Love for Lydia

Recently released on DVD....I couldn't wait to view it again. First saw this on Masterpiece Theater in the late 70's, when I expressly stayed home on Sundays to savor the 13 episodes in their entirety. It was programing like this, Elizabeth R, Upstairs, Downstairs, I Claudius, etc. that got me hooked for life on Masterpiece Theater. 'Love For Lydia' is basically a handsome Jazz Age soap opera. A highly exuberant and distinguished backdrop for a mini-series endorsed as a romance but in reality a coming of age story.

`Love For Lydia', written by H.E. Bates ( My Uncle Silas) of Northamptonshire, England is an admonition and harbinger of rural England pre-and post depression. It's as much about the loves of the lead character, Lydia Aspen, a self centered young heiress played with remarkable and wicked alacrity by Mel Martin as it is about Edward Richarson, a H.E. Bates alter ego character. Both youths are so impossibly immature that I spent the first 10 episodes deciding which one was more obnoxious. Lydia is a typical spoiled rich kid who will stop at nothing to get what she wants. After first becoming involved with Edward she proceeds to seduce every man in North England. Edward, being a sensitive would be writer can not seem to detach himself from her emotionally, which, of course is how she likes it best.

It's curious to note that the supporting cast are often more assertive and certainly more appealing than the main characters. In Edwards best friend, Alex Sanderson, we have a brilliant and youthful Jeremy Irons, who down right commands the show in his part as a conceited prat who somehow manages to be charming in spite of himself. An actualization of the quintessential snotty young upper crust Brit...of the type they are always trying to cast now days with Hugh Grant. Irons talent was astonishing even then...so raw that there was little doubt of predicting his brilliant future. Rachel Kempson and Beatrix Lehmann were enticing as Lydia's elderly Aunts, Juliana and Bertie. They were so delectably in character I always longed for scenes with these two ladies. Lydia's disagreeable Uncle Rollo was made lifelike by Michael Aldridge `Love in a Cold Climate" (1980). Add to these many more capable actors and it's quite a impressive cast.

As for the DVD, the color is faded and the sound is not digital. This was produced pre-DVD so there are no easter eggs here. The good news is you can rent the whole series...because while it is a scrumptious rent...it would be hardly worth owning. It's important to remember that it was designed to be viewed in one hour increments, therefore to sit and watch 3 or 4 episodes at a time would prove a little too monotonous...especially toward the end when the flapper era has been laid low by the economic crisis that preceded W W I. However, the lavish attention to detail that marks Masterpiece Theater is ever present. If you enjoy British literature adaptations you will be drawn right into the drama.

In my view it's test of time score is 8 ½.

This is an adaptation of the novel by H. E. Bates, first published in 1952. The story is set in the small industrial town of Evensford, possibly based upon Bates's home town of Rushden, a town where the main industry is the manufacture of shoes and leather goods. The story takes place during the late 1920s and early 1930s and the main character is Edward Richardson, a young apprentice journalist on the local newspaper with ambitions to become a writer. (In the novel we never learn his Christian name; the name Edward was given to him for the purposes of the dramatisation).

The title character is Lydia Aspen, a girl from a once-wealthy but now impoverished aristocratic family who, after the death of her father, moves to Evensford to live with her elderly aunts and her eccentric uncle. Edward first meets her when he is sent to their house (a crumbling mansion isolated from the rest of the town behind a high stone wall) to get a story about her father's death. Lydia, a seemingly shy girl, has led a sheltered existence, and her meeting with Edward allows him to introduce her to the pleasures of ordinary life; for instance, he takes her skating on the frozen rivers, a popular local pastime during cold winters.

Lydia and Edward fall in love, but he realises that he is not her only admirer. She has at least three others- the wealthy Alex Sanderson, Tom Holland, a young farmer, and Bert "Blackie" Johnson, a car mechanic. Richardson realises that Lydia is not the shy, innocent girl for which he initially took her but can be wilful and fun-loving, and that she greatly enjoys the attentions of so many young men. His position is made more difficult by the fact that Alex and Tom are both close friends of his, and of each other. Blackie has more difficulty fitting in with the group because of his working-class background; Edward is also from a working-class family, but Tom and Alex seem more willing to accept him, possibly because of his literary aspirations and his more genteel accent.

I did not see this serial when it was first shown in 1977; I was a teenager at the time, had hardly heard of Bates, and the theme did not seem very interesting to me. I was introduced to Bates's work a few years later as a college student who I walked into a bookshop, saw a copy of the Penguin "Love for Lydia" and bought it on a whim, largely because the young woman on the cover looked very like my then girlfriend. I was immediately taken with the story, and over the years the novel has become one of my favourites. I therefore decided to watch the serial when it was recently repeated on the "Talking Pictures" TV channel.

