Mapp & Lucia

This was a minor disappointment. The cast really doesn't hold a candle to the original. The costumes of the first were much better although in this version they looked more like 1930's clothing.

I'm a bit late in the day, having only just seen part of the 2014 series on the Freeview Drama channel. I'm afraid this was inferior to the 1980s version...but that had the advantage of 10 episodes. Three episodes means compression - and that usually means distortion. Sorry to say, this 2014 version completely missed the books' flavour which was so well caught in the earlier series.

I was puzzled by some changes: for example, on the page and in the earlier version Irene Coles is an impoverished artist who, for part of the time, lives in a shack; in the three-parter she is as expensively dressed as the object of her (made explicit) affection. The books are not hard to find, so do please read them: you will find them a constant source of pleasure.

Good script, fast paced. Altogether entertaining. Colour palette seems rather dark and sombre compared to the insouciant sweet lightness of the C4 original. Anna Chancellor: a bit too butch for the part, too threatening, a bit sour, missed a fragility and joyfulness that McEwan got. Actress portraying Irene (Gemma Whelan) was much better and more credible than the original actress. Miranda Richardson very good, copied some mannerisms of Prunella Scales interpretation I thought. Pemberton also very good, copied Hawthorne's mannerisms in places. Chemistry between Pemberton and Chancellor was not right or credible somehow. Frances Barber - hammy over the top but delightful. All other actors and actresses worked really well. The final shot of Pilsen and Irene apparently bonded surprised me.

There is a mean streak throughout episode one like a fly buzzing around my head. The light, humor-sprinkled delightful dialog is missing from this version. We have two very talented actresses playing down the humor. Were they directed in this fashion?

The original Mapp & Lucia (1985) was brilliantly performed by all quality actors who understood the material. Character Quaint Irene was a poor lesbian artist wearing manly attire. The new Irene isn't anything. Major Bengi was a humorous drunk but not weirdly creepy as the new one.

I was so let down, almost as much as the remake of All Creatures Great and Small which I stopped watching after the second episode because it did not have the spirit of the relationships from the book that the original version embraced.

With such comedic talent assembled in one series, the outcome is decent but rather timid. I, too, found the 80s version wickedly funny - Geraldine McEwan in particular took huge risks with her "30s fag hag" role (and boy, did it pay off!) - and therefore this remake felt like it was lurching from almost a frame-by-frame copy-and-paste job to a desperately over-the-top retelling and embellishing. Previously, Miranda Richardson had been laugh-out-loud funny in almost every vehicle I had seen her in; yet here, she somehow never came into her own. Overall, the main impetus seemed to be one of the BBC trying to out-ITV ITV, so to speak. That said, the show makes for decent-enough viewing on a home-alone evening, and the gardens, interiors and costumes are luscious indeed.