jimboucherat Doctor Thorne represents a new nadir in British televisual period drama, notwithstanding Fellowes' woeful track record. Resolutely "broad" pablum crudely targeting the lucrative historical nostalgia market in the U.S., this risibly perfunctory effort is wholly devoid of any artistic merit whatsoever. There is without doubt a rich seam of Trollope material tailor made for TV adaptation and earlier BBC efforts such as He Knew he was Right (2004) and The Way we Live Now (2001) were well scripted, articulate examples of such.Fellowes adopts his usual cynical lowest common denominator approach with this particular effort which consequently renders the source material prosaically banal beyond belief. A woeful excuse for a script that would be considered too unsubtle even for pantomime, tired, rote acting from many otherwise capable professionals and grotesquely gauche and shallow character definition, represent just the high points of this monstrosity. Vacuous posturing masquerading as authentic drama and failing miserably.

kessler10 The actors are wonderful, the writing is wonderful, the English countryside is very-green, Tom Hollander -- what a range of talent he has -- and, yes, Julian Fellowes, are wonderful, and new star Stefanie Martini is both very beautiful and very wonderful... You will enjoy this, everyone will, the direction and the overall production have a delicate, light, touch, even through some very dark scenes. I was taught long ago that Trollope was superficial, a 19th c. light-entertainment, but here Fellowes shows us the breadth and depth of understanding in the thought, sensitive critique, and great humor -- so now I'll take Trollope more seriously, also the Victorians with all their silly insecurities and dashing nobility. If you enjoy and value Jane Austen, you will enjoy and value Trollope, now, by discovering him here. So see this: online it is presented as a "Season 1" series of just 4 "episodes" -- 4 "acts", all viewed easily together in a single sitting.

l_rawjalaurence After a slow beginning, during which time the story unfolds in a series of shot/reverse shot sequences accompanied by Ilan Eshkeri's rather obtrusive music, Julian Fellowes's adaptation of a lesser known Trollope novel proves extremely entertaining.This is due in no small part to the eternal conflict between money, power, and love that underpins the plot. Pauper Mary Thorne (Stefanie Martini) loves rich Frank Gresham (Harry Richardson), but their path towards true romance is perpetually blocked by Frank's avaricious mother Lady Arabella (Rebecca Front). Add to the mix a drunken baronet (Ian McShane), and his even more loutish son Louis (Edward Franklin), with designs on Mary, not to mention a slob-like nouveau riche man Mr. Moffatt (Danny Kirrane), and we have the perfect recipe for a series of conflicts between characters of different generations and different socio-economic groups.At the story's heart stands the eponymous Doctor Thorne (Tom Hollander), a basically good-hearted person with a penchant for protecting those less able to defend themselves against unwonted social criticism. Director Niall MacCormick uses the close-up to good effect, showing Thorne's suppressed emotions in the most difficult situations, which only boil over once during a dinner party when Louis unleashes a volley of drunken insults at the entire company.Fellowes's script is not without its humorous elements, especially in the comic opportunities given to Lady Arabella and her equally avaricious sister-in-law the Countess de Courcy (Phoebe Nicholls). Like a pair of aging dowagers they stride through the Gresham family seat, knocking everything and everyone aside in their attempts to break up Mary and Frank's affair. However they get their comeuppance in the end, when Mary's true social status is revealed. The sight of Lady Arabella's henpecked husband Frank (Richard McCabe) laughing fit to burst is one of the adaptation's most memorable moments.Filmed in and around stately piles in Wiltshire, Somerset, and Hertfordshire, DOCTOR THORNE convincingly recreates a world of rigid socio-economic divisions where everyone was supposed to know their place and accept it. The fact that Doctor Thorne refuses to conform to his expected role gives this adaptation its dramatic impetus. It is only a short adaptation - 3 episodes of 48 minutes each - but it is extremely watchable.

