If you are as fond of period dramas as we are you are always amazed at how other people don’t seem to love them as much as we do. We are are always lending our favourites to friends, family and coworkers and eagerly waiting for their opinion on the series. Unfortunately we are yet to see anyone return our copies with a huge smile and saying I want more. We could think it a case of not choosing our vehicles well but really can anything be more appropriate to convert new viewers than Mr Thornton or Mr Darcy?? We think not and those are usually the most lended DVDs of our collection.
We are curious to know how you got converted? Did a friend lend you a nice historical movie or TV series? Did you catch some good looking gentleman with a funny cravat on TV? Was it a natural evolution from reading historical novels? And do you try to convert your friends? Do tell us how you became a fan of the genre and how you found us!
All those who participate in this discussion will be entered for a giveaway of the fabulous BBC North & South with Richard Armitage & Daniella Denby-Ashe.
The contest closes the 15 October at midnight Western Europe Time and the result will be announced the next day – 16 October.
This giveaway is open Worldwide.
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Although i enjoy historical dramas i always need to be convinced to watch one, that was the case with North and South, which was very strongly shoved on my hands by my friend T.
I have to say my enthusiasm did help convince the rest of the girls to watch the darn thing :P
I love historic novels and I think it was really just an evolution from reading them. I have to confess that Mr.Darcy is a pretty good selling point and I ended up buying “Pride and Prejudice” mainly to see him again. He couldn’t be more perfect! *sigh*
I try to convince friends to read some of them, more than to watch the series. No matter how good a series is, I find the book in which it’s based to be always better. So I try to start by there – with not much success, I might add. I think Jane Austen, for example, must be read in english and sadly I’m still a bit the weird one in the bunch who keeps reading in a foreign language. Oh well, it’s their loss.
I haven’t seen North and South, but I have read so many amazing reviews (even from people that normally don’t like historic fiction) that I am very curious.
And I found you through Ana O.’s blog, which I read everyday :)
Happy Anniversary, girls!
I already own the North and South DVD, but I just wanted to comment anyway. I got sucked into watching this stuff when one of my aunts lent another aunt the VHS set of Pride and Prejudice (the Colin Firth one). My aunt and my mom watched it twice and made me watch with them. And the rest is history.
A good thing T. insisted, Sandra!;-)
Mariana, P&P is still among my favorite period dramas. I thought nobody could compare to Mr. Darcy, until I meet Mr. Thornton (North & South). I’m sure you’ll love it!
Janicu, even if you already have a copy of North & South, you can always give this one to a friend or one of your aunts.;-) Aahhh, Colin… *sigh*
Although I’ve always been a complete nut about literature and drama, in general, the whole “period drama” craze didn’t hit until “Pride and Prejudice” with Colin Firth came out. A good friend of mine forked out major money, back in the day, to purchase the 6 VHS tapes and told me I HAD to watch them. I toted them home, popped one in, and then proceeded to not be able to stop watching until I’d devoured the entire series in one sitting. From that day on, I’ve been like a hungry soul who searches for her next inspiring piece! Thankfully, there have been a few, but “North and South” has rivaled just about any and all out there.
The only person that I’ve never been able to convert over to period dramas is my current roommate. She’s a real tomboy, with a penchant for James Bond and Sci-Fi. Sigh… I haven’t lost hope for her, but I think she might be impossible to push over to our side. As for everyone else, most everyone loves them, except for a few young ones or non-reader types. (In their cases, I just feel sorry for them!)
I have the impression I am one of the few people out there who is not a great Colin Firth fan… but I guess that’s ok. As I do love historical novels, I love to see the costumes and settings. I’m also quite partial to the many Shakespeare plays which have been filmed, as well as Shakespeare in Love which I thought was a brilliant romp.
A Room with a View springs to mind as a particular favorite, along with Tom Jones. Of course I am a great fan of both Albert Finney and Daniel Day Lewis… I have not seen this series but would of course be keen.
Fun to read all your comments. Thanks for doing this!
I’ve always been a fan of historical films. I think Last of the Mohicians really clinched it for me. I’ve never really been big into READING historical stuff though. I like movies because of the costumes and getting the whole visual effect of the time period.
I found you guys from reading Zeek’s blog and through her guest posts over here!
Hello,
I love historical novels and love historical dramas.
I saw pride and prejudice and the tudors, but not yet north and south… I’ve heard many good comments about it, expecially about the actors.
thanks Ana for letting us know about the contest :-)
Cheers
Anna
In my opinion North and South is, together with Pride and Prejudice,
one of the best tv historical drama ever realized.
