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Last night I watched three hours of soap
opera on my local public television station. Not everyone will agree
with my description of all three as soaps, and the quality among the
three most certainly varies. First up was
Last Tango in Halifax, with
a magnificent cast of fine actors. The episode last evening was
eventful, to say the least, and ended with a
Perils of Pauline
cliffhanger, which I will not spoil. I adore watching the performances
of t
he actors, especially Derek Jacobi's
Alan and Anne Reid's Celia. I admire more and more with each episode
Nicola Walker's performance as Gillian, Alan's daughter. Sarah
Lancashire as Celia's daughter, Caroline, the Ice Queen, is very good,
too. The entire cast is superior, and none of the actors strike a false
note, so I continue to delight in watching the performances, even as I
sometimes roll my eyes at the twists and turns in the plot.
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Then on to the new
Poldark series, with Aidan Turner as the
smoldering, shirtless Poldark, which I admit has improved over the first
episode, which was quite disappointing. Poldark smolders less since he
married his kitchen maid, Demelza, played by the lovely, flame-haired
Eleanor Tomlinson, but he must be shirtless when he democratically
shares in the mine digging with his workers. At least one mine owner
does what a mine owner's got to do in hard times, and Poldark is not
above hard physical work when it's warranted.
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The last soap opera series
, The Crimson Field, which becomes soapier with each episode,
tries my patience, but I will probably continue watching just to see how
the story turns out. There will be no second season for the series.