TV Watch: M*A*S*H comes to the Western Front

[callmemadam]

Yesterday evening I watched The Crimson Field, full of hope that it would be a good WWI drama. Sadly, an hour of blood, butchery and bitchiness left me completely unmoved. I’ve already spotted Frank Burns and Hawkeye; will Matron turn out to be Hot Lips Houlihan?

In complete contrast and rather surprisingly, for the first time ever The Antiques Roadshow, presented from Thiepval, made me cry.

Comments

[land-girl.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you said so - I can avoid starting to watch and being disappointed!

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

But you might like it!

[land-girl.livejournal.com]

Your description confirmed my worst fears :-)

I'm awfully fussy about period dramas. I love faithful adaptations of Jane Austen et al and can't cope with the likes of Downton Abbey. I didn't warm to the trailer for this one and suspected it wouldn't be my cup of tea. Perhaps I should try it though ...

[trixiebacon.livejournal.com]

I heard a terrible review of this on R4, and the woman also made the MASH connection. Modern British telly, bah!

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Really? Great minds, as I haven't read or heard any reviews. It compared unfavourably with Ian Hislop and Nick Newman's The Wipers Times, which was both amusing and very touching. And as I said, the real life stories on the Roadshow brought tears to my eyes.

[gwendraith.livejournal.com]

I'm going to buck the trend, I liked Crimson Field and feel that the first episode was just setting the scene and that it will improve once the characters settle in and there will be some interesting themes and possible intrigue. It's hard to not draw comparisons with other shows but it might stand on it's own eventually.

I cried all the way through Antiques Road Show. I stayed at Martin Peglar's B&B (he was the expert who did the bit with the 14 year old lad with the medal collection) and he took me out for the day to see much of the Somme including the now beautiful meadow where my great uncle Alex had his battlefield grave before being reburied at Combles.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

There were some very moving moments on the Roadshow, I thought. Nice for you to see someone you 'know'. The boy's keenness was impressive, wasn't it? As for the story about the VC ...

I'll probably give up on TCF; just didn't work for me.