Cranford - Complete Series (DVD)

What a superb Sunday night series. Cranford is a collection of stories retold brilliantly by the BBC. Originally written by Elizabeth Gaskell the story of Cranford evolves round a set of Spinster Ladies in a northern English market town. Headlined by Dame Judy Dench and Michael Gambon Cranford was going to be a success from the start, managing to obtain the correct balance between humour and educating the audience at the same time. Set in the 1840's Cranford tells the story of Matilda Jenkyns and her sister the formidable Deborah. The series also focuses on social problems at the time with the working classes and the stigma that followed them, and ...  Read the complete review

After watching Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes, I became a big fan of Philip Glenister. I did a search on Amazon and discovered that he had also been in Cranford, the BBC series shown last year. It looked like something I might enjoy and the cast was amazing, so I decided it was worth a gamble and spent £12.98 on the DVD. The DVD comes in two discs. The first disc features the first three episodes of the series, while the second disc has the final two episodes (each one an hour long) and a behind-the-scenes documentary - the Making of Cranford. CRANFORD The series is set in one year from 1842 to 1843. The village of Cranford is a ...  Read the complete review

Having loved the exceptional BBC production of Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South a few years ago, I was thrilled to hear that Cranford was being made. The drama is based on three of Gaskell's works; firstly one of her most famous novels ' Cranford', from which the title of the series is derived, and two short novella's 'Mr Harrison's Confessions' and 'My Lady Ludlow', none of which I've unfortunately read. The story takes place over the period of a year, from June 1842 to May 1843, and is spread through five one hour episodes. Cranford is a small country town in which all of the home owners, of a certain status, are women. They are a community of ...  Read the complete review

I have a secret addiction. I can't keep it a secret anymore. It's been going on about 3 years now. Hello, my name is Sonya and I'm addicted to...period dramas! I have over the past few years got increasingly excited about watching these BBC epics..maybe it's the handsome men in britches..? No, no (honestly! I'm not so shallow..!) it started when I ended up watching 'North and South' by Elizabeth Gaskell on tv a few years ago one sunday evening. There was nothing else on and I reluctantly watched it..then got gripped! I missed the first episode of this-'Cranford' also by Elizabeth Gaskell when it was first shown on the BBC about a year ago. So ...  Read the complete review

My husband bought me this DVD series from Amazon using some of his vouchers that he had earned before I became a member. BBC DVDs are usually very expensive, especially for long ones like this is at 295 minutes long. But Dave insisted he'd got this for a really great price and that I should have it so who am I to argue? Looking at Amazon now it is only £9.98 which is pretty incredible value for just how much entertainment this DVD will give you. I found it really hard to tear myself away at the end of each hour long episode of this period drama but I knew I could not sit there for six hours solid and that I needed to try to space my viewing out a little! I ...  Read the complete review