Thursday, September 04, 2008

"Presently the proper person arrived from the consignees, but found the gold-dust gone."

Coo, you go looking for more details about the ghostly coach drawn by headless horses that drives through Penryn 'just before Christmas' (when is that? 11:48 Christmas Eve? Some time in October?), and end up reading about Falmouth's great gold dust robbery of 1839.

My nan once saw a ghostly coach at Weybridge, and Pendennis Castle has a ghostly coach that drives past the main gates every now and then. My theory is it's the same one, which means it'll have to comes down the A39 and turn off at Truro, go through Penryn, then up past the 24-hour garage, over the rugby ground roundabout then along the seafront to the castle.

Anyway, "Lost In Austen".

I really liked this opening episode. Well-acted, beautifully-lit (I seem to have become a lighting nerd), the background music isn't overdone, and writer Guy Andrews has completely resisted the opportunity to crank up the pseudo-Austeneque dialogue for laughs. Which isn't to say it isn't properly funny. Favourite line thus far: 'Elizabeth is presently to be found disporting in the otter-strewn thoroughfares of Hammersmith'.

I think the main reason I like it (apart from fancying Jemima Rooper since 'As If'), is that it's a big, pleasingly silly idea, that has been treated with great seriousness, allowing the natural humour of the situation to sort of bubble though, like the stock in a good risotto.

Available to view online here.

10 comments:

BlackLOG said...

Our TV recorder, for some reason known only to itself, decided that we would not be interested in the first 15 mins of the program (before you shout "user error" I used the series link option). So having missed the crucial backgroundy bit giving a slight clue to what is going on I'm finding it very hard to get enthusiastic about watching the rest, no matter how good the lighting happens to be.

James Henry said...

Seriously though, the lighting is really good.

BlackLOG said...

Thanks that makes me feel so much better. I'll give it a view this evening. If it is not the best lit made for TV drama I have half seen there will be complaints.

Jayne said...

I didn't notice the lighting, which probably makes me a philistine. I quite liked it but I also wanted to know what Lizzie was up to in Hammersmith (and where she got the old paper she managed to write a letter to her dad on). Something about otter-strewn Hammersmith made me laugh quite a lot...

Jayne said...

PS ref your next post, I noticed they did manage to cast a Green Wing actor...

BlackLOG said...

Thanks Jayne, not only have I missed the start of the allegedly well lit drama you've given away half the remaining plot. Otters in Hammersmith, are you sure you are not confusing it with an episode of Tales of the riverbank , Where Hammy storms up the Thames in his little boat for a quick visit to some otters and then comes home again..... This evenings entertainment is now going to be a bit like finishing off someone's half eaten, but well lit, meal.....

Jayne said...

Not to worry Blacklog, the otters are actually (red) herrings. Or are they...?

BlackLOG said...

That reminds me of when Hammy got on his little boat and went up stream to visit the red .....oh you know the rest, it was always the same story, still it was rather well lit.

I was gutted to discover, in my research of "Tales of the Riverbank", that Hammy was not English but Canadian and like Elvis never visited England. Worse then that he vanished in 1963, slipping over the side of his boat, after a scandal involving the embezzlement of Ratty's pension fund, which had brought down Hammy's powerful media empire just weeks before.......or am I confusing him with Marmot Maxwell.

cello said...

Hugh Bonneville. What more needs to be said?

James Henry said...

I was a bit worried about Mr Bennett, he being one of my favourite literary characters of all time, but yeah, perect casting. Almost removes the memory of Bonekickers.

But not quite.