ChicDragon
It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.
Hadrina
The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
Rio Hayward
All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
Cissy Évelyne
It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.
Derek Todd
I'm a bit late in the day, having only just seen part of the 2014 series on the Freeview Drama channel. I'm afraid this was inferior to the 1980s version...but that had the advantage of 10 episodes. Three episodes means compression - and that usually means distortion. Sorry to say, this 2014 version completely missed the books' flavour which was so well caught in the earlier series.I was puzzled by some changes: for example, on the page and in the earlier version Irene Coles is an impoverished artist who, for part of the time, lives in a shack; in the three-parter she is as expensively dressed as the object of her (made explicit) affection. The books are not hard to find, so do please read them: you will find them a constant source of pleasure.
artistmuse
It's too bad there aren't more programs like this instead of the mind numbing talentless wannabe cry fest shows like Brittan is talentless or yawn factor.....Great characters and witty scripts. I hope they make another series. I can understand why many don't get this as it is clever and intelligent. If you have a discerning taste in comedy then you will love it! If Borat is more your style you will be bored and miss the point all together. Steve Pemberton is very talented and he works so well in an ensemble cast full of talented actors and actresses. I would love to see more from Steve Pemberton. This reminds me of Agatha Christie and PG Woodhouse and it is a very similar to Blandings in tone and character.
Prismark10
The BBC version of Mapp & Lucia was adapted by Steve Pemberton who also appeared with his The League of Gentlemen collaborator, Mark Gatiss.Miranda Richardson plays Mapp with a shark like toothy smile, Anna Chancellor is Lucia a manipulative woman trying to pass as accomplished and both ladies vie in a game of acidic one upwomanship as outrageous snobs in the town of Tilling.The version has been compared unfavourably to the Channel 4 version from the mid 1980s and frankly this was a misfire. The first episode dragged with the highlight being Chancellor dressing up as Elizabeth the First in a parody of Richardson's own portrayal as a brattish Elizabeth in Blackadder 2. The second episode was better as the cook from the Bengali restaurant pretending to be a guru and swindling everyone but by this time the audience had dwindled and they did not return for the final episode where Lucia tried to pass as a fluent Italian speaker as she puts on a music recital.The episodes were bitty, never really flowed and never truly engaged and even after the poor first episode had a tendency to be heavy going. After the recent poor version of Blandings by the BBC, this was a notch above that but this types of acidic-comic adaptations of books are more a state of mind, difficult to bring to the screen for a mass audience to enjoy and this serial should had gone out on BBC2.
ianlouisiana
Something of an acquired taste this sumptuous feast of cloche hats,monocles,unrestrained snobbery and raised eyebrows,"Mapp and Lucia" digs deep into the British tradition of self - mocking Camp,with arch characters few of whom bear any resemblance to anybody living or indeed anybody living in the period it's set in. But don't let that spoil the fun of watching some fine thesps exceeding their wildest dreams of theatricality as they chew the scenery with unaccustomed relish. This particularly applies to the eponymous characters played with joy unrestrained by Mesdames Chancellor and Richardson who can rarely have had so much fun and remained sober. The great Mr S.Pemberton has tweaked the script and(who can blame him) given his part as Georgie Miss Chancellor's GBF a bit of a flip,and as is his wont,manages to steal the whole show from under the noses of those higher up the bill. It is the story of rivalry between two not particularly likable middle - class women in a small Sussex town apparently stuck in the Edwardian era.Each desperate to outdo the other in social climbing,it could well be adapted to the 21st century,but happily,Mr Pemberton has resisted that temptation and we are treated to a procession of glorious automobiles,wonderful dresses and cobbled English streets,a Vicar from the Black Country who assumes a Scottish accent to increase his credibility,and a number of sexually ambivalent characters who are a little more subtle than might be more usual today. There are also some subtleties in the writing that repay attention to the dialogue when the temptation is to be swept away by all the frivolity. I recommend this wholeheartedly to those seeking respite from the annual Christmas assault on the sensibilities that the TV companies seem to think their captive audience will endure whilst munching mince pies.