"Cranford" the BBC miniseries

I love it love it love it! It arrived yesterday in the mail and right now I am on my second watching of it (perfect timing because I have developed a miserable sore throat and have no choice but to sit on the couch and watch it). I also received Wives and Daughters yesterday which is a most worthy adaptation of the novel, also written by Elizabeth Gaskell.

Everybody who is anybody is in this movie - Dame Judy Dench, Dame Eileen Atkins, Simon Woods, Francesca Annis, Imelda Staunton, Julia McKenzie, Greg Wise, Philip Glenister, Michael Gambon and more! It is a wonder how they were able to assemble this cast to work together on the movie.

I was quite delighted with the weaving of Mr. Harrison's Confessions with the novel Cranford (and My Lady Ludlow) all into one fabulous screenplay. I have to admit that the storyline following Lady Ludlow left me a little bored - it seemed a little out of place to me and although it was my least favorite of the three stories it seemed so much edited as to make it stale. But I guess I do understand the inclusion of this story as a general help in addressing change and continuity within a community; subjects commonly addressed by Elizabeth Gaskell in her writing.

I don't usually just go out and buy movies that I haven't seen - I usually order them on Netflix first and decide if it is one worthy of buying but I had finished the book and the first disc had a long wait on it so I just went ahead and bought it and I'm glad I did. As I looked at reviews on amazon.com it seemed the only poor movie reviews for Cranford were written by people who did not realize that the story line was created from three different novellettes, thus leading them to the conclusion that the writers had a hey-day with the original story.

My recommendation - read the books (yes, even My Lady Ludlow) then watch the movie! Five ***** stars!