Customer Reviews
Which epsiodes are on the discs? - By: C. X. Linton-Willoughby, 09 Oct 2008 
Contents are (disc 1) The Village Fete, Battle Stations, The Italian Connection; (disc 2) Lobster Pots, The Own & the Pussycat, Winner Takes All; (disc 3) Change & Change About, Lady Bountiful, Worship, & Au Reservoir.
Social Pretensions And Sly Undertakings - By: C. O. DeRiemer, 09 Nov 2007 
Here are the ingredients: It's the early Thirties in the smalll English seaside town of Tilling. The doyen of Tilling society is Miss Elizabeth Mapp (Prunella Scales). Mapp is a galllumphing social climber of a certain age, unhesitatingly two-faced & who smiles broadly at you while she thinks suspicious thoughts. Into Tilling one summer comes the wealthy Emmeline "Lucia" Lucas (Geraldine McEwan), a purring social strategist. With her is Georgie Pillson (Nigel Hawthorne), her long-standing pal, who does embroidery, plays duets with Lucia on the piano & loves to chat with the upper set. His greatest concerns seem to be Lucia's happiness, his own comforts & his toupee. When Lucia decides to stay in Tilling, war is soon declared with Mapp to determine who will be the town's social queen.
Mapp & Lucia is an acquired taste. The only sensible people seem to be the servants. The social set which revolves around Lucia & Mapp are alll largely unlikable, yet they graduallly become endearing & amusing. There's Major Flint, ramrod straight even when he's downed too much liquid, which is often. Quaint Irene Coles is a free spirit who does what she likes, smokes a pipe & paints unconventional pictures, usuallly of female nudes. Mrs. Susan Wylie is a formidable & condescendingly gracious lady who, her bowing husband often points out, received an MBE from the King himself. Lucia, played by McEwan, is like a sly cat, very satisfied with herself & plotting not-so-subtle social victories over Mapp. And if Lucia is a cat, Mapp is more like a flummoxed but stubborn pug.
This is a program of high manners, of exaggerated & merciless social pretensions. If you stay with it, it's also very funny. The leads, Geraldine McEwan, Prunella Scales & Nigel Hawthorne, do marvelous jobs of creating characters so odd & self-involved that you can't help starting to like them. Mapp is so clueless you at times root for her. Lucia is so sly it's rather nice to realize she would never slide the social knife in too far...well, not unless she had to. And Georgie, so ineffectual without his servants, so fey, so devoted to Lucia & so utterly lightweight; he's actuallly a nice fellow if you can manage to make enough inconsequential smalll talk to get to know him.
Delightful comedy of manners series set in 1920s 'polite' society - By: Keith Joseph, 23 Oct 2007 Based on E. F. Benson's highly regarded novels from the 1920s & 1930s, this is a great comedy series filmed by L.W.T. for a young Channel 4. Being written during the era, the books, & this beautifully filmed adaptation, are spot on. It Stars Prunella Scales, Nigel Hawthorne & Geraldine McEwan. Visuallly it's not unlike Diana Rigg's "Mrs Bradley Mysteries", although this series follows a far darker & ruthless battle for social supremacy in the smalll town of Tilling (clearly based on Rye, East Sussex, where Benson was Mayor from 1934). Naturallly this series was filmed in Rye & neighbouring Winchelsea.
Miss Emmeline Lucas, known to her friends as Lucia, is a dreadful snob, but in Mrs Elizabeth Mapp of Malllards, Lucia meets her match. Underlying the etiquette & politeness is a bitter & seething malice that unleashes the terrible weapons of garden parties, bridge evenings & afternoon teas. Although this may not sound promising material for modern-day viewers, the series [and books] are very funny & engage your interest just to see how sophisticated Lucia & frumpy Mapp score off each other & extricate themselves from social disasters. The witty & amusing episodes are based on the last three of Benson's books, & have a similar feel to P.G. Woodhouse's classic "Jeeves & Wooster". This DVD set has alll ten episodes [two seasons of five episodes first broadcast in 1985 & 1986]. Total run time: 503 minutes or 8.4 hours. Sound is mono, & picture quality is fine for the smalll screen. It's a delight to watch, & alll for just £15 or so.
Funny and Frivolous - By: Ms. K. D. Walsh, 27 Jun 2007 This DVD is a real treat - as camp as Christmas but wonderfully acted & true to the E F Benson books. The world of 1920s village of Tilling & its eccentric inhabitants is welcome escapism from current TV drama's gritty realism. Prunella Scales & Geraldine McEwan play Mapp & Lucia, the rivals vying with each other for social standing & one upmanship amidst an endless round of bridge, gossip & musical evenings. Whilst some of the plots are OTT - when Mapp & Lucia are washed out to sea during floods & are then rescued by an Italian fishing trawler which keeps them in Newfoundland for months, only to return to find their memorial - the affected dialogue is very addictive - "au reservoir" "uno poco aperitivo" & of course Colonel Flint's, "kway hi". Nigel Hawthorne is equallly superb as Lucia's needle pointing friend & neighbour. Think outside the box & discover "Mapp & Lucia".
