Lark Rise to Candleford TV series (Olivia Hallinan)

(Amazon UK link)

We were given the full box set of ‘Lark Rise to Candleford’ for Christmas 2018. It wasn’t something I had put on my wishlist, and I thought at first that it was an error. My father, however, told me that he had very much liked the series when it was broadcast, and thought I would too. I thanked him, and put it in our to-be-watched drawer, and there it sat until April last year when we decided to start watching.

I’m not sure either of us expected very much, but the BBC is good at period dramas, and we thought we might at least watch two or three episodes, to see what it was about. We did not expect to get drawn into the story, so much so that we watched at least one episode per week, sometimes two, until we finally reached the end last night. I feel like I’ve said goodbye to friends, as we took the DVD out.

The series is loosely based on a book of the same name by Flora Thompson, charting her life in a village in Oxfordshire towards the end of the 19th century. Flora’s character is that of a young girl called Laura in the series, expertly played by Olivia Hallinan. She is the oldest of five children living in a cottage in the fictional village of Lark Rise.

Her parents, Robert (Brendan Coyle) and Emma (Claudie Blakly) are an excellent couple, with some disagreements, some heartfelt discussions, and a lot of love. They have agreed that it’s time for Laura to go out to work. But as she’s bright - she learned to read at a young age, and writes in a journal every day - they are sending her to work for Emma’s cousin Dorcas Lane (Julia Sawalha) in the nearby town of Candleford. Dorcas is the postmistress, and her other employee is Thomas (Mark Heap) who is hard-working and full of religious fervour.

There are other characters who come into all of most of the four seasons: in Candleford we get to know the sisters Ruby and Pearl, who run a dressmaking establishment, and the vicar’s daughter Margaret who is rather keen on Thomas. In Lark Rise, Emma and Robert’s neighbours are the elderly Queenie and Twister. Their other neighbours are the Arliss family: Caroline (Dawn French) is feckless, lacks self-control and drinks too much… her husband is away at sea most of the time, and the care of the family falls on her eldest son Alf (John Dagleish), who is Laura’s best friend and not too keen on her going up in the world by working at Candleford Post Office.

The stories weave around these main folk, introducing others, many of whom appear in just one or two episodes, although others come to stay: Millie the maid (Ruby Bentall), the boy Sydney (Edward Darnell-Hayes), Daniel the journalist (Ben Aldridge) and Gabriel (Richard Harrington) all become significant characters by the end.

As a piece of social history, it is superb. We watched some of the ‘extras’ which are distributed amongst the DVDs, mainly in the second series, and were astonished at the amount of detail that went into the constructing of the sets, and (for instance) making Lark Rise look like December for the Christmas episode that was filmed in August. The costumes, the interactions, the local customs and the hard work of farming felt authentic, and were shown without any pity - indeed, the advent of the railway and mechanical farming tools are not welcomed, despite their potentially easing some of the burden of farming by hand.

But the series is essentially about the people. Unlike many period dramas, there are no upper class folk living in luxury; there’s a squire and his wife who feature in the earlier series, but the squire, at least, is friendly - perhaps too friendly with one individual - and understands some of the needs and stresses of the ordinary working folk. There’s some tension between the business-people of Candleford and the farming community of Lark Rise, some of whom struggle to put food on the table and are often behind with their rent. But the Lark Rise folk are proud; they want to work (other than Twister, perhaps) and are reluctant to accept any kind of help or charity.

Since I haven't read the book, I have no idea how close the people in the TV series are to Flora Thompson's originals. Fans of the book might find it difficult to watch, since I understand that the story-lines are mostly very different. But it doesn't claim to be a true adaptation of the book, it's a series based on it.

It’s difficult, in retrospect, to say just why we both loved this series so much - all I can say is, if you have any interest in period drama, or character-based stories with realistic people and some humour as well as some quite poignant scenes (including one very depressing episode) then I would highly recommend this series.

Review copyright 2023 Sue's DVD Reviews