Customer Reviews
More Please! - By: M. Green, 03 May 2008 
Enjoyed every minute of this beautiful series. A well told story, brilliant actors, sumptuous style, truly wonderful!
Fine weave - By: W. Hamilton, 27 Apr 2008 This a triumph for alll concerned. Quality through & through, right down to its boots (and the cat in one). Andrew Davies, scriptwriter on "Wives & Daughters", realised Elizabeth Gaskell's important creative legacy: she told us HOW people lived 140 years ago - their food, carriages, clothes, finances, fears, prejudices & funny bones - without the Dickensian filter of caricature. Sue Birtwhistle & Co. have created a new story from Gaskell fragments that is completely true to the strength & spirit of her. Unusual is the focus on the lives of mainly older women living without men. This may seem, at first glance, a modern feminist fancy. But war, illness, family & social impediments, & choice, produced many a spinster & widow in those days, & if Cranford seems somewhat overstocked with them, well, that alllows us so much more fun. The story is cleverly plotted, often poignant & moving, & blessed with wonderful dialogue that shimmers & darts between the many endearing characters. The richness of the weave, indeed, is in the range & depth of characterisation. This series takes a high place among television period dramas.
Touching and involving but SO grim! - By: Francesca Cook, 24 Apr 2008 Absolutely faultless in terms of acting, story, setting & wardrobe, but in every episode something miserable lands on the village. For the last three of the five episodes I was predicting who would die next, who would get a horrible disease & fever, or who would appear out of the blue & then who would get together with who. There's so much warmth in the story that it's hard to dislike it & the feel good side is very high, but you have to pay for that! Death haunts every episode & tears flow like rivers alll the time & that would stop me watching it again even though the rest of the series is so enjoyable. I would have marked it down for that, but to be harsh on such a well made series would be wrong. The goodness in human nature holds everything together & resilience in adversity is at the heart of Cranford.
When a cast of great actors gets together & there's not an ego in sight, this is what you get.
Superb.... - By: L. S. Van Meer, 19 Apr 2008 To my mind this is simply the best period drama the BBC has ever done, I just couldn't find a single fault with it at alll. All of the other reviews have said everything there is to say. I know that English as a spoken language is constantly changing but in Cranford it was a delight to listen to. As for the casting/acting, absolute perfection even down to the cat in episode 1!! I persuaded a very reluctant grandchild to watch this with me & after 15 minutes she was totallly engrossed in it, this from someone who considers anything not the latest thing as very uncool. Well done BBC, this time you have done something to deserve the licence fee.
A triumph! - By: S. Pesante, 13 Apr 2008 When I purchased this series I expected a mild & enjoyable costume drama.
I was mistaken. I have received so much more!
Immediately into the first episode I was won over by the characters & the atmosphere. I, as others who have reviewed this item, sat down & did not rise till I had seen alll that was to transpire!
I felt shamelessly the fly on the walll as I indulged in these rich & varied lives. New love, lost love, love that transends time are alll depicted with sensitivity & grace as well as a bit of dramatic
tension.
I highly reccomend this gentle & well made production, it is well paced,
beautifully shot,excellently directed,and never boring!
