Yes, everything Tim Curry appears in just gets better - and this was plenty good to begin with.
My wife and I saw that the cow was doomed and both flinched as the train bore down on it. Look out!!!
Would a steam locomotive actually explode like that?
Did the drunken thieving brother die in the train explosion, or did he escape after grabbing the coinpurse?
He died.
It was lovely when Harry gave whatsherface a new heifer at the end.
Watching part 5 tonight (of the original) and then it’s on to the DVR’d special!
I’m not sure if the train would explode in a fireball like that, but if the engine fires were still going and the steam not escaping anywhere it would certainly explode dangerously.
I don’t think we saw the corpse, but drunken thieving brother (dtb) was close to the center of the blast. Peggy said he didn’t survive. (Of course, if this was a longer soap opera, dtb would have escaped and gone on to reform his wicked ways and eventually return as Peter did.)
I know Peggy said that; I thought she might’ve just been covering for the unworthy bastard, as she did earlier. She might be relieved just to have him gone, even though he robbed and betrayed her, and saying he was dead (burned beyond recognition, perhaps?) would mean the police would stop trying to find him, wherever he ended up.
I thought these last 2 eps were among the most disjointed things I have seen on TV in some time. Got the impression that they had too many storylines they wanted to keep