I love Mister Thorton, he and Mr Darcy are so very romantic characters!
They made me feel so much, if I pause to think of them my heart starts racing
:-)
thanks Ana
kiss
Andreina
North and South was a very sweet surprise… (Thank you AnaO for putting this serie in my hands). I think is one of those that we can see it one thousand times and sigh everytime we see it…
No words can describe Mr Thorton and Mr Darcy’s roles. They are all a male caracter should be…
North and South an P&P are two very good historical drama series. Hot stuff.
:P
I have always enjoyed period dramas but my real addiction started when I saw North and South. I loved everything about this series. The story, characters. sets, costumes and the casting. Especially the gorgeous Mr. Armitage as John Thornton.
My Mr. Darcy is Matthew MacFayden not Colin Firth althought I do like him.
I think period dramas allow us to escape to what seems to us a simpler world. The supression of emotion by very strong men such as Mr, Thornton allows for such an anticipation. When their heart is finally given it is an explosion. And no one can do this like BBC.
Mr Thornton, Mr Darcy, Mr Rochester. No matter how modern we are ; it seems that these ipitomise all that we want a Romantic Hero to be.
Add to that the Television performances of Richard Armitage, Colin Firth and Toby Stephens and it’s THUD moments garunteed.
Mr Darcy/CF coming from the lake in wet breeches, Mr Thornton/RA standing regally on his platform in the mill before bellowing ‘STEPHENS’ and Mr Rochester thanking Jane for saving his life.
Moments when your heart goes flip to treasure forever.
I began watching “period dramas” on my local PBS station when I still had black and white TV. I think the first was the Forsyte Saga, with Kenneth More. I loved it. That hooked me. Upstairs, Downstairs, and the 1970/1980 productions of the Austen novels were events.
I now have some trouble remembering if my memories are of the dramas or of the books on which the dramas are based.
I know I would have had difficulty living in earlier times, because keeping my opinions to myself would have been very hard and I know that corsets and I just would not have gotten along at all.
But I love the clothes, the manners, the conversations, the scenery, the properness and the interior emotional struggles that the characters go through. Dialogue without cursing. Romance without too much skin. Such a relief from the normal programs.
I get lost in period dramas. An evening with John Thornton is delightful and spending a rainy after in the company of Mr. Darcy is perfect.
For me, it was the 1980 version of Pride and Prejudice with David Rintoul (of which I now have a copy, thanks to Alex). After that I couldn’t get enough of period drama and I recall watching Poldark, The Mallen Streak, Lily Langtry etc on Sunday nights on TV (and our family still only had black and white TV back then!!).
The wonderful thing is that I know there’s still so much that I haven’t seen (something highlighted by visiting here)!
I have to say though, that I think North and South (both the production and the book) remain my very favourite.
I’m happy to say that my teenaged neices are beginning to be happy to join me watching period dramas. They enjoy the Firth version of P&P and they hang in there through North and South – although they can’t see what I see in Richard Armitage (…ah, so sad they have no taste!!)! My goal is to get them well and truly hooked before they leave home!
I started watching period pieces after reading Pride & Prejudice in my mid-teens. Once you read an Austen book and see the movies, you’re hooked.
I’ve never seend this mini-series, but it has been highly recommended by ladies on one of me email lists. I look forward to seeing it some day.
I always found it funny that even as a child I thought I was English! So maybe it is in my DNA. I think it was a gradual evolution. I did start however with it having nothing to do with the genre. Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings in some odd way paved the way and brought me to where I am now. I am in love with the genre. Pride and Prejudice is what hooked me line and sinker. And then it just evolved from there. It was also a natural thing to get into movie/tv adaptations. The books are already breathtaking as they are but to be able to see it visually is such a treat as well.
I do try to convert some of my friends but I haven’t been all that successful. They just don’t understand its beauty unfortunately. Some liked Pride and Prejudice but beyond that it seemed too much.
I have to say after Pride and Prejudice, North and South is my favorite. I got to see it on a local channel here. I’m from the Philippines so watching any period drama on tv is quite a treat! Now however, they’ve stopped airing any. I miss it alot.
I found this through a link on a thread at the Armitage Army Forum. :)
-jo
I started watching Jane Austen because of watching some Colin Firth films. It lead me to Pride and Prejudice. I met a lady on a Colin Firth site. We became friends and she lead me to a Richard Armitage site. I have been overseas to visit her etc. We went to a meet up over there with about 14 other fans. I got this link on the Armitage Army site.
I’ve always loved period movies – history was my favourite subject in school and English History in particular.
