

Mapp & Lucia Series 1, based on the 1931 novel of the same name by E.F. Benson, is a comic portrayal of the lives of a handful of eccentric, scheming socialites in small-town 1930s Britain. We meet Lucia (Geraldine McEwan), a widow with a penchant for dropping Italian phrases left and right (though her neighbors suspect that she doesn't actually speak the language), who effortlessly dominates the social scene of her home town, until one day she decides to take a holiday with her friend Georgie (Nigel Hawthorne). She ends up in the town of Tilling, which appears to offer a fresh field for her social manipulations, except that Tilling has until then been under the sway of Miss Elizabeth Mapp (Prunella Scales), who is determined that she won't give up her rule without a fight. The irresistible force meets the immovable object: Mapp and Lucia. Who will become the undisputed queen of Tilling society?

Mapp & Lucia is over the top; so much so, in fact, that if it were much more over the top it would break free of the Earth's gravitational pull and fly off into space. McEwan and Scales in particular take their characters of Lucia and Mapp to the height of exaggeration... but somehow, in a peculiar way, it works. It's clear that the characters and situations are presented deliberately as being absurd, as being caricatures and satires on the behavior of the "upper crust" and its social circle.

The moment that I really began to enjoy Mapp & Lucia was when I realized that it wasn't necessary to actually like any of the main characters to enjoy the series. The more typical approach to presenting a story is to have at least one main character who is likeable, but in Mapp & Lucia... well, they're pretty much all hypocritical, back-stabbing social climbers. They're also very funny once their individual quirks start becoming evident.

The secondary characters do provide a nice counterpoint to the bizarre antics of the main characters. The servants, and in fact all of the "ordinary working folk," come across as quite normal and pleasant people; by the end of the five episodes of the series, several of the servants had taken on fairly solid minor roles and were quite likeable, especially Grosvenor (Geraldine Newman), Lucia's maid, who is by all appearances quite proper, but who enjoys helping out with a little bit of her mistress's scheming. Another member of the cast who acts as a foil to the "polite society" of Tilling is "Quaint Irene," (Cecily Hobbs) the pipe-smoking, completely unconventional woman who paints shockingly modernistic paintings ("women wrestlers!") and light-heartedly goes around saying exactly what she thinks and enjoying life exactly as she finds it.

E.F. Benson wrote a series of novels in the 1920s and 1930s featuring the characters of Lucia and Mapp, and both appear as protagonists in their own books before meeting in this one. The fact that Mapp & Lucia picks up the story in the middle of the series of books explains the fact that as the series opens, we are tossed right into the lives of Lucia and her friends without much context for what's going on. Readers of the earlier books will immediately recognize the characters, of course; fortunately, it's not hard for other viewers to pick up on the characters and situation.

The fact that the series is based directly on a single book adds considerably to its appeal. Rather than being a collection of self-contained episodes, the five parts of Mapp & Lucia tell a continuous story from beginning to end. There's a bit of closure in each part, naturally, but the next picks up immediately afterwards and moves the story forward. In this way, the story of Mapp & Lucia stays fresh and engaging through all five hours of the series, with new twists and turns coming at various moments... at least one of which was quite surprising. The pacing is handled well, with every incident consistently developed in a considerable amount of detail.

Freddy

Cheers for that Steve

One of my favourites, would it be made now, am not sure. The eighties had a wonderful thread of good drama and comedy running through it, one of the common denominators was Sir Nigel Hawthorne;
Yes Minister;
Barchester Chronicles;
Mapp and Lucia;
Yes Prime Minister.

Timeless

Freddy

The world wags on.

siriami

As a longtime fan of E F Benson (and Mapp & Lucia) can I point anyone interested towards my website: "Tilling On Television": Home Page
Always keen to hear from fellow fans -

Siriami

Steve Crook

Very nice, especially the "then & now" photos showing where everything was filmed. The TV series (& the books) always gives me a warm glow of sheer joy every time I experience them.

Steve

siriami

Glad you like 'em, Steve - always happy to oblige!

Siriami

samkydd

Great series I remember it well!

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"