MovieChat Forums > The Pallisers Discussion > Great fun

Great fun

posted 9 years ago by HarryHart
13 replies | jump to latest

Much to my surprise I'm really enjoying this series from 1974 and am savouring the show 5 episodes at a time. But I must admit that I'm also getting great cheap laughs from the following:

1. For the life of me I don't understand what the attraction of Phineas Finn is, not good-looking and always miserable with a haunted look. He reminds me very much of "Mr Lucas" from "Are You Being Served".

2. I now quite like (he's always half in the bushes, making sarcastic comments) "Dolly Longstaffe", but the name is straight from "Carry On, Right Up Your Pally Alley" and is a perfect role for Kenneth Williams. (Until I looked it up somewhere I hadn't realised that Dolly was short for Adolphus.)

3. I loved how my subtitles got confused in the early episodes about whether John Grey's "muddy estates" were in Ely or Ealing. Clues were that "fens" were also mentioned and at that time Ealing was known as the "Queen of the Suburbs".

[–] Julie-30 9 years ago

I watched it the first time it aired in the US and my whole family was addicted. We watched it again when another PBS channel showed it a few years later. It got my Dad and me to read a lot of Trollope's novels. And that's a Good Thing.

http://currentscene.wordpress.com

[–] alfa-16 9 years ago

Just rewatched Alan Rickman in Barchester Chronicles with the wonderful Donald Pleasance and realised how much better Susan Hampshire was than I gave her credit for at the time.

[–] melj 9 years ago

I've been rewatching The Forsyte Saga, and she's surprisingly excellent: assured, vivid, dynamic, intelligent, and fully realised. I also remember TBC as one of her better performances, and I love her scenes in the final episode with Slope and then with Eleanor ("yay will stand for yay, and nay for nay"). She's also a perfect nemesis for Geraldine McEwan.

[–] melj 9 years ago

I like her in The Pallisers, but I can hardly bare her version of Vanity Fair (one of my favourite books) - although that's not really her fault.

[–] randommovies2002 9 years ago

If you spell it without an "e" it's Slop. 😁

[–] Squeeth2 9 years ago

"Puddingdale!"

Marlon, Claudia and Dimby the cats 1989-2005, 2007 and 2010.

[–] randommovies2002 9 years ago

Nigel Hawthorne really chews up the scenery, but that's one of the things that really makes that production, imo. Love it, and him in it.

[–] nephihaha 9 years ago

Dull as dishwater. A pal likes it but can't get into it... plus I resent the BBC showing this all the time and not making new drama out of the TV tax.

--
It's not "Sci-Fi", it's SF!

"Calvinism is a very liberal religious ethos." - Truekiwijoker

[–] HarryHart 9 years ago

I don't think it's a choice between this and new drama, it's more of a choice between repeats of this or repeats of Bargain Hunt and A place in the Country. We are talking about afternoon viewing not peak time stuff.

[–] nephihaha 9 years ago

Actually it is a choice between this and new drama. New drama keeps actors in work.

The BBC is horrific for this. Dad's Army is never off. At least the Pallisers has had less of an airing, and enough of a break to show again, but yes, if they're going to bully me into giving them money it should be spent on new culture.

[–] pell32 9 years ago

This is the first time I have seen the series and found myself strangely addicted to it I only caught it by accident it followed the daily politics,it's been great fun.

[–] HarryHart 9 years ago

Most recently I have been enjoying the nicknames - Dolly (of course, for Adolphus), Planty (or Planty-Pals, if it's Dolly talking/gossiping about him) and Sexty (for Sextus, by Lopez). Of course, Lopez must have been the original oil slick.
The subtitles are still fun, if not amusing as before, with "Lord George" being named as "Lloyd George" and Lady Eustace unfortunately being described as being no doubt sorely missed by her "two friends" rather than her "true friends".
Of course, Anthony Andrews has a face and smirk that I've always wanted to sock, but that contributes to the fun, and even his father gets confused over whether Silverbridge is his son, or the rotten borough he owns.
I must admit that I have grown to love Dolly, but I'm still not really quite sure about those beige suits, when everyone else is wearing black, and when he himself has a black top hat. His hair sidepieces seem to have grown, but not of course to the extent of Lord Fawn. (What on earth was that creation, where sideburns and beard meet in some hideous hairy hedge? And he wondered why he had problems meeting suitable gels, he should have waited around until the present, where there's no doubt a suitable website for him.)
Unfortunately, I've been on holiday for the last two episodes, but can't wait to see them when I get back home at the weekend. (Please don't tell me about Lady Glencora.)

[–] HarryHart 9 years ago

Great fun, indeed. But "Doctor Thorne" (another Trollope) on ITV was just dreadful. I have just bought the DVD of "The Way We Live Now" and am looking forward to that, having a vague remembrance of the book. (Anything's better than Andrew Neill interrupting everyone on Daily Politics.)