But I got REALLY ramped up when I saw North and South. What convinced me to try it was reading all kinds of recommendations for it on the bulletin board at All About Romance. It FINALLY clicked in that this was NOT a remake of the American Civil War mini series. And the rest as they say, was history!
And *laughing* not need to enter me. I have a copy – which I have watched on more than one occasion.
A great topic. I adore period drama and am always trying to convert friends. Managed to get one of my friends to sit through the whole four hours of N&S and she loved it :D
I always loved period dramas and especially literature adaptions.
My first one was probably “Anne of Green Gables” (which is not quite fitting in here) and soon after “P&P” (95) and then it just went on.
And I also always loved to read, and read the classics, like Austen etc., so that may be related. ;)
I never thought about my choices in movies in genres, really, until lately – when I got obsessed. And now I want to have every Austen adaption and now that I finally came to know “North&South” and “Cranford” I’m pretty sure I also want to have all Gaskell adaptions there are.
So I try to expand my collection more and more. :)
Somehow I don’t really try to “convert” people. I like to share my movies and get other period films or series from friends, so I can also chat about them, but I don’t really try to “force” it on unwilling people, I never took the pain. ;) But if someone ever asks me about “a good movie” or something, I give them my period drama and literature DVDs.
And @MJMBECKY: Aside from my deep love for period drama and literature adaptions – I am also a very serious James Bond-fan and I’m crazy about SciFi (old scholl I should probably say today: Star Trek TNG and X-Files and such things…)
i was introduced to P&P by a friend in college. I read jane eyre in high school and loved it but never read anything else on my own until mandy made me do it! i remember the first night watching all of P&P at her place…i was never the same again. i love both reading and movies/miniseries…colin firth is a fave but i loved matthew macfayden too.
i recently heard about north and south (and this site!) on another group i’m in. when i learned richard armitage is in it, i decided i needed to see it. asap. now, i really only know richard armitage from robin hood commercials –yes, just the commercials–but i’ll still read the book first!
just think, manders, i wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you….
I love a good period film. But I also love the ones that aren’t even close to being historically accurate. In fact, one of my top films of all time is A KNIGHT’S TALE. And who doesn’t love the over-the-top camp of Heston & Company in THE TEN COMMANDMENTS or Taylor and Burton in CLEOPATRA? Then there’s also the films that were contemporaries when they were released but now that the years have passed, we can consider them period films (i.e. all those WWII films).
My oldest daughter, who is about to turn 22, turned her nose up at period films in her teens. She couldn’t figure out why anyone would want to sit through them! But now that she’s older, and thanks also to PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN, she now ADORES period films and can’t get enough of them. So it’s kind of become a bonding experience now that her and I share our excitement over upcoming films or films I recommend to her. And, though I seldom make it out to a theater, we like to sit and watch them together on TV.
I’ve heard the adulation poured over NORTH & SOUTH from all over Romancelandia (including from KristieJ who pointed me over here) and would LOVE to view it with my daughter. PLEASE enter me in the giveaway.
When I was a child I got into reading a lot of classics and discovered Jane Austen. When I was a teenager my mom and I rented P&P with Colin Firth and I loved it. Earlier in the year PBS aired all of the adaptations of Jane Austen’s works. I would count down the days, hour and minutes of when then next show would be on.
About six months ago I was looking up some P&P things on the internet and there was a site that recommended North & South. I found out that my library had the dvd so I checked it out. Since then I have been obsessed with everything North & South, I’ve actually seen it at least twenty times. I’ve never been so blown away by a character and actor as I was and still am by John Thorton/Richard Armitage. I’m always trying to lend it to others so that they can have a chance to watch it and fall in love with it and other period dramas. My sister hates all period dramas and I would love to send her a copy of North & South and see can be converted, the only problem is that she lives 400 miles away and I don’t know if I can go without it for a month or so.
I love Jane Austen and classic English literature so all the adaptations of my favourites are obviously period dramas ;).
No conversion really. I have a circle of friends who enjoy the same films but “normal” acquaintances don’t get the fascination, their loss.
Ciao,
Patty from Italy
It was a book that led me to period dramas, and than an unquenchable thirst for more period dramas that led me to your website.
One of the books I read in literature class in highschool was Pride and Prejudice. I loved it, read it straight through and than started it over again once I finished. After reading it the second time I thought it would make a great movie, but wasn’t really thinking there would be one. Boy was I ignorant! I came across the BBC version at my library and fell in love. After that I watched everything period-drama that I could get my hands on. I watched Masterpiece Theater hoping for more period dramas, and when I still couldn’t find enough to quench my thirst I found your website. I’ve been much more entertained ever since (although not fully quenched)!
