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Post by Delia on Jun 24, 2019 21:00:22 GMT
Ah, the child's aunt. I suspected as much. He must have fallen in love with the daughter of the wealthy man he saved from the robbers at the very beginning.
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Post by geometryman on Jun 24, 2019 22:44:27 GMT
Yes, I'm thinking that too. She perhaps nursed him while he recovered from the gunshot wound he received.
Despite him displaying an unfeasibly modern attitude for 200 years ago, I'm quite enjoying the production so far. I like Lesley Nicol's performance - quite a change from the Downton Abbey cook.
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Post by Delia on Jun 25, 2019 7:35:18 GMT
Sorry, but I think that his mother has been miscast - she should be a more forceful woman. It grates on me when she speaks in her soft voice.
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Post by pandaeyes on Jun 25, 2019 10:00:36 GMT
I'm enjoying this too. I wondered where I'd seen his mother before. Lovely scenery, costumes and great acting, what more could one ask of a Sunday evening.
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Post by marion on Jun 25, 2019 10:32:34 GMT
How old is the younger son supposed to be? Mother looks more like his grandmother to me.
It is OK I think, watchable but not exciting. Very lush settings and costumes.
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Post by vicky on Jun 25, 2019 11:19:54 GMT
After watching both episodes I think the script and the acting are very wooden. The only redeeming features are the costumes and the setting, both of which are stunning. I shall see next week whether I can be bothered to watch any more, depending on how I feel at the time. It certainly isn't a " can't wait to find out what happens" thing for me.
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Post by linseed on Jun 25, 2019 11:55:39 GMT
Yes I’m finding it really wooden and clunky too. Gorgeous scenery though - watching for that alone.
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Post by Gargleblaster on Jun 25, 2019 12:01:25 GMT
“Jewel in the Crown” it ain’t! However, it looks gorgeous. I wonder how many hundreds of metres of diaphanous fabric was used to create those curtains gently wafting in the breeze? I suppose that it’s going to continue in the vein of richly adorned architecture and wealth and we’re not going to see much poverty.
For the ladies we have Tom Bateman and Grégory Fitoussi and for the men there are some very beautiful Indian ladies to admire. There’s something for everyone I suppose even though up to now it’s a bit bland.
Agree that the script isn’t up to much and John’s Mother is extraordinarily irritating.
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Post by beverley61 on Jun 25, 2019 12:06:52 GMT
Well we got hints about the family's fortunes e.g. father sent to Australia and as a criminal and both sons leaving England to earn a living in India. As he wasn't aware that his mother was coming, we are left presuming that she had some income of her own to survive on or that both sons were sending money home.
He is wealthy but admitted that he needed the licence to trade otherwise it would all come crashing down. Therefore he didn't make his fortune in Calcutta and doesn't have an established business there. So this is reward money or a lump sum given to him to set up somewhere else, out of the way with the baby. He also said that he can't leave India and the hint was that he can't leave India and take his son with him. The we get this rich Indian woman arrive, apparently in secret, but not very much secrecy was displayed, as she made herself known to everyone about the place and some of the staff seemed to know who she was. But it must be kept a secret because his son was in danger if it was revealed. Yet, there she was all bells and whistles and a fancy carriage to boot.
The acting is pretty bad really, with the odd flash of okay. I think that might be the script which is clunky and is making his mother seem worse than she should considering this is such an alien environment and her son is clearly lying to her. And she is an opium addict to boot and you can see that is going to go well.
What always makes it worse is the lack of normal conversation. She decides the Indian names are too difficult and changes them, shouting their new names all over the house and yet he doesn't notice this. It takes the arrival of his brother before that gets an airing. Presumably other than odd sentences they don't communicate. She hasn't even asked him how he made his money. Normal people don't behave this way, they talk and ask questions, they would be askign the servants (who mostly seem able to speak English and have come with him from Calcutta). I just visited my sister who I haven't seen for nearly 8 months and we basically talked and caught up over 3 whole days and we could have talked more. Now, I know she said he barely wrote to her but he must have if she knew where to come or otherwise she was taking one hell of a chance.
That said it is lush to look at. Maybe it's early days and I will give it another go, but not many goes.
I know it is a very terrible thing to say, but it is clearly written by a man, because a woman would have thought of the mundane but essential elements. Shoot me down in flames if it wasn't and if it wasn't I am thinking there is a lot on the cutting room floor.
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Post by undertheparapet on Jun 25, 2019 16:05:33 GMT
Well, it’s written, directed and generally created by Gurinder Chadha and her husband. They did Bend it like Beckham and Bhaji on the Beach etc.
It’s clearly designed for international consumption with its international casting and for those who like the big costume TV pieces. Totally suited to ITV Sunday nights and presumably already sold globally.
The script is OK and teeters a little bit between a vaguely modern outlook and the language and customs of the time. Lesley Nicol gets second billing, which is a bit of a surprise, but she’s very popular with the US because if their devotion to Downton.
The governess is a bit bland.
The baby’s aunt/mother is clearly aristocratic if not royal, hence the secrecy involved.
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Post by beatxt on Jun 25, 2019 16:51:02 GMT
It's a bit of a curiosity. Probably best taken lightly. It's the kind of thing Clive James would have had a field day with when he reviewed tv.
It perked up for me when Citizen Khan appeared! He reminds me of Peter Sellars doing his Asian Doctor in the early 60s. The cook from Downton looks like she's substituting for something Julie Walters might have been offered and the hero reminds me of Alexander Armstrong made up for a Brabbins and Fyffe sketch with Ben Miller.
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Post by marion on Jun 25, 2019 16:53:58 GMT
I was amazed when they said his father had been transported to Australia. The Mother is very grand for someone whose reputation would surely have been ruined by association in those days, isn't she?
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Post by vicky on Jun 25, 2019 17:05:59 GMT
That surprised me too. Judging by the mother they must have been a fairly grand family and I thought only "the lower orders" were transported. It was generally for theft or something similar and was seen as a good way of ridding the country of people considered undesirable. Those found guilty of more serious offences were usually executed anyway so father didn't murder someone and I wouldn't have thought he would have needed to steal. The thing that got that class into trouble in those days more often than anything else was debt so they would spend time in a debtors prison, not be transported.
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Post by sleepyp on Jun 25, 2019 18:23:20 GMT
The idea of being sent to Australia reminds me of the poem 'Lord Lundy'..... www.monologues.co.uk/Childrens_Favourites/Lord_Lundy.htmNo, the upper classes weren't transported... but they were 'disgraced'  I'm in the minority it seems, I like it. No mention of the word 'dystopian'anywhere! |
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Post by beverley61 on Jun 26, 2019 11:59:07 GMT
I was imagining they were more of the merchant classes, perhaps not massively wealthy but still comfortable. There were only certain things you could be transported for. Theft, being the main one. Possibly some financial crimes, but like today they often carry a heavier tarriff, even capital punishment, than crimes against the person. I suppose they might have had family to help support them or take over the business. 'Mother' doesn't have a posh accent or perhaps she can't do one. I think the East India Company was made up of the merchant classes for the most part.
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Anymore to come?
