Howards End....

[eighthobstruction]

....I haven't read this novel recently....but surely it is not a black farce....the speed of the Schiegel sisters + brothers delivery is like an Abbot and Costello skit on Amphetamines....some really bizarre stuff going on [surely]....really thought someone would come running through a door at any moment with their trousers around their knees a la Brian Rix Whitehall farces....one wonders if the dirty hands of Stephen Poliakoff are on this production (no, but please excuse my attempt to get this bete noire git fingered)....Oh well next week they may bring CGI versions of Stanley Hollaway and Joyce Carey into the production....This drama and its short comings made me angry....ANGRY Glusburn, North Yorkshire

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Yes - I greatly enjoyed last week's first episode, but last night increasingly wanted to slap Tibby: and the "33rpm played at 45" dialogue: pleeease, just shut up!! And Joe Bannister is just too wet here - what on earth is a woman as dignified as Jacky doing giving him the time of day?

OTOH, Matthew McFadyen is very good - completely different from Anthony Hopkins in the Merchant Ivory film, but as convincing and moving if not more so.

[LMcD]

Too much talk. Too much (unnecessary, irritating) music. (Sadly, the latter comment also applies to Blue Planet 2).

[jean]

...what on earth is a woman as dignified as Jacky doing giving him the time of day?

And why is she of mixed race?

(It's a long time since I've read the book)

[Richard Tarleton]

Yes this all talking at once bit is just too much. I hope the chap playing Tibby is a great actor and that he's not really like that.

I have to say I gave up on the novel, 50 years ago, not very far into it (I tried it on the heels of A Passage to India) as I found all the characters dislikeable or uninteresting - I didn't care what happened to any of them. Nowadays, thanks to Merchant Ivory, it's no longer necessary actually to read EM Forster. Though each film has its duff note (Alec Guinness blacked up in APTI, Daniel Day-Lewis's appalling hamming in ARWAV)....I did see the M. Ivory Howard's End, and thought the star turns rather swamped it - at least this is a fine ensemble piece. But - I just don't find most of the dialogue remotely believeable.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

And why is she of mixed race?

(It's a long time since I've read the book)

It never said she wasn't.

[jean]

That's what I thought.

But as Forster is examinig so minutely the subtleties of class, he would surely have been explicit about it if he'd wanted to consider issues of race as well?

And then, for her to be as dignified as she is here flies in the face of the character as she appears in the book; but to portray her otherwise would offend modern sensitivities around race.

[Serial_Apologist]

That's what I thought.

But as Forster is examinig so minutely the subtleties of class, he would surely have been explicit about it if he'd wanted to consider issues of race as well?

And then, for her to be as dignified as she is here flies in the face of the character as she appears in the book; but to portray her otherwise would offend modern sensitivities around race.

Harold Pinter would have done a much better job of conveying the mannerisms in Howard's End, I reckon.

[Once Was 4]

And why is she of mixed race?

(It's a long time since I've read the book)

And I am told (I did not see it) that an orchestra was shown with a horn player playing a modern double horn. They did not use these in Britain at that time!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I hope the chap playing Tibby is a great actor and that he's not really like that.

He was much more impressive as the young Alan Turing in The Imitation Game (better role).

I enjoyed both my readings of the novel (before and after the film came out; so some years ago now) - the dialogue was less rushed, and less silly in content in my head. I also much enjoyed Zadie Smith's On Beauty - a clever "updating" of the themes of Forster's novel, which you might find more believable (and enjoyable), Richard.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Harold Pinter would have done a much better job of conveying the mannerisms in Howard's End, I reckon.

Brilliant idea, S_A!

[Nick Armstrong]

Yes - I greatly enjoyed last week's first episode, but last night increasingly wanted to slap Tibby: and the "33rpm played at 45" dialogue: pleeease, just shut up!! And Joe Bannister is just too wet here - what on earth is a woman as dignified as Jacky doing giving him the time of day?

I'm very impressed with this version of the story, and am enjoying it hugely. Yes the odd casting oddity (Miles Jupp? ) but by and large I find the dynamics between the main characters believable and engrossing.

Including all the chattering among the Schlegels - I've known families just like that, and have had to suppress the urge to punch the more precocious among them and/or run screaming from the building to escape the jabber of people talking over one another... it rings terribly true in this adaptation. And after all, Margaret does say at one point that it seems to her that they are all "chattering away at the edge of a great abyss" - not a phrase from the book, but one which underpins the direction style for their scenes together I think.

OTOH, Matthew McFadyen is very good - completely different from Anthony Hopkins in the Merchant Ivory film, but as convincing and moving if not more so.

Couldn't agree more... not an actor I've ever liked, but yes, he's ideal in this part and indeed does almost efface memories of Hopkins, mesmerising though that performance was.

Too much talk. Too much (unnecessary, irritating) music. (Sadly, the latter comment also applies to Blue Planet 2).

How interesting - thinking back, I can't remember any intrusive music, and was never irritated by it during the first two episodes. And I'm liable to find TV musak very annoying - I'm completely with you about Blue Planet 2 (and 1 for that matter): that carpet of trite sentimental mood music (perhaps underlay is a better word than carpet, given its level of interest) makes it completely unwatchable, unfortunately.

[gurnemanz]

I agree with Caliban's points above, having enjoyed the acting and the photography and not really noticed the music. I didn't know Philippa Coulthard and have been very impressed. I like the sparky interplay with her sister, Hayley Atwell, whose qualities we were aware of, having seen her twice on the stage in Shaw's Major Barbara and Miller's View from the Bridge.

Re Blue Planet: I agree about the music and am slightly irritated by the incessant soundtrack noises which they have deemed it necessary to add.

[eighthobstruction]

....ref music....may have meant the spirited loud playing of piano while shrill double talk conversations between siblings....drove me to despair datspair too....

[JimD]

I agree with Caliban's points above, having enjoyed the acting and the photography and not really noticed the music.

I agree also. I had a slight impression that the complaints about the music were tendentiously 'got up' by some in Telegraph-land, a minor front in their ongoing war of attrition against the BBC. Don't ask for hard evidence in support of that statement!