| Cranford : Complete BBC Series [2007] | ![Cranford : Complete BBC Series [2007]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51fGlyaUo1L._SL160_.jpg)
 enlarge | Director: Simon Curtis
Actors: Judi Dench, Philip Glenister, Francesca Annis, Michael Gambon, Lesley Manville
Studio: 2 Entertain Video
Category: DVD
List Price: £19.99
Buy New: £9.98
You Save: £10.01 (50%)
New (10) from £9.19
Avg. Customer Rating:  31 reviews
Sales Rank: 51
Format: Colour, Dolby, Pal
Languages: English (Subtitles For The Hearing Impaired), English (Original Language)
Rating: Parental Guidance
Running Time: 275 minutes
Number Of Items: 2
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 5014503254322
ASIN: B000Z1TYT2
Theatrical Release Date: 2007
Release Date: February 11, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
a craving for Cranford June 30, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
All I can say is I want more... I went through this boxset in a flash, the storylines and the realness of the characters were wonderful. I hadn't heard much about this series but decided to purchase the dvds on a whim as I love period drama and couldn't have made a better choice. Being in my early twenties and seeing that the cover was solely graced by older women made me wonder whether or not I would be as interested. However can I just say that its the maturer women that make it so enjoyable. Judi Dench does a delightful performance especially! I recommend to all who love a bit of classic period depiction.
Characters you care about, in a happy, sad, funny story. June 16, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Was a bit of a fool in missing this series when on TV....It is so heartwarming and just plain good. excellent writing, wonderful acting and for a change no sex drugs or rock and roll.... just a pantomime cow?!
Whatever you do ... if your renting this series don't do what I did and presume that the second dvd was just a special features disk. there's 3 episodes on the first and 2 on the second. Believe me you'll want to watch them all back to back without having to harass the postman every morning until the second one arrives. A lovely lovely series. BTW... there's a 2 episode christmas special been commisioned by the BBC according to their website :-)
Apponyi June 7, 2008
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
I liked the series, however, there is a slight anachronism, something the set designer should have prevented. In the last scene, on the second disc, Judy Dench and the others eat orages on plates. The plates are by Herend, its famous pattern Apponyi, rasberry. However the pattern dates only from the 1870, whereas the movie was set in the 1840.Herend, and that particular patter, became very famous in England indeed, though much later
Heartwarming? Yes. But clever, too, with outstanding performances and a fine screenplay May 27, 2008
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
The opportunity to watch so many of Britain's great female actors working together in parts that allow them to demonstrate just how good they are is one of the two immensely satisfying aspects of Cranford, the five-part, nearly 300-minute BBC drama. The other is the story itself -- a kind of Austen-like tale of good manners, gossip, punctilious courtesies and extraordinarily detailed production values. Cranford may be a genteel and gentle soap opera, but it glows with warmth, humor and the occasional dramatic crisis.
Cranford is a small English village, tidy and well kept. The time is the early 1840's. The village hasn't changed much over the years. The established ladies of the village plan to keep it that way. For the next 12 months of Cranford we'll see a new, young doctor come to town, the affects of a train line being built closer and closer to the village, romance and marriages, typhoid, death and poverty. We'll see why some think the lower classes should not be taught to read or write, how it really hurts to have your leg amputated, how a woman of a certain age who is not married may well expect to live a lonely life. We'll also see friendships, misunderstandings, the love for a cow and the deep comfort of accepted ways. Keep in mind that the story isn't simply a bucolic tale of a world long gone. We're going to deal with class distinctions, poverty, condescension to women, and customs that can strangle affection. There are several story lines that develop and weave around each other.
At the heart of the story are the women of Cranford, for whom gossip is a way of life. Eileen Atkins plays the elderly Miss Deborah Jenkyns, a severe woman who is not without feelings and who is the acknowledged arbiter of what is proper. Her sister, Miss Mattie Jenkyns, played by Judi Dench, is a bit scatterbrained but a warm and empathetic person. And we have Miss Pole (Imelda Staunton), a lightening transmitter of juicy information; Mrs. Forrester (Julia MacKenzie), a widow who is a bit of a ditherer but good-hearted; and Miss Jamieson (Barbara Flynn), better off than the others which she is careful to display, and more conventional, but prepared to be brought around. There is Mary Smith (Lisa Dillon), who comes to live with the Jenkyns sisters to escape a busybody stepmother and who finds more than she thought she would. Thankfully, she has a good mind and a sense of humor. And there is Lady Ludlow (Francesca Annis), the grand, aging lady in the grand estate nearby who learns to acknowledge that others may be correct, while not seeming to apologize for her class standards. What of the men? They're around, but for the most part they exist simply to provide the framework for the women's stories. Such superior actors as Michael Gambon, Jim Carter and Martin Shaw play them.
When we leave Cranford five hours after we arrived, we've smiled a lot, teared up a few times, and have come to admire these women, their capacity for friendship and their desire to keep the future from arriving too soon. If you hear the term "heartwarming," don't be put off. This program is intelligently written and is acted with extraordinary and underplayed skill.
More Please! May 3, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Enjoyed every minute of this beautiful series. A well told story, brilliant actors, sumptuous style, truly wonderful!
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