I'm enjoying the series so far on PBS. It's pretty good, given the necessary changes that come with adaptations. One thing though, what was up with lining Roosevelt up with Hitler in the little political ideology battle about the slums? Was Davies trying to make a point?
It is not what we say or feel that makes us what we are, it is what we do or fail to do
Many people after 1933, both in the U.K. and in the U.S. as well, saw Hitler as a progressive force in Germany -- someone who could whip that country into shape after the chaos of postwar Weimar. Most people (who remembered the GreaT war all too well) were willing to let him have Austria & Czechoslavakia in order to avoid a repeat. (Besides, "What business is it of ours?") Remember how popular Chamberlain's "Peace in our time" speech was. By the time Hitler got to Poland, public feelings had shifted considerably and most folks knew another war was coming. So that bit of dialogue was perfectly reasonable -- especially in the relatively unsophisticated wilds of Yorkshire, as opposed to someplace like London.
shareActually, I think this was a faux-pas on the part of the script, which does not reflect the novel. The characters are not that naive. In the book, we're told that Sarah is very worried about the friends she'd met in Germany on a teaching conference. One of her friends there is a left-wing, half-Jewish man whom she has heard has been beaten to death in Dachau. (In the 1974 adaptation, this subject crops up in dialogue - handled sympathetically by Joe, but with crass flippancy by Robert - highlighting the differences between them.)
The "relatively unsophisticated wilds of Yorkshire" hardly applies to Kiplington (real world Withernsea + Hornsea): the nearby big city, Kingsport (Hull, in the real world) was (and is still, to some extent) a major port for Baltic and N European trade (and is now a North Sea Ferry terminus).
Seingner Conrat, tot per vostr'amor chan
http://www.silverwhistle.co.uk/knightlife