I don't know where I was when this series came out because I watch most of the Masterpiece Theater series but I watched it for the first time recently through Netflix rentals and it was so nice when I had three or four episodes to look forward to. It was also nice getting to watch everything fairly close together, so I could remember connections between minor players. The Brits really know how to create characters and situations that pull you in, don't they? The scripts were great, the decor was wonderful, the subplots among the servants a major part of the pleasure. John Merriman as the decrepit but intuitive butler (who spots the phonies the minute they walk into the hotel) was so funny and so persuasively old that I kept fearing he would die on the set. (One amusing thread is the amount of time and energy spent on a dog that displays almost no personality at all.)
I asked a friend if he was familiar with the series and he said, "Oh you mean the one with that woman with that awful voice?" and I knew what he meant. Gemma Jones's character's voice sounds more decidedly lower class next to Charlie and the other upscale denizens of the hotel, but boy is she a strong character, the kind you love even when you know she is behaving badly. In addition to providing wonderful escape, this series is also good at giving a sense what the Edwardian period (is that it?) in England looked and felt like -- by the end of the series the skirts are getting shorter, the women more liberated... A pure delight.
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greenegg
14 years ago
I must echo the OP's thanks to the surviving cast members. I still feel misty-eyed when I remember dear old John Welsh, John Cater, Richard Vernon, Paul Curran and other beloved performers from the series are gone. BTW: Merriman was the head waiter; hotels don't have butlers. I also felt riveted by Masterpiece Theatre throughout my youth and young adult years. Masterpiece Theatre unfortunately has fallen on hard times recently. Some of the contemporary Jane Austen remakes, as well as the remake of Six Wives of Henry VIII and the vapid, anachronistic Virgin Queen, were positively unwatchable. We not only need a cable channel that will show the beloved classic BBC/Granada/ITV Brit series we adore, but will also revive the nearly lost art of bringing great literature to the small screen.
Put puppy mills out of business: never buy dogs from pet shops!
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