any good 30s 40s set british tv series???

[parma violet]

please could someone recommend some decent tv series- preferably of the 30s 40s? or just outside that?

i have brideshead (admittedly mostly 20s), the camomile lawn, which i adore, and miss marple(again, just slightly outside, but not too high fashion-ish). is there anything else decent? i did NOT like the house of elliot, and, much as i love the mitfords, thought the recent tv series a little..cloying, so didnt watch it.

realise i sound rather hard to please.. sorry.

and if anyone has never seen the camomile lawn- watch it here- its superb! great mix of shoes, hats, men in uniform etc. heaven. england '39-40, town and country.

http://www.youtube.com/verify_age?next_url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvQ-i-2vdXg

thanks.

 

[Kitty_Sheridan]

How about The Cazalets? Good cast....it was supposed to get a second series and never did. BBC I think, and the thing with Ken and Emma, was it Fortunes of War? And another how about A Dance to the music of time? Excellent. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118297/
Kate

 

[~Kate~]

What about Foyle's War, or for something completely different Jeeves and Wooster (the first two seasons are the best. It went downhill after that in my opinion)?

 

[parma violet]

thank you both! forgot- i have jeeves & w too- kitty, those two sound excellent. just ordered them!

 

[Puzzicato]

And another how about A Dance to the music of time? Excellent. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118297/
Kate

Agreed. I have to say, I think Dance is the best screen adaptation of a book ever. Fantastic casting. They couldn't have done better for Widmerpool.

 

[Kitty_Sheridan]

Same here, I really enjoyed it and it takes a lot for me to shell out for a boxed set. Hope you like it.

 

[davidraphael]

It's absolutely crucial to own the original Pennies From Heaven series from 1978! Not only is it set in the 30's but the music of Ambrose, Ray Noble, Lew stone, etc features strongly.

[video=youtube;Xyasj51OdLM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xyasj51OdLM&feature=related[/video]

In addition the series, the 3 disk soundtrack is a must-have!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pennies-Hea...=sr_1_8?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1287865890&sr=1-8

 

[lolly_loisides]

I love Pennies from Heaven! Have you seen the 1980's adaptation of "Love in a Cold Climate"? It's much better than the 2000 adaptation.
Another series that comes to mind is "Nanny"

 

[Shangas]

J&W is a must, I reckon. Very funny series.

Another one might be the Poirot series, set in 1930s London.

 

[Woland]

All creatures great and small.

[video]http://youtu.be/qS7Z1q9hL2I[/video]

A Family at War.

[video]http://youtu.be/TVZs8OXiffA[/video]

Not to mention The Singing Detective by Dennis Potter (who also wrote Pennies from Heaven).

[video]http://youtu.be/IDOe7Npinl4[/video]

 

[davidraphael]

All Creatures Great and Small IS my childhood. It was on every Saturday evening. When I was about 8 yrs old I even went to watch them film it and met some of the cast!

 

[Chas]

I liked "Wish Me Luck".

 

[Mike in Seattle]

Mapp & Lucia

 

[BinkieBaumont]

" I have introduced a couple of people at the office to Mapp & Lucia, now we are bidding each other "Au Reservoir"

[video=youtube;OU8ysRWwYmE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU8ysRWwYmE&feature=related[/video]

 

[VitaminG]

Danger UXB

 

[lolly_loisides]

Danger UXB

Oh yes, that was great, and we can't forget 'Allo 'Allo!

 

[Doc Average]

Check out "Dad's Army", and also Michael Palin & Terry Jones's "Ripping Yarns" series. There's also the time travelling sitcom "Goodnight Sweetheart", which I confess I wasn't so keen on.

Also, keep an eye open for an excellent WWII set drama series called "The Machine Gunners". It's quite possibly the best children's drama ever made by the BBC. Unfortunately I don't think it's available on DVD yet, but hopefully it's just a matter of time before someone at The Beeb sees the light. You can see the whole series in chunks on You Tube. It's a VHS transfer though, so the quality ain't great. It was based on an excellent novel by Robert Westall - also highly recommended.

 

[Spitfire]

Family at War was a great series. So I thought, when I bought it on DVd couple of years back. And I must say the story still holds, many of the actors are still good - some things would be done differently today. Not so much stage - more locations. A bit more action would be nice too - But anyway - it's a great series.

 

[Woland]

Hi there Spitfire.

What facinates me most about "A Family at War" is how differently the story is constructed.

Now; all drama is based on conflict (says the Schoolmeister).
And these days we tend to focus on conflict/climax/resolution.

Not so in "A Family at War".
The director builds up the conflict and halts before entering climax.
The next episode shows the last remains of the aftermath, and is focusing more on consequences, than resolution.
How the family "make do, and mend...".

I was thoroughly fascinated through all 50+ episodes, and loved the way they systematically ignored closure in the last episode.
Instead they chose to suggest a whole new set of possible and plausible futures for the personas.

A grand series, t'was!

 

[Doc Average]

I just remembered a very good one-off drama made a couple of years ago. It's called Housewife 49, and stars Victoria Wood and David Threlfall. It's based on the real-life diaries of a woman who took part in the Mass -Observation project which began in Britain back in the '30s, though the TV show deals mainly with the period of the war. It's very good for an insight into the day to day minutiae of life back then, and re-affirms my belief that people haven't changed much over the last 60 or 70 years. It is available on DVD.

Here's a link to the Wikipedia entry on the programme:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housewife,_49

If you're interested, the Mass-Observation project was revived in the early '80s:

http://www.massobs.org.uk/index.htm