What is it? Mapp & Lucia, The Complete Collection, 10 hour-long episodes on four discs from Acorn Media
When? Tuesday
How much? $59.99
Who are Mapp and Lucia? Two middle-aged, upper-middle-class English women doing very polite battle in a small English town.
Emmeline “Lucia” Lucas (Geraldine McEwan) is a recent widow and grande dame of Riseholme who delights in spending her days playing piano duets with her best chum, Georgie Pillson (Nigel Hawthorne), and running any and every social event that should arise. Then she upsets the normal order of things to spend the summer in the seaside village of Tilling with Georgie tagging along.
She rents the home of Elizabeth Mapp (Prunella Scales), who currently rules the town (or tries to) through force of will. Lucia is artistic, faux-exotic and ethereal-seeming, though also more than a little pretentious, with a tendency to lapse into questionable Italian and bore her friends with long piano recitals. Meanwhile, Miss Mapp is stolidly old-fashioned and English, with the determination of a bulldog and a certain unscrupulousness when it comes to business. They’ve both mastered the art of the fake smile and the venom-laced nicety, and Lucia’s bubbly nature hides a will of cast iron. There can’t be two town leaders. Naturally this means war.
Tilling’s society is made up of an odd assortment of people. There’s “Quaint” Irene (Cecily Hobbs), a pipe-smoking, free-thinking artist who takes an instant liking to Lucia, and Diva Plaistow (Mary MacLeod), whose loyalties are floating. Susan Wyse (Marion Mathie) wears furs in summer and her Most Excellent Order of the British Empire medallion to all social occasions and travels everywhere in her Rolls Royce, with her obliging husband (Geoffrey Chater) in tow. Major Benjamin Flint (Denis Lill), who has a soft spot for Miss Mapp, reminisces about his years in India and peppers his speech with Hindustani, while the local vicar, or “Padre” (James Greene), speaks with a (fake) Scottish brogue.
Lucia and Georgie’s presence, and quick acceptance, are blows to Miss Mapp. Both women are ruthless, determined and formidable, each in her own way, but the cunning Lucia usually seems to get the upper hand in battlegrounds that include an art show, a garden party, a secret lobster recipe, local politics and the question of exactly who originated the local phrase “au reservoir.”
How is it? It’s really intended and best for people who already have a passion for English TV series, particularly comedies, and a certain familiarity with the foibles of the midupper-crust. For others, it would probably be incomprehensible and boring.
It does move rather slowly and takes a while to get going, so some patience is required while the jokes and stories build, but pretty soon, the viewer may find himself hooked. It’s quite funny in a mild, satiric, character-based sort of way with its odd people and quaint, scenic village.
Those looking for an eventual no-holds-barred cat fight of epic proportions will probably be disappointed. These are well-bred British ladies. They’re rarely anything but polite on the surface. The cattiness, phony smiles and insincere niceties are more on the subtle, simmering side, so the whole thing is like a cozy cup of tea - with a bit of a bite.
Are there extras? Text-only biographies and filmographies.
New this week: Californication, Season 6; Here’s Lucy, Complete Series; Little House on the Prairie, Season 1; Veep, Season 2.
Next week: Inspector George Gently, Season 6; NewsRadio, Seasons 1 and 2; Psych, Season 8; T.J. Hooker, Seasons 1 and 2.
Style, Pages 50 on 03/23/2014