She happily engages in a demolishment that is thrilling to see. Mortimer also knows that the novel is essentially about two young women in search of freedom and liberation, a timeless theme, and not one to be constrained by the clichés of BBC period drama. Three episodes of the miniseries were adapted and directed by actor Emily Mortimer (she also appears, playing The Bolter) and her keen eye for material that gives actors something to relish, is obvious. Mitford’s original novel had an acid sarcasm which is hard to translate to the screen but it is certainly here in abundance. The soundtrack is modern pop music and real footage of the English upper-class rituals in the 1920s is inserted with an eye on emphasizing the drollery. The tone throughout is fiendishly clever, a shade shy of satire, and the framing of the story abounds in contemporary flourishes. There are crazy escapades, pranks and much waggery, plus sexual adventures. But Linda is more interested in devilishly handsome Tony Kroesig (Freddie Fox), an airhead who is somehow studying at Oxford. (Dominic West is having the time of his life here.) The off-kilter stuffiness is undercut when neighbour Lord Merlin (Andrew Scott, the “hot priest” on Fleabag) comes calling, like Oscar Wilde on a tear, and insists Linda and Fanny get themselves educated in art. ![]() He even chases his own children while on horseback, thinks the idea of Linda going to school is outrageous and shouts and glares with gusto. Uncle Matthew is obsessed with hunting, shooting and complaining about Germans. Well, the setting and atmosphere are presented as slightly bonkers in this BBC production. Linda’s ideal is to escape from her family and, “Go to the cinema, have sex and be adored by a man.” In the big house of her uncle, Fanny’s truest friend is her cousin Linda Radlett (Lily James), who has no education and lives only to imagine hot romance with dreamy men. In the 1920s or thereabouts, Fanny Logan (Emily Beecham), a quiet teenager, is sent to live in the mansion and vast estate of her uncle Matthew Radlett (Dominic West) because her mother, known as “The Bolter” has deserted her in order to pursue romance with unsuitable men from whom she inevitably bolts. The 21 best TV series to stream so far in 2021 Writing in The Independent, critic Ed Cumming called it a, “post -Bridgerton period bonkbuster.” Oh, the English and their coy phrases. In the way that Netflix’s Bridgerton knocked the genre sideways, this jewel slices and dices it and what emerges is delicious.īased on the novel by Nancy Mitford about the intertwined lives of two young women with different approaches to life and romance, it could have been presented as a stately but charming lament for the period between the two World Wars, when England was leaving behind the Downton Abbey world and unsure of where it was going. ![]() That genre is the British period-piece drama, which was in need of a good kick. ![]() It is compulsive and devastatingly funny viewing, with a strong dash of empathy and it also upends a genre. The Pursuit of Love (streams on Amazon Prime Video from Friday) delighted me. I want to find fun, be moved and impressed by innovation and enchanted by wit and sagacity. It takes a lot to really impress this writer.
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