Saturday, May 13, 2017

Masterpiece Theatre- Home Fires



Next week on Masterpiece Theatre...NOT Home Fires!  What?

If you live in America, you might enjoy Masterpiece Theatre on PBS as much as I do.  The most recent series shown was "Home Fires" about the Women's Institute in England during World War II.  Marvelous storyline and great acting as you would expect from a fine British cast.  Were you shocked recently when you were shown the previews for the following week and they showed us scenes about ...oh, I don't know, something about a film of Charles becoming King?  Say what? What happened to "Home Fires"?

I looked it up and it seems that those who were behind "Home Fires" were as shocked as we were when it was cancelled.  The writer, Julie Summers, has written about it and I have a link for you just here.  She calls this piece "Home Fires Extinguished".   There are worst things in life but honestly, the last episode really left us all hanging!    (Julie Summers wrote the book "Jambusters" about the Women's Institute and "Home Fires" was developed from this.  What does "Jambusters" mean?  I have a link to a piece in the Daily Mail where Julie Summers will tell you all about it! Read it here!)

There have been times lately that all that keeps me going is a soft, comfy chair and lovely English accents washing over me.  And yes, they very often send me off to sleep and I have to re-wind the episodes to catch up on what I have missed!  (Hey, you don't have to know ALL the great excitement of my life, do you?)

Tomorrow is Mother's Day in America, so I have a photo here of Richard's mother, Joan and his aunt, Doreen in England.  There, I have given you two mothers and I know that Joan was also in the Women's Institute, they call it W.I. over there.

Happy Mother's Day to all my sweet friends and family who are mothers.  Keep the home fires burning!


33 comments:

  1. Mother's Day here in Australia, also, and a Happy Mother's Day to you. I love English TV programmes too, especially Grand Designs. English movies too, now I think about it. How dare they cut off your show mid-season!!

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    1. Grand Designs, I will have to remember the name of that one, we haven't had it yet in America! Sometimes, we will get a series years after it was shown in England and I will ask my in-laws and they will have to search their memories to tell me if they liked it! :-)

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  2. Sad to find out the series was cancelled. I really enjoyed the episodes I was able to view. I think being a mom is all about keeping those Home Fires burning for sure. Happy Mothers Day to you !

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    1. Yes! Notice the sneaky way I put Mother's Day and Home Fires together! HA! Hope you had a great Mother's Day too!

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  3. Very sad about this, and Dr. Blake's Mysteries, set in Australia, which we have been enjoying. Why do they cancel shows that are so popular? It's a shame....

    And Happy Mother's Day, Kay!

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    1. I liked Dr. Blake's Mysteries too! Loved the Aussie accents!

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  4. Happy Mother's Day! We're sad that there is only one season of Agatha Raisin, she was so much fun.

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  5. You give a nice example of how important mother sare.

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  6. I hate it when that happens to a beloved show! Leaves you hanging!

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    1. I think that sometimes they know they will get cancelled and give us a bit of an ending, but Home Fires left us with all kinds of loose ends!

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  7. I was devastated when Home Fires was cancelled!

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    1. I was almost as shocked as when the bomb exploded on DANGER UXB! (Man, I am showing my age here!)

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  8. It's a real shame that Home Fires was cancelled. It sounds like it would have informative and entertaining. Women might not have served in the front lines, but they did more than their fair share of work keeping the home fires burning, and it would have been nice to see them get some recognition.

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    1. You need to go and read that book "Jambusters"!

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  9. Watched a couple of episodes of that here but missed the Prince Charles one which did get good reviews in the papers. Liked the Dr Blake Mysteries. You might like Father Brown if it comes on over there about a crime solving priest in a small village in the Cotswolds.

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    1. Yes! I love Father Brown too!
      That Prince Charles series, not to my taste but maybe others will like it.

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  10. We have two public tv stations, Cleveland and Kent, Ohio and last night one had Home Fires and the other Charles III. I watched Home Fires.

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    1. You made the right choice! I watched a few minutes of the Charles movie and thought it was dreadful!

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  11. Lovely ladies! So sorry about your show.

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    1. Thanks, Lynn! I hope Joan will read this and tell her sister, Doreen!

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  12. It was Mother's Day here in Germany, too, but I was still on the road travelling back from Italy.
    Lovely pictures! Joan and Doreen look so alike; those elegant ladies were, I am sure, not much more dashing as young mothers as they are now!
    You, Richard and Christopher are such a beautiful family, inside and out.

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    1. Yes, those two sisters have always been striking!
      And thanks, for your kind words! That photo of us is quite old, as you can tell! :-)

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  13. Hope you had a lovely one too!

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  14. Oh, my, we need to compare notes. I love so many of the Masterpiece mysteries and Masterpiece...some a bit more than others, but I even have got till I enjoy Poirot. I used to could not stand the fake mustache...but once you get into the show, it is good.

    We watch a lot of stuff like that...do you?

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    1. I love anything by Agatha Christie, Miss Marple AND Poirot!
      I am pitiful really, I watch so many shows from England that I know more English actors than I do American ones!
      I must confess, most Americans were crazy about Downton Abbey, but that was not my cup of tea!!

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    2. I did love Downton Abbey, but I loved Foyle's War more, and others just as much. The one I could not stand to watch was the other one...can't for the life of me think of it...Selfridges! Everyone loved it but hubby and I could not get into it. I keep thinking I will try it again someday.

      I loved Endeavour, and did you watch Bletchley Circle? Oh, and did you watch Ballykissangel back when it was on? It is one of my all time favorites.

      And New Tricks...not masterpiece either, but I avoided it for two or three years, same as I did Foyle's War....the title did not appeal to me. And on both I accidentally started watching without realizing what I was watching and had to get Netflix dvd's to watch what I had missed. I need to sit and make a list of all I have watched.

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    3. I liked Downton Abbey until the young man died, you know the handsome one that had the baby and then died in the car wreck? Never watched it after that!
      I loved Foyle's War! Some of the episodes were filmed in Eastbourne! (That is where my in-laws live!)
      I couldn't watch Selfridges either, just didn't care for it.
      I also loved Endeavour! Bletchley Circle, I think that was the one where I thought the girls were a bit stuck up, so I didn't watch it! Ballykissangel? I don't think I saw that one.
      NEW TRICKS! I love that show! One of the big reasons, it shows a lot of London in the background...it has made me do research on a lot of things that I notice behind the characters as they are on the streets there!
      Also, my friend Nan, at Letters From A Hill Farm, is a big fan of all things British, you should look at her blog! :-)
      The Last Detective, George Gently, ...I have so many shows that I have enjoyed recently! (Richard got some DVDS from the library for me!) Murder City was another British show I liked!

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    4. I have not seen Murder City. Have you watched Wallander? Not sure if that is spelled right. There is one that is not English...I have only watched one or two of it, but have watched the others. You are the first person I have heard, other than Roger and I, that did not like Selfridges.

      Oh, did you watch Land Girls? And I love Inspector Lewis. I don't know if you have read enough in either blog to realize my husband had a brain bleed last August, he was in the hospital from Aug 2 to Aug 19 and then in acute rehab till Sept 9(?) Anyway, the last shows came on then and we had always watched them...and I did watch them when I came home at night, but just cried. They were like old friends...and that is really how I feel about New Tricks. I have not watched very many with so many of the original cast gone...

      Oh and have you watched Scott & Bailey?

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  15. Love Masterpiece and the BBC productions. I have watched so many of them. It really gripes me that they cancelled Home Fires without having a real finale.

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