I love the BBC miniseries North and South (2004) with Richard Armitage and Daniela Denby-Ashe. (There. I’ve finally said it. For those who don’t already know, the screencap at the top of the blog is from North and South.) When I first put it in the dvd player, I thought, “It’s ten o’clock. I’ll just watch a little of it.” Famous last words. I wasn’t able to watch all four hours because I was too tired and I had work the next day, but I was highly annoyed that I couldn’t finish it immediately. The end of episode one hooked me completely. During that first week, I must have watched it completely four times. I hadn’t been as enthralled with a film since the 1995 Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. But rather than gush about it in one very long blog entry, I’m going to list ten things I love about it — loosely in reverse order of importance.
1. I love the casting of side characters. 
I appreciate the fact that Margaret Hale’s brother looks like her. And Mr. Thornton’s mother looks like him. More to follow.
Beverly Farr 
Famous last words!! Said by MANY!! LOL
[…] aware MANY have found themselves involuntary watching (links contain spoilers) all four episodes back to back till the wee hours or after watching N&S the first time, went straight to the beginning and rewatched it. Than […]
I recognized your banner the second I saw it and smiled! I also loved listening to the audio book of “North and South” (and “Persuasion”), read by Juliet Stevenson. Both are well worth the $15 for the Audible.com download IMHO.
I must now actually read your post above and stop just ogling the lovely pics!!! 😉
I haven’t bought North and South on audio yet, but I will. I like to get cds to listen to in the car.
I decided to take out a membership with Audible because it costs me only $15 a month and that’s what most of the audiobooks I’ve bought have cost me.
I’ve just downloaded “Pillars of the Earth” for $15! It’s 71 hours’ long so will require quite a few CDs if I wish to save it and I do! One day, I’ll get around to downloading something onto my pretend iPod – once I read the manual and set it up!
As I live in Canberra (our capital city, where Federal Parliament sits) and I’m not driving for any length of time, I haven’t listened to an audiobook in the car. Can you drive and listen? I think I might get too involved in a story to be safe on the road!
I listen to audiobooks at night because I’m a really bad sleeper. As I live alone, I don’t have to worry about bothering anyone else!
I love audio books, too. They make my daily commute better, and I get more housework done when I’m listening to something entertaining. Also from my work with children with learning delays, I know that developing auditory processing is key to improving the brain.
ah ha…I’m glad you said that about children with learning delays. My daughter is married to a US Marine and they live at Oceanside, CA. Bailey (aged 6) was diagnosed with Auditory Processing Disorder; he does seem to hear only half of what’s been said to him most of the time and dashes off to comply with what he thinks you want him to do. So sometimes we have to say things 2 or even 3 times for him to process every single word. His teachers seem to think he’s a great kid nonetheless and he’s just finished his Kindergarten year in a normal class.
I introduced my 4 little grandbabies (Melanie has 2 and my son, Matthew, has 2) to those books with CDs from an early age. Both of my kids loved them (the books were on cassette in those days) and now their children love them, too. Yesterday, Melanie’s little girl, Kaitlyn, turned 4 and, while I was saying “Happy birthday” to her on Skype, Bailey dashed in to show me that Mummy just bought “Brave” for them as a book and CD. He wants to see the movie when it comes out, of course, but he was also excited to be able to listen to and “read” it now!!
Are you in the UK? I’ve just noticed the time on my comment above
Nope. Texas. Just up too late. 🙂
Ah ha…another night owl! 🙂
It’s 10.31 pm Thursday in eastern Australia……..so to get to your time, I have to go back …13 hours
hehe…. make that 15 hours 🙂 I’m listening to Bruce Springsteen on YouTube and not able to concentrate properly – I just watched him wiggle across the stage in 1988 in “Dancing in the Dark” 😉 oooh, he had a lovely bum in those days!
Hey Beverly, Thanks for visiting my blog! Yours is V nice, too!