I must admit that I did not enjoy it as much as the book. The main reason is that it is seriously overlong. Thirteen hour-long episodes is far too many for a reasonably short novel. (For the same reason I have never been a great fan of Granada's interminable adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's "Brideshead Revisited", even though I am well aware that some people will acclaim it as one of he greatest television serials ever made). Neither the rather bland Christopher Blake as Edward nor Mel Martin as Lydia make much impression. (Coincidentally, the girlfriend I referred to was also called Mel). At 28 and 30 they were also perhaps rather too old for their roles; Edward and Lydia are supposed to be in their late teens or early twenties, and their youth and inexperience are an important factor in the story.

There are better performances from a pre-stardom Jeremy Irons as Alex, from the future Doctor Who Peter Davison as Tom and from Sherrie Hewson as Tom's rather plain sister Nancy, who is besotted with Edward but despairs of ever being able to win him away from the bewitching Lydia. Among the supporting cast I also liked Michael Aldridge as Lydia's awful old Uncle Rollo and David Ryall as Edward's bullying, patronising editor Bretherton, who has a bigger role here than he played in the novel. Nevertheless, this serial will never eclipse the original book in my affections. 6/10.

It feels like the budget was there, the intention was there, and in the first 3 or so episodes it all comes together as a 10/10. But for me the series feels cast with this first part in mind, for which the leads are very well suited and brought out by script and director to give energy, belief, believability and interest.

The trouble is that the leads/script/direction trend downwards from there. Most importantly, for me Christopher Blake simply doesn't have near enough range to do justice to the role, and the script/direction don't help him out. Yet his depiction in episodes 1-3 feels excellent.

Mel Martin is better and I get a nagging feeling she could have done more if she was asked to play episodes 1-3 to a narrower range so that she could better show character development.

Similar issues come up with other actors, where portrayals in different episodes don't seem to come from the same heart. For me, especially with. Ralph Arliss.

The best acting? Jeremy Irons top. Michael Aldridge in a character part. David Ryall. Sherrie Hewson. And the them tune, which wonderfully sets tone.

Just had a brief look at other reviews and wonder whether the background isn't clear to all. For instance "write from a rather poor and humble family" is wrong. The family is clearly middle class. Very poor compared with he Aspens yes, but it is essential to understand that there are very clear differences in wealth and background between the male leads. Perhaps not so easy to spot depending on age and where you are from, but essential.

Overall, enjoyable but disappointing to miss the initial promise.

Have always loved period dramas, film and television and of all different periods/settings, from a very early age. This is a love that keeps increasing getting older, now at an age where what wasn't noticed or appreciated by me when younger is very much now, and the more, old and new and whether adapted from a book or not, watched. A love that is highly unlikely to ever go and my appreciation for them is actually even more.

'Love for Lydia' is not quite one of the classics to me, but it is still a great series that deserves wider recognition. It is great that those who have seen it remember it very fondly, it is not hard at all to see why. It's sumptuous, very entertaining and very charming, and its look at love in youth and the pain it can cause is hardly superficial or empty. Quite the opposite. One may on occasions feel the slow pace, where parts are a little too deliberate and aimless early on. 'Love for Lydia' though has held up very well where the numerous good things are so good that any pace reservations can be overlookable.

It looks great, with the period lovingly and handsomely recreated complemented beautifully by the photography. The music, with a gorgeous main theme that sticks in the mind forever, never intrudes in mood or placement and doesn't over-emphasise what the characters are feeling.

The writing is layered and thought-provoking, not feeling too talk-heavy or wordy, flowing with ease and smoothly too. The direction is relaxed but not too relaxed, the intimacy is brought out effectively but it doesn't get static. The story entertains, charms and moves, the bigger scenes are not too overblown and the smaller scenes are very sympathetically written and played.

A great cast also helps. Mel Martin (in some of her best work), as a character that one can see where the attraction is but also has flaws that frustrate like immaturity and selfishness, and Christopher Blake are appealing in the lead roles. The supporting cast is full of talent, with standouts as two of the most interesting characters being a larger than life Michael Aldridge, in a role he was born to play, and a pre-'Brideshead Revisited' Jeremy Irons already showing incredible promise again in a tailor made role.

Summing up, great series. 9/10

This excellent series was brought to American TV audiences on PBS' "Masterpiece Theatre" in 1979, two years after it first was aired in Great Britain. I saw it then, bought the book by H.E. Bates, and later purchased the DVD set. This is a superb adaptation of a subtle literary work on British pastoral life, the many segments of the series giving adequate time to fully bring out the nuance of the book. It has encouraged me to visit England many times to savor the beauty of the countryside and small town charm. I think the author would have been very pleased to see how well his book had been adapted for television, and sadly he died just a few years before the project was completed.

Mel Martin and Christopher Blake give touching performances, and it is sad to see that Christopher Blake has died in 2004 while only in his mid-50's. You get to see Jeremy Irons do some fine work long before he earned his Oscar. Peter Davison is also excellent, before he became famous in "All Creatures Great and Small" and "Dr. Who." The distinguished older actors and actresses in this production remind us of the enormous pool of talent that can be found in Great Britain, where noted stage stars frequently appear in television dramas. I highly recommend this DVD set.