robert-temple-1 What would British classic TV drama have done if there had been no Anthony Trollope (1815-1882)? The whole television viewing public of Britain was swept up in all 26 episodes of the epic series THE PALLISERS (1974), which I watched again not long ago and it is certainly one of the greatest achievements of British television drama history, magnificent in every way. In 1974 everybody was talking about it and everybody was watching it every week, for half a year. Since then we have seen the excellent Trollope series adaptations of THE WAY WE LIVE NOW (2001), HE KNEW HE WAS RIGHT (2004), and now DOCTOR THORNE. The only Trollope series since the 1970s which failed to make the grade was THE BARCHESTER CHRONICLES (1982), which was so boring as to be essentially unwatchable. (It had previously been made into two series in 1951 and 1959, though they do not appear to have survived, so one cannot compare them. An additional 90 minute single episode attempt of this was filmed in 1961, which also seems to be lost. Other Trollope series from the early days also seem to have been lost, which is a tragedy.) Trollope brings the Victorian era to life in a way which is so vivid, and also so highly censorious, that we appear to be living in that difficult time when we watch these dramas. DOCTOR THORNE is a savage attack on Victorian aristocratic hypocrisy, venality, snobbery, and inhumanity. We are left wondering: we know it was bad, but was it really that bad? And we fear that perhaps it was. This series is dominated by the commanding performance of Tom Hollander as the idealistic Doctor Thorne, a dedicated provincial doctor in the English countryside who has quietly adopted and raised a niece named Mary Thorne, who had been born out of wedlock in mysterious circumstances. Hollander has always been an excellent actor, but now that he is a bit older, he has achieved gravitas and is even better as he 'matures' than when he was a young whippersnapper. He can easily carry a series in a lead role, which is no mean accomplishment. He is rather short and that was a casting handicap when he was young, but he has now entered John Mills territory, where for a mature actor height no longer matters. The series is full of spectacular performances by the usual top calibre British cast. Rebecca Front, so well known from the series LEWIS (2006-2014, see my review), and also the recent series WAR & PEACE (2016), manages to make herself so odious as Lady Gresham that we want to hiss, and her unctuous arrogance is so perfectly judged that it never goes over the top, no matter how extremely far her bigotry and snobbery may extend. It takes a lot of skill to stop just short of being unbelievable in such a part. An unknown new actress named Stefanie Martini here makes a magnificent debut as Mary Thorne, and surely there is a big future in front of this actress, who previously had appeared only in a single episode of the series ENDEAVOUR in 2012 and nothing else. (IMDb contains no further information about her of any kind, so that one wonders whether she is a Trollope character come to life, who will now subside back into the novel and live the rest of her existence on the printed page.) Janine Duvitski gives a heart-warming and marvellous performance as Lady Scatcherd, the much-ignored little wife of the outrageously over the top roaring character, Sir Roger Scatcherd, played to the hilt by Ian McShane. Phoebe Nicholls is so cringe-making and creepy as the arch snob Countess de Courcy, that one wants not so much to hiss as to spit at her, all testament solely to the mastery of her craft, I do hope. A truly outstanding and absolutely hair-raising performance as Louis Scatherd is delivered by Edward Franklin, a sensational young actor making his debut on screen. IMDb contains no further information about him. He is totally convincing as a wildly drunken, bonkers young heir, and he is so scary one hopes it really is all pretend. (God forfend that one should meet him in a dark alley after he had had a few drinks. Did I say a few? In the series he never stops from morn till night.) There is plenty of poisonous sarcasm and social satire in this series, mixed with high emotion, and all forming a 'jolly good yarn'. Will good triumph over evil? Well, one thing is for sure, this mini-series has triumphed. Niall MacCormick was the director of all three episodes of this series, and has a great deal to be proud of. The well-known Julian Fellowes of DOWNTON ABBEY fame wrote the scripts, thus adding yet more feathers to his heavily-laden cap. Everyone can be proud of this series, and everyone should see it.