MovieChat Forums > Mapp & Lucia (2014) Discussion > Queenie + Margaret Thatcher

Queenie + Margaret Thatcher

posted 9 years ago by By-TorX-1
5 replies | jump to latest

= Mapp!

Love Miranda Richardson's faces and characterisation, but how a drama that essentially involves affluent people of genteel leisure having servant problems plays to an austerity-ridden 2014/2015 audience, I'm not sure.

I sleep now.

[–] Prismark10 9 years ago

It did not. Its tanked in the ratings and frankly I am not surprised. It had BBC2 written all over it.

Its that man again!!

[–] Helena727 9 years ago

It had BBC2 written all over it.

Although I've watched a *lot* of British TV and many British movies in the past 20+ years, I don't live in the UK, so I don't really know how to define or characterize BBC2's offerings (vs those of BBC1). The BBC2 logo from a few years back was kind of silly, I thought (no offense intended -- every nation has a lot of silly stuff), and that prompts me to think that BBC2 fare is perhaps less ... challenging or edgy or smart or creative -- ?

FWIW, I thought this series was smart and creative, so I'm really eager to read your reply. Thanks.

"All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people."

[–] DrBenjaminTwist 8 years ago

that prompts me to think that BBC2 fare is perhaps less ... challenging or edgy or smart or creative -- ?

I would suggest exactly the opposite! BBC2 comedy, drama and documentaries are often far more "challenging, edgy, smart and creative" which, in turn, often means they are less likely to be successful. BBC1 is for "safer bets" in the viewing figure stakes. Programmes commissioned for BBC2 often move to BBC1 once they are proven successful; it is far more rare for programmes commissioned for BBC1 move "down the pecking order" to BBC2.

[–] louiseculmer 9 years ago

perhaps that wS the problem. i haven't seen this version, but it's supposed to be a comedy, not a drama. perhaps the petty rivalries and jealousies And intellectual ssnobbery of the stories aren't to today's taste. But i still find the books funny. snd I cAn understNd why they thought there might be an audience for it, considering the popularity of recent adaptations of jane Austen, P.G. Wodehouse, nancy mitford, none of whom exactly wrote kitchen sink dramas.

[–] Helena727 9 years ago

plays to an austerity-ridden 2014/2015 audience

The weird thing is that some people really like to watch such stuff during economic downturns; I think that some people still believe in the possibility of economic upward-mobility, so they pseudo-pre-identify with such characters/settings. (I mean, how to account for the huge popularity of Downton Abbey, which wasn't even well-written but which was nonetheless incredibly addicitve for a few seasons?)

Mapp and Lucia are comfortably off but not what one would call rich, so that probably made the series more palatable for some viewers who typically would have steered clear of such fare. And the cast was so good that others who might have stayed away were drawn in (I'm in that camp).

"All you need to start an asylum is an empty room and the right kind of people."