Mapp & Lucia (2014)

How sad is this?

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

M&L, a show I would normally not even give the time of day, however, I 'stumbled' across it, & just watched the 3 part series for the second time. Normally, I am not a person who writes reviews on anything, food, hotels, but was horrified to read several very sad and damming reviews. I thought this series was hilarious, seems like the crew involved in getting this up and running were in-sync to capture the audience, even in a northern, tropical, coastal town in Australia. I was cringing (with joy) at the antics the characters were led, to create their deceptive ways. Thought all the characters were a brilliantly cast group, the plots & schemes totally hilarious. There is one very unfortunate item. The series has such a flowing, strong, story trail to continue production on further shows, but, apparently, and sadly, this is not happening. I think the network here in Australia that ran the series, made a gross error in running the 3 episodes over 3 days. Perhaps, to enhance the experience should have run one episode per week. Initially, I had no idea there were only 3 parts. For what it's worth, that's my take on this delightful production .... brilliant, 5 star!!

It's been a long time since I've thoroughly enjoyed anything this good. I'm an extremely discerning viewer and I'm at a complete lost re what some reviewers were watching. Queenie, Miranda Richardson, was simply brilliant and so too was the scrumptious Anna Chancellor. Every character was brilliantly cast. I would certainly like previous reviewers to state other shows that could possibly match this level of viewing. I would so be eternally grateful. It's faultless television and probably better than Jeeves and Wooster. How has the acting world bypass Miranda Richardson whose talents are simply stupendous. Her facial expressions were magnificent and too funny. The wittisms, OMG!! Absolutely brilliant. Au Reservoir!

It is inevitable that there will be comparisons with the earlier 1980's production and I agree that some of them are justifiably unfavourable and many would agree that the cast of McEwan/Scales/Hawthorn etc. was a tough act to follow.However I think it is unfair to compare the two as its often the case that we deem subsequent productions of any TV show or movie to be inferior to the original because we form our opinions on the first one that we see. It would be interesting to get a consensus of reviews for the new series from people who have never seen the original to see what they thought without being influenced by it.I've read the books several times and also have the original series on a set of DVD's but still enjoyed this new series. Having said that I did find some of the acting a little unconvincing at first but I felt this did improve as it progressed. I also thought that bringing in the Guru (from a prior time in the book) was a great mistake but then it was nice that the vicar's wife 'Evie' was included as she was omitted in the original. Many things in the book were not included in the first series which ran for ten episodes so it was always going to be difficult to do justice to the book in just three episodes, although perhaps there will be further episodes if this series is successful.Hopefully the new production will introduce E.F.Benson's Mapp and Lucia to a wider audience who may then read the books and view the original series.

This production goes down as one of the worst adaptations I have ever seen. I would urge all those who have given it positive reviews to read E. F. Benson's Mapp and Lucia books, and ask themselves which is the more potent and skilfully crafted version, Benson's original, or the current BBC version. I think it would also help to compare the current version with the one produced by LWT in 1985.The 1985 adaptation of the final three books kept faith, on the whole, with the original masterpieces, although some of the material - and subtlety - had to be left out, presumably due to dramatic and time constraints.The 2014 offering consisted of a mishmash of threads drawn not only from the later novels set in Tilling, but also from the first one, set in Riseholme. I really can't see the point of transplanting the guru/curry cook from an earlier Riseholme story into a much later one, set in a completely different location, with different characters (apart from Lucia and Georgie). Sadly it seems to be all too fashionable these days to distort the original material to such an extent that the result becomes almost meaningless.However, I also take issue with the quality of acting in the 2014 version. I usually admire Anna Chancellor's work, but her 'take' on Lucia I found unconvincing; it was rather two-dimensional, and paled in comparison with Geraldine McEwan's and Benson's creations. Steve Pemberton's portrayal of Georgie I found quite insipid and shallow - a charge I would level at nearly all the cast. The worst disappointment, though, was Miranda Richardson. Her representation of Elizabeth Mapp I found to be quite ridiculous, and often embarrassingly over-acted to the point of farce. I am puzzled as to how she could possibly interpret such a skilfully drawn character in this clownish way? All in all, here was a missed opportunity, and, dare I say, a waste of money. To my mind, this is a classic example of 'dumb-down TV'.