Short description
This is the DVD of the lavish BBC costume drama, Cranford, based on three of Elizabeth Gaskell's novels including Cranford itself. The cast boasts some of Britain's best-loved and most experienced actresses, including Dame Judi Dench, Dame Eileen Atkins, Imelda Staunton and Francesca Annis. The five-part drama series tells the witty and poignant story of the small absurdities and major tragedies in the lives of the people of Cranford, as they are besieged by forces that they can't withstand. Cranford in the 1840s is a small northern English town on the cusp of change. Things are on the move. The railway is pushing its way relentlessly towards the town from Manchester, bringing fears of migrant workers and the breakdown of law and order. The arrival of handsome new doctor, Frank Harrison (Simon Woods) from London causes a stir; not only because of his revolutionary medical methods, but also because of the effect he has on many of the ladies' hearts in the town. Judi Dench plays Miss Matty Jenkyns, whose hopes and rebellious spirit are crushed when she was forced as a young woman to give up Mr Holbrook (Michael Gambon), the man she loved.
Long description
Set in a 1840s Cranford—a small, idyllic Northern English town—where the residents are coping with a sea of change that includes a new railway network that threatens to unleash a tide of immigrant workers that the locals fear will reduce their town to lawlessness...
Review
Richly enjoyable comedy[...]good stuff with an easy intelligence
2008-02-15 04:24:00
Independent
An instant classic
2007-12-27 05:52:00
The Hollywood Reporter