Mapp & Lucia


If you are at home tonight and not worried about putting on a party hat and blowing a kazoo, I would recommend you watch Steve Pemberton's adaptation of E F Benson's MAPP & LUCIA which airs it's final episode tonight on BBC1.
Set in the picturesque seaside town of Tilling during the early 1930s it centres of the " playing" between Queen Bee spinster Elizabeth Mapp ( Miranda Richardson)  and theatrical socialite Lucia Lucas ( Anna Chancellor).
It's a comedy about social snobbery, one upmanship and small town life amid a collection of wonderfully eccentric local folk ( does that sound familiar?)  but amongst the pithy one liners and back stabbing storylines  the short series is almost a miniature essay of the phenomenon of "wanting to belong." Which has a certain pathos on screen.
Chancellor and Richardson are delightful in the lead roles and Tilling ( Rye in East Syssex) looks as sweet as a chocolate box top.........
Anyhow, I thought a mini review more interesting than the normal 2014 post mortem ....
I shall be working night shift tonight.......so I shall welcome in 2015 over the hiss- swish of eight Galileo ventilators.
Happy New Year
Xx


57 comments:

  1. Happy new year.

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  2. Happy 2015 to you and Chris John. I shall be watching the London fireworks as our son has mixed all of the music for them for the third time { just a bit of loving mummy bragging !! }
    I have loved the Mapp & Lucia series and, I love Rye. When they had the garden party the other night, I thought that I recognised it.We visited that garden as it was open to the public when we were last in Rye.

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  3. Happy New Year John. We have recorded the series and I'm looking forward to watching it. It's a family fuddle for us today, then back home for a couple of drinks and a bit of telly. No doubt I will fall asleep before my son!
    Twiggy

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  4. Happy New Year to you, Chris and your furry and feathered friends...and especially for your charges on the ventilators...

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  5. Happy New Year to you both - yes we have been watching the series - and have had a good laugh - have you caught the chicken napper yet? - Jane XX

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  6. 2015 will be your year, dear boy! happy happy to all in your village!

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  7. Bless you for being one of the ones who works while others party. May your New Year be memorable and happy.

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  8. Shall not be watching it as am doing too much entertaining John - but I absolutely loved the E F Benson books. New Year kisses from me gor working.

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  9. I must admit, I do like a bit of Anna Chancellor... hoping 2015 is everything you could wish!

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  10. There was a wonderful series production of Mapp and Lucia maybe twenty years ago. I loved it and think I have it on tape somewhere. I must try and find it.
    A very Happy New Year and all the best for 2015!
    Peter

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  11. Happy New Year! We are looking forward to another exciting year (season) of you daily glimpse into life in Trelawnyd.

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  12. Hope you have a good night at work. I will be in bed. Happy New Yearxx

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  13. Anonymous11:50 am

    Happy New Year John , thank you for your blog. It often makes me laugh, as well as the comments ! I especially love your stories of your pets. Hope night shift is a good one . Xx

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  14. Happy New Year to you and Chris and all the little ones! The countdown is on to March!

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  15. We will be celebrating with friends, but a part of me, which is a bit worn out by the holidays, would rather be curled up on the couch in my PJs, watching a program like you mentioned.

    Happy New Year to you, John and Chris, and all your critters.

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  16. What a pairing. I'll have to wait for it to arrive here (I hope)! Feliz año nuevo.

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  17. Hope that 2015 is kind to you and Chris. Vx

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  18. I love those EF Benson books, so I will check out this show! Happy New Year!

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  19. I love those EF Benson books, so I will check out this show! Happy New Year!

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  20. Wish I could watch it..our TV in the US is mostly crap. Happy New Year..I wish you an un eventful evening...

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  21. And a Big Happy New Year to you too John. Hope your Night shift is an easy one and you are soon home again. Keep blogging in 2015 - you keep a lot of people smiling

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  22. Lucky you! I get to work on New Year's Day. Any idea how many people are going to be buying paint on New Year's Day? At least they're providing lunch - meatball sandwiches... yummy.

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  23. Anonymous1:27 pm

    Happy New Year John...may the new year bring you and Chris health and happiness.

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  24. Happy new year to you and Chris and the wonderful menagerie........
    It has been a delight following you!!!
    Best to Aunt Gladys as well......

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  25. Wishing you a fab new year!

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  26. Oooh, it's Duck Face and Queenie!
    Jane x

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  27. John , I have a little Winnie in the house ,http://kayerunrig.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/resolutionsi-think-not.html

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  28. Anna Chancellor! I've only seen her in Pramface and Jupiter Moon (British scifi at its worst), but she added class to both of them. I would have a quiet New Years except my son is having his party at my house. It will be fine, the "kids" (they're almost 30) are well behaved. It's just that I only have one bathroom and the women are always in there.

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  29. Hope you New Year's Eve night shift passes peacefully. Thanks for all your posts they're great fun and cause much spluttering of coffee! Long may they continue :-)

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  30. Looks good will have to see if I can stream it here in Illinois which will give me a good reason to stay inside and not do pig chores since its frigging 8 degrees F here!! Anyway Happy New year John, never stop blogging!!

