I've long held the opinion that the decline in UK television began after 1998; up to that year, most programmes were excellent, and had little in the way of political correctness or Americanised attitudes and production values. BERKELEY SQUARE is a perfect example of what I mean. This is a show about women, and where the pervasive agenda today is to pound the "strong woman" trope into every crevice of every form of narrative media (ruining nearly every story with bludgeoning force), this is a story of real women...strong, weak, intelligent and foolish, capable and in need of help, recognisable as the people we see everyday...this is not feminist victim porn.
I love it dearly.
I love it dearly.
Set in 1903, it revolves around the lives of three nannies working in the high class Berkeley (pronounced "Barkley") Square of the west end of London, in Westminster. Firstly, there's Lydia Weston, played by Tabitha Wady, known to me best from the 2008 SENSE & SENSIBILITY, a solid, yet wide-eyed country girl, working for the first time away from the farm, then there's Matty Wickham, played luminously by EASTENDERS alum Claire Wilkie, a no-nonsense nanny with a strong will, but a gentle demeanour, and lastly, there's Hannah Randall, a genetic freak of a gorgeous woman, who has a secret that threatens her every waking moment.
There are a great many stories interwoven here; each woman has her own complicated web of intrigue (of sorts), and the threads of each character intermingle masterfully. It seems common these days in UK telly to try to do too much in a very short season (down from around 13 episodes per in the 70s, to the average 7 today). Witness the narrative mess of the latter seasons of DOWNTON ABBEY (which spends most of it's time "woe is me"-ing about the lot of Edwardian women), along with the politically correct abomination of the newest UPSTAIRS, DOWNSTAIRS continuation. Too many story lines for the writers to manage, crammed into a series that should be longer, to accommodate the action. Not so with BERKELEY SQUARE. The pacing is easy and precise, with lots of room to breathe; nothing seems rushed, and the resolution of each story fragment is satisfyingly well rested. Life and death, love and hostility, quiet storms of desire and desperation, amazingly handled.
The cast is excellent across the board, down to the short parts, which seem to have been cast as if they were major roles; there is no lesser presence on screen at any time (I'm particularly struck by the gravitas of Sian Radinger who, beyond having heavenly eyes, left me wanting more and more of her skilled acting). Jason O'Mara, Rupert Frazer, Rosemary Leach, Briony Glassco, Ruth Sheen, Hermione Norris (a shocking beauty), and Etela Pardo...all wonderful and possessing presences whenever on screen.
Like the wonderful 90's show THE HOUSE OF ELLIOTT (another stunning show about real, capable women), BERKELEY SQUARE was a fantastic surprise, which left me very much wanting more. All these great women that show that being strong doesn't mean snotty and hostile, and that a story can display the real lives of people, letting the viewer see for themselves how culture makes various people suffer (not just the women, either; in BERKELEY SQUARE, the men are all very much lost in the crushing grip of culture).
The only way to improve it would for there to have been more!
There are a great many stories interwoven here; each woman has her own complicated web of intrigue (of sorts), and the threads of each character intermingle masterfully. It seems common these days in UK telly to try to do too much in a very short season (down from around 13 episodes per in the 70s, to the average 7 today). Witness the narrative mess of the latter seasons of DOWNTON ABBEY (which spends most of it's time "woe is me"-ing about the lot of Edwardian women), along with the politically correct abomination of the newest UPSTAIRS, DOWNSTAIRS continuation. Too many story lines for the writers to manage, crammed into a series that should be longer, to accommodate the action. Not so with BERKELEY SQUARE. The pacing is easy and precise, with lots of room to breathe; nothing seems rushed, and the resolution of each story fragment is satisfyingly well rested. Life and death, love and hostility, quiet storms of desire and desperation, amazingly handled.
The cast is excellent across the board, down to the short parts, which seem to have been cast as if they were major roles; there is no lesser presence on screen at any time (I'm particularly struck by the gravitas of Sian Radinger who, beyond having heavenly eyes, left me wanting more and more of her skilled acting). Jason O'Mara, Rupert Frazer, Rosemary Leach, Briony Glassco, Ruth Sheen, Hermione Norris (a shocking beauty), and Etela Pardo...all wonderful and possessing presences whenever on screen.
Like the wonderful 90's show THE HOUSE OF ELLIOTT (another stunning show about real, capable women), BERKELEY SQUARE was a fantastic surprise, which left me very much wanting more. All these great women that show that being strong doesn't mean snotty and hostile, and that a story can display the real lives of people, letting the viewer see for themselves how culture makes various people suffer (not just the women, either; in BERKELEY SQUARE, the men are all very much lost in the crushing grip of culture).
The only way to improve it would for there to have been more!