I’m a recent convert to period dramas. Due to the writers strike in the US in Feb 2008, I watched the local public TV station which was broadcasting the Jane Austen series. I happen to turn it on the night of the first episodes of P&P.
Having never read the book, I found myself surprised at how charming and witty it was. I was also surprised when I realized it was on for two more nights and I could hardly wait for the following Sundays.
Like Lizzie, I had no interest in Mr Darcy (as he calls himself) as he was to arrogant and condescending for my taste. And for a 19th C girl saying she’d like to marry for love, I found Jennifer Ehle a grand actress. It wasn’t until Lizzie meets Darcy at Pemberley do I finally recognize how much I like Mr Darcy. And like someone else, I have no interest in Colin Firth, I like Darcy.
I soon checked the internet to find P&P was done in 1995 – 13 years ago! It had a timeless quality to it doesn’t it? And it was my search for all things P&P that led me to North & South.
Several people told me to watch Pride and Prejudice many years ago. I kept putting it on the back burner, until one day I saw it at the library. I decided to give it a try and fell in love with the genre. I will forever see Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy and Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth.
I now watch as many as I can find. I have to say I’m a little jealous that you are in Europe. It’s a little more difficult to find the BBC/period dramas here in the states.
I’m also excited about your site. I just found it this week. I’ve to do a lot reading to to catch up on your older posts. :)
I’ve watched costume dramas for as long as I can remember. I suppose I started out watching all the old films on a Sunday afternoon with my Mum and it just carried on from there. It has given me a love for Jane Austen and other writers of that era but I have to admit that this series is probably the best I’ve ever seen.
It was my mom who converted me… she raised me to love period drama and I’m incurable now. :-) I’m the same way, lending mine out and waiting to have discussions on what happened and … nothing. lol Oh well! It’s easy to find people on the net, at least.
I love this movie and would love to win!
Thanks for the giveaway!
Lindsey
I have always been drawn to period dramas, since as long as I can remember – and thinking back – the earliest of my favorites would have been Poldark my mother once recorded on their old betamax video recorder. thank goodness for the invention of DVD’s though, so that favorites can be watched over and over and forwarded or paused without damage and fear of ruining your most treasured film.
The drama that has most affected me though would be N&S. I borrowed my copy from a friend that assure me it was worth watching, and i almost said no thinking it was a version of the old American story…..I am so glad I chose to take it and watch it……trust me – giving her copy back was the hardest thing to do!
Period dramas have my heart first and foremost. Beautiful costumes, sweeping landscapes and romantic stories – what more can one look for?
So, it might seem odd that my heart has been captured for good by the bbc period drama North and South – the landscapes are not the sweeping majestic ones I am used to, nor are the costumes all that magnificent, but the call of romance just brings me back time after time to John Thornton and Margaret Hale working through their lives to finally connect with each other.
Perhaps that is why period dramas have me so totally hooked. I get to watch people doing their best to live their lives and work their way to their “life’s heart” or the other half of them. Through misunderstandings, war, strife, death and deliverance, love wins the day.
Loved loved N&S! For this one, A fellow blogger got me with it- Kristie J!- and I would love my own copy! (Rented it from the Library!)
But I’ve always loved period piece dramas and I love history.
What fueled the love though was most definitely Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth! (A gal I used to work with said it was her Mom’s favorite so, it made me curious!)
I have always loved history AND movies so the two mixing is my favorite type of entertainment. I LOVED watching old movies and actually Masterpiece Theater totally got me hooked. I LOVE Merchant Ivory films. And somehow I missed seeing North and South so I would love a chance to win this.
Thanks!
Hi, my fascination with period drama began when i was barely a teenager. I fell in Love with Colin Firths, Mr Darcy after watching P&P on television. Making sure i never missed an episode and always wishing they were longer. After that i never missed a period drama, i watched all of them. Hoping to get a great historical novel to read for my studies but never did. So i took up the task of starting to read them in my own time. Beginning of course with all that is Austen followed by Bronte. I always find myself watching the Turner classic movie channel. As for trying to convert friends, i do suggest they watch particular dramas. BUT i can not bare to part from my favourite dvds. North and south. Pride and Prejudice, never leave my house EVER! Many ask me why i love them so much. Well because i have a fascination with period costume, i love history and i am a romantic at heart.
I haven’t seen “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall” (Tara Fitzgerald & Toby Stephens) mentioned. It was written by Anne Bronte, Charlotte’s & Emily’s younger sister. It is, (imho) worth getting.