Lark Rise to Candleford

2008

Seasons & Episodes

  • 4
  • 3
  • 2
  • 1
  • 0
8.2| TV-PG| en| More Info
Released: 13 January 2008 Ended
Producted By: BBC
Country: United Kingdom
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00gbbl0
Info

Set in the small hamlet of Lark Rise and the wealthier neighbouring market town, Candleford, the series chronicles the daily lives of farm-workers, craftsmen and gentry at the end of the 19th Century. Lark Rise to Candleford is a love letter to a vanished corner of rural England and a heart-warming drama series teeming with wit, wisdom and romance.

Genre

Drama

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Lark Rise to Candleford (2008) is now streaming with subscription on Britbox

Director

Production Companies

BBC

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Lark Rise to Candleford Audience Reviews

Perry Kate Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!
BlazeLime Strong and Moving!
PodBill Just what I expected
Gary The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.
sazulauf This show makes me happy! Apart from the great acting, lovely sceneries and endearing characters it's the perfect show to watch after a busy day at work. There is a simple wisdom in the words spoken and the development of the various story lines. I find myself smiling a lot while watching and the humor, above all the slapstick like scenes, make me laugh out loud. My favorite character is Minnie. As many times as she drops a brick, her honesty and unawareness of social conventions let her say what others may never dare. Of course her being accepted the way she is, in fact everyone lets the others be the way they are, is highly soothing. I see a lot of myself in Miss Lane. I must admit i have as many 'one weaknesses' as she does and that's fine. If you should decide to watch the show I hope you'll have the same feelings of happiness.
Moviegoer19 For the last couple of weeks I've been watching an episode or two a night, thanks to Amazon, of Lark Rise to Candleford. What an excellent, intriguing, and entertaining TV experience it is. What stands out about it: the acting. I've come to the conclusion that the actors were directed to "play it Big!" as often their acting borders on the caricature. At the same time, it works: the breathless whispers of Dorcas and Margaret; the clownish twittering of Ruby; the innocent ignorance of Minnie. I actually had to remind myself that the actor playing Twister was acting and was not really a self-centered old drunk. Which brings up another thing of interest: most of the main characters are archetypes: Dorcas - the moral, righteous pillar of the community; Robert - the philosopher/artist; Thomas - the religious zealot; Laura - the budding writer with her own opinions on everything; Queenie - the mystic mother figure to all, to name a few. And then, as other reviews have indicated, the sets and photography are gorgeous, often calling to my mind paintings of Breughel. And finally, the story lines including interactions between the characters are always interesting, and often frustrating and annoying. How many TV series can inspire so much thought and emotion? Not many that I know of... I'm still trying to figure out if Laura saying "Mar and Par" instead of "Ma and Pa" is intentional...
Phidippides "Lark Rise to Candleford" was an unexpected pleasure to watch for my wife and I over the past several months, and we are sad that we have no more episodes to enjoy. We came across the series after getting interested in "Downton Abbey", and I was pleased to find in "Larkrise" a period-piece show which was relatively free of intense drama (my wife likes "calm" shows).The series chronicles life in two neighboring English towns around the late-nineteenth century: the smaller, agrarian Larkrise, and the slightly larger and more commercial town of Candleford. While the series' initial focus is on the activities of Larkriser Laura, who moves to Candleford to work at the post office, it eventually becomes an ensemble cast show which brings us a touching view of many aspects of life during this time. We watch as romantic relationships grow and falter, as happiness is gained and destroyed, and as human nature reveals its better and worse sides. Issues such as poverty, neglect of family, and temptation with money are dealt with courageously, and modernist issues - such as sexual ones - are thankfully virtually absent from this show.In the end, the pleasure of watching this show is in seeing life in a simpler time and a simpler place. I almost hope they come out with a U.S. adaptation of this show, just so I could watch more episodes; however, this could very well be a let down since the British version is so good on its own.I gave 9/10 stars as the show is a joy to watch in its story development, characters, and the scenery is beautiful. I do admit, though, that Season 1 is rather slow moving for the first few episodes, and it may be a struggle to stay interested early on. Yet if you stay with the show, you will be rewarded with four seasons of touching drama.
johnwarthen Am a U.S.viewer, watching Series 1 on an all-region DVD player. I ordered this series as something my elderly mother might enjoy and have become engrossed myself. Sounding initially like a British variant on LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE, CANDLEFORD turns out to be a rich spectacle which discovers complexities in itself after pleasant but lightweight opening installments and by episode 4 becomes something altogether finer (I've seen only 1-7 so far). I think it not entirely accidental that this same fourth episode engineers a lengthy hiatus for LARK SPUR's most egregious blemish, the already oft-slammed Dawn French as the hamlet's debtor-reprobate. French isn't distractingly familiar in the U.S. but her lazy anachronistic performance, straight out of the classic "Coarse Acting" handbook, is an irritant just the same. Might as well note the other flaws that persist, noted in the more critical IMDb critiques: the usual over-explicit music; some wobbly continuity from one episode to the next (particularly notable in the lack of carryover after the milliner-sisters' traumatic reunion with their father); the disregard for the 18 mile separation of communities so forcefully laid-out in episode 1 and subsequently ignored; and, yes, the absence of squalor. Can't comment on the adaptation's disregard for the source-book since I haven't read it. But lordy, how much else excels! The writing, encompassing parlor-protocol and pub-chatter, has Dickensian swagger. If LARK SPUR's creators disembarked from the original text, they found their independent stride within a few traversals of their 20-or-so characters. Note how the Welsh postman, an evangelical stereotype and already tiresome within the first hour, in Episode 5 has a spiritual crisis, conveyed in a layman-sermon whose earnestness emits a skittering undertone of near-madness (wonderfully performed by Mark Heap). The porcelain lady-of-the-manor of Eps. 1-2 by 6-7 emerges as a tragic heroine. Twister, Lark Spur's aged comic layabout and scrounger, in Episode 6 has recall of a long-dead sister he imagines come back to haunt him in scenes as rapturously sad and true to senescent remorse as any great tragic work (Karl Johnson, an actor I've never noted before, is extraordinary). More than simply showcasing the series' mostly wonderful cast, the collective of directors grows increasingly muscular in their framing of scenes as LARK SPUR progresses: a complex moment in Ep. 7, in which the squire's wife watches her husband across the street and submits to the goading of shopwomen she dislikes, imagining the worst, is shot with an economic forcefulness that moots distinctions between TV and cinematic filming. Nothing "twee" about craft of that order-- nor about the series itself, once past its establishing episodes. Yet subtleties noted here are secondary to something LARK SPUR has in fixed place from the start: Julia Sawalha's post-mistress, and her rapport with lifetime friend and village squire Ben Miles, an attenuated near-romance that in abstract sounds an embarrassment-- two terrific actors who appear to realize they have found gorgeous grown-up roles in the unlikeliest of projects, and like the rest of the production's cast/crew, perform as if BBC's calculations about "Sunday night programing" wholly underestimated their work. I cannot push these Reg. 2 programs at friends, who haven't the equipment to play them, and so I can only enthuse here. This is beautiful serial television.