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CS Weekly Archive > DVD > 5/23/08
Nineteenth Century Gossip Girls
by jason davis
Cranford
Heidi Thomas
Series created by Sue Birtwistle and Susie Conklin
From three novels by Elizabeth Gaskell
 
 
Bridging Austen’s comedy of manners with Dickensian suspicion of industrialization, Elizabeth Gaskell’s novels offer a view of the mid-19th century that is almost contemporary. Producers Sue Birtwistle and Susie Conklin combined three disparate Gaskell novellas and collected them into the same conservative country village to create the five-part serial Cranford. The stories unfold through the eyes of village newcomers Mary Smith (Lisa Dillon) and Dr. Harrison (Simon Woods) as they become accustomed to the matriarchal tone of a town populated almost entirely by spinsters that thrive on the local gossip. Harrison quickly becomes the center of attention for the population’s viable ladies, while penniless urchins, an aloof dowager marchioness, and hairless cow vie for story time in the crowded and eccentric narrative. Writer Heidi Thomas seamlessly combines the source material into a cohesive whole while drawing memorable characters and segueing between hysterical comedy and heart-rending drama. A brief documentary highlights the British/American co-production’s origins and lends hope for a second season, though the DVD’s title would suggest such hope is overly optimistic.
 Cranford
BBC Video
Not rated; 295 min.
$34.98
Buy it now
Jason Davis has been the DVD Manager for CS Weekly, a contributing editor for Creative Screenwriting Magazine, and has written for Cinescape.com, MSN.com, and created the TV series Studio 13, which ran on Lorne Michaels' Burly TV network. He lives in the small space left over by his ever-expanding library of books, movies, and music.
Cranford courtesy BBC Video
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