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  31. Happy New Year to you, John. And to your Chris and all your assorted furry dependents.

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  32. I'd circled this mini-series to watch in my copy of Radio Times. Unfortunately I caught an unglowing review of it on Radio 4's 'Front Row' so didn't bother. My loss, maybe. In the light of what you say I may, just may, watch it on 'ketchup'.
    I wish you and yours (for the umpteenth time - but who's counting?) a particularly fine 2015, J.G.
    'See' you next year - like, perhaps, tomorrow?

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  33. John, here's a wish for a happy, healthy and blessed new year from "across the pond." Any friend of a dog is a friend of mine. :-)

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  34. We don't get that station. Looks to be a winner.
    Wishing you and Chris the greatest year to come, I think it should be.

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  35. Lucky You, I adore the Mapp and Lucia series from many years ago. It had Prunrnlla Scales and Geraaldine McEwan. I just remembering laughing a lot. I think your right about wanting to belong.
    I will check and see if netfix has this one.
    Happy Happy New Year to You, Chris and all the fluffy and feathered loves.

    cheers, gayle
    The Square Ones

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  36. ' I shall welcome in 2015 over the hiss- swish of eight Galileo ventilators. ' You really know how to live ;-)

    Seriously though, you do a fantastic job, well done on taking the New Year shift. My son who answers emergency calls for the police, has worked all through Christmas and is working again tonight, without the likes of you and him our country would grind to a halt ... much kudos.

    Wishing you, Chris and all the furries and featheries a very Happy New Year. All the very best for 2015.

    Sue and Alan xx

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  37. Happy New Year to you and to your entire compound and a good 2015 to all of us.

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  38. You will be in a far more important place than most of us John. Bless you for the job you do, and Happy New Year.

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  39. Happy New Year. I love the Mapp and Lucia series of books. I hope to see the television series in the fullness of time.

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  40. I love Mapp and Lucia , I love the books and the original television adaptation , looking forward to the final episode tonight x

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  41. Happy New Year, to John and Chris and to all who visit here.

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  42. Happy New Year, John. Hope 2015 has as little predator visitations as possible.

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  43. Anonymous6:50 pm

    Like last year, Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin...
    Happy New Year to you and co.

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    1. Those two are a riot! The expression on Anderson's face sometimes is priceless…like OMG what is she going to do next! I wish I had the first year they were together on tape…I think it's the one that she stripped off her top!

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  44. How Divine - oh when, oh when will they arrive across the pond? Happy New Year to one of my favorite bloggers. You are a daily must - thank you.

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  45. I'm blowing kazoos through my nostrils which are bunged up with what must be the ultimate rotten cold....just to end a rather rotten year, apart from one or two really great things that happened. So Happy New Year to You and Yours, Old Boy and yes, I'll be watching Mapp and Lucia too. Anna Chancellor is a really lovely person in real life. My friend who passed two years' ago? Her brother is Anna's ex to whom she (Anna) had her daughter, Poppy some twenty-odd years ago and they come to Scotland occasionally to visit with the family. Not that I'm name-dropping, just sayin'! 'See' you next year. xxx

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  46. Why do I find British TV more fun than the pablum we are fed in the colonies?
    At least the ventilators are doing their job. I always hated it when they were unplugged. Happy night shift!

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  47. Wishing you and all of your sweeties a happy, healthy new year!!! XO

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  48. All the best John and Happy New Year!

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  49. Hopefully we will get to see Mapp and Lucia over here. Hopefully I will get more time to read my friends' blogs in 2015. Hopefully you and Chris are going to have an especially wonderfully year. Hey, Kitty got all wistful for travel again (specifically Trelawnyd) seeing your snowy churchyard...

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  50. Happy New Year to you, Chris, and the gang! I hope you can view the video on this site. I thought of you when I saw it and wondered what Ms. Winnie would do. Also, sending Happy New Year wishes to all of Going Gently's commenters!

    http://family-dogs.sfglobe.com/2014/12/30/iaY/?src=share_fb_new_30802

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  51. Happy New Year to you too Sunshine. They're going to have to pull it out of the bag to come close to matching the utter perfection of the 1983 version, with Geraldine Macewen and Prunella Scales. Timeless, gorgeous, accurate. A highlight of my life to date was walking along Mermaid St in Rye, which is the 'real' Tilling.

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  52. Happy New Year. I would like that Mapp and Lucia series, I am sure. Maybe I will be able to see it one day, way over here on the Left Coast of the USA.

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  53. Happy New Year, to you, too Johnthedogs.

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  54. Happy 2015 to you, Chris and the menagerie!
    Yes, I watched both episodes of Mapp and Lucia and enjoyed it very much, quite a cast of actors too! xxx

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  55. Happy New Year, John and all.
    I started reading Gerald Durrell's "My Family and Other Animals" - your recommendation - enjoying it very much!

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