Rebecca Eaton is the Exec. Producer of both. If you try to look them up on the web, they are described as separate entities, but on my PBS station, they have merged under the MT title, with Mystery as just one of the offerings, so you never know if you'll get MT or Mystery on a Sunday night-I do receive the member's mag, but I never remember to look. It used to be MT on Sunday, Mystery on Thursday, Brit Coms on Saturday. I wish they hadn't merged them, as Sunday night is a difficult night for me to sit down in front of the telly, but Thursday was a given-Mystery from 9-10-leave Mom alone.

And I thought it was just our PBS station changing management! That clears that up!
I too wish they hadn't combined them, I really looked forward to my two separate nights.
I understand from an old friend living in England that they just got a new series of Foyle's War-I love that show! Michael Kitchen is so good and such and understated actor - the rest of the cast is good too!

Pat

I thought the previous Foyle's War was supposed to be the last! I'm really up for another.

We have got a new series of Foyle's War in Australia. I am glad to notice that Lavender Weeks is speaking more clearly now. I used to tape it so that I could raise the sound level to hear her! Perhaps there were complaints about her mumbling! We don't get these British programmes as Masterpiece Theatre on local TV which is why an advert featuring an actor sitting in a grand chair promoting Subway rolls looks strange! I only recognise it from seeing something about Noel Coward who I believe used to introduce that show.

My mistake, the actress in Foyle's War is "Honeysuckle" not "Lavender" Weeks. The last episode, dated 2006, was on tonight. I hope that they make some more of the series. As I was a child at that time, it explains a lot of things that I took for granted. Sleeping in a shelter in our back garden while planes rained bombs on us was a normal way of life, I thought! I am surprised though that some scenes take place on Hastings Beach. I believed that the beaches were guarded with barbed wire and mined.

Here in the USA Alistair Cooke introduced MT for many years. When he retired someone else took on the intros, but these days it just starts with no lead ins.

Pat

According to the website, there have only been two hosts-Alistair Cooke from the inception of MT until 1992, and Russell Baker since then.

Perhaps I had the wrong programme in mind. Did the presenter sit in a rather throne-like armchair? If not, I definitely am thinking of something else! (Oh dear, is that a split infinitive?)

It is my firm belief that most infinitives benefit from an occasional split-like stocks. hehehe!

There was a time that Alistair Cooke sat in a big armchair and chatted with the camera-I think Noel Coward was 72 when the series started, and he would have been a controversial host at the time, due to his "non-conformist" life style. (That should keep me out of Disney.)

ccrdmrbks: Thanks for your comment on split infinitives, a little juggling of grammar and deliberate misuse of words I sometimes employ to make a point! I've just read your posting to the new member and fully endorse your comments. I did question her motives in her first posting but put it down to an exuberant personality, which is why I replied. I think she might be happier with a different forum. We are, after all "Readers" and don't want our brains picked free of charge!

true.

cece, I'll second annpann's comments above.
Do you use the expression "Blowing your own trumpet" in the US? A habit very much frowned on over here!

I'll be surprised if said poster reappears after the keelhauling she was given. If she does, she's made of finer stuff than suspected. We'll see, I suppose.

I did not care for the tone of the poster's commentary. Cece, if I may say so, I think your response to her was excellent. I doubt she'll be back.

thanks all! I'm glad the tone was as I intended. Hard to tell with your own writing sometimes. But I did wonder...maybe she just doesn't know. So I tried to be nice. Honest, but nice.

cece,

I did wonder if she was just being over the top happy at finding us and wanting to share her excitement at being a published author, but the further down the post I read, the more I agreed with you.

check out her website.

CC, I notice that Doreen has replied with an explanation of her offer to help. I was not offended at that so much as the bragging tone of her postings although she describes herself as "shy"!! Are you going to reply to her?
Do you think that it might be an idea for some of the longtime Posters to write a few of the unwritten rules? This might clarify the situation as to what this forum expects from it's members. I "lurked" for some months before posting and then only after privately contacting carolyn. I had not joined a forum before and did not want to transgress!

My instinct is to leave her well alone - as I posted. I, too, think Cece's reply was brilliant in tone and content and no more needs to be said by any of us. I think, if she really wants to be here, she'll join in a few things - like the ongoing 'Game' and another thread or two, to show her earnest of good intent.

Dido.

I've given her the benefit of doubt. You can see my response in her thread. I may be proven wrong, but I think she should be given a chance.

Btw, this talking "behind her back" leaves me feeling very uncomfortable. I wish there was no need for it, but unfortunately I guess there is.

I'm not going to go any farther with this on either thread.

I wash my hands of the whole thing!

Back to Masterpiece Theater, I watched the "Best of" last night and agreed wholeheartedly with the very top choices. I would not have included Wooster and Jeeves, the tenth choice; funny, but not in the top ten for me. I remember loving Poldark way back when.

Carolyn, did these all start life in the UK? I would be interested to know what the top ten were.

There was a series called the American Collection, but I'm not sure if they might have been a summer replacement set. For the most part, the programs are British.

The first choice last night was, of course, Upstairs, Downstairs. I can't remember the sequence, but others were The Jewel in the Crown, I, Claudius, Bleak House (the recent program), House of Cards, The Forsyte Saga, Wives and Daughters, Moll Flanders, Helen Mirren's Prime Suspect, Poldark, Robson Green's Reckless, and Bertie & Wooster. These were selected by nationwide respondents naming their favorite program.

Derek Jacobi was the host, and he did answer my original question by saying that Masterpiece Theater will play six months of the year and Mystery the other six months, although some of the programs are reruns; e.g., next up is Kidnapped which was on just last year.

Will someone kindly refresh my memory? Left out of the above list was a Scottish trilogy. Lewis Grassic Gibbon? Did we not discuss this here at RP? It was my favorite, next to Poldark. The characters were so raw, so vivid, so poignant.

I seem to recall a quote: "Life is an exercise in standing up to pain...."

I disagreed with The Forsyte Saga. The one they chose was the remake of the original. Now it - the original was a real masterpiece and people in the states watched it faithfully. The cast was outstanding. I couldn't watch the remake.

My oh my, I should never have clicked on the "Shop" button! I have many of the programs on creaky VHS, including The Jewel in the Crown, The Flame Trees of Thika, Poldark I, Love for Lydia, and five or six of the Prime Suspect episodes. I want to replace them with DVDs and order some new shows, so there I go merrily clicking "Buy." I was up to $700 before I decided I should scale back. Ach! I'd love to have the whole Masterpiece Theatre/Mystery catalogue.

Does anyone remember "Piece of Cake"? It's the one about the WWII Spitfire fighter pilots. It has lots of action but also lots of romance and humor and is just perfect for when I went to watch something with my DH.

Mary, I was trying to recall the Scottish trilogy so I went to IMDb and searched for Lewis Grassic Gibbon. There was a 1971 miniseries titled "Sunset Song" adapted from his work; but I'm not sure if that's the one you're talking about.

Minnie, I agree with you about the Forsyte Saga the older version, despite being in b and w and 'studio bound' was a much better production. The long story needed the many episodes to help develop the characters and slowly moving 'plot'.
Mary re. Lewis GG. You mentioned him some while ago here. As I had never heard of him I looked him up and found his work is not generally known in England. Maybe Sunset Song was made for Scottish TV.

For all you Jane Austen fans you probably know that Becoming Jane a film of a short period of her life comes out over here on the 7th March.
Austen purists will probably disagree with the storyline that she was in love with a young trainee lawyer Tom Lefoy
but the romance came to nothing.
It should be a very pretty film, most of the location shots had to be done in Ireland because Hampshire (JA's county) has become too modern and lacking in bucolic charm.
Ann Hathaway and James McAvoy play the leads and her sister Cassandra is played by Anna Maxwell-Martin who did so well in Bleak House and is now appearing in black leather as Sally Bowles on the London stage.
And Frieda if you didn't see Bleak House add it to your order, a few more $$$'s wont make much difference. It was the best drama series I have ever seen.

Here is a link that might be useful: Becoming Jane

Frieda, thanks! That's the one. In my view, it was exquisite.

Minnie, I completely agree about the original Forsyte Saga. Irene and Soames were so perfectly cast. I would never deign to watch any remake of that!

Re Forsyte Saga, Jacobi said the original was not a MPT show. I remember watching it and thought the Irene character was the most gorgeous woman walking around--Nyree Dawn Porter? I agree it was much better than the newer one.

Frieda, I remember Piece of Cake, but I liked UXB better. I also really like the WWI program set in Hastings, but I think it is a Mystery presentation. Ummm, $700? That's worse than buying books!

Maybe you noticed that my total added up to 12 shows rather than 10. I'm not sure how that happened. I thought they said the top 10, but they really showed excerpts from all the ones I mentioned. Helen Mirren was one of the guests, and she really looked pretty--neither Jane Tennison messy nor Queen Elizabeth proper.

One of the actors on the original F.S., however (and it might well have been Eric Porter himself) said, famously:

'The three worst actresses in the world are Nyree, Dawn and Porter.'

Turned on MT last night after a day of college basketball watching and lo and behold...the "Best of" show. Don't know why we saw it a week later, but there it was.
I had no idea that Brideshead Revisited was not MT, but thought Jeremy Irons "dropping in" to thank people anyway was pretty cute.
I completely missed Wives and Daughters, and as I didn't have a spare $175 sitting around, need to go see if the Library has a copy to borrow. Or I suppose I could just read the book........;-)

they do! I'm in a long queue, but they have it! In DVD, yet.

I am one who didn't care for Bleak House nor Gillian Anderson.

Just read in the local paper that a BBC series of Mrs Gaskell's Cranford is going into production soon.
Judi Dench will play Miss Matty and the outdoor shots are to be filmed at the very pretty Wiltshire village of Laycock.
An interesting place to visit as the 'Fox-Talbot' museum of early photography is at the Abbey.

Here is a link that might be useful: Laycock Wiltshire

I am late coming to this very interesting thread. But I have to put in a fervent "amen" to the first Forsyte Saga. I am sure it was on Masterpiece Theatre. I watched it when I was a newlywed and my husband was in Viet Nam--it was one of the few things that could distract me from what was going on in my life.

I was so engrossed that I started to read the books soon after the show began on TV. Then my problem became trying not to read ahead of the TV version so no surprises would be spoiled.

When PBS began the new series a few years ago, I thought it was awful. It's the only time I've contacted them about anything in all these many years. When I asked why they didn't show the original version, they just sniffed, "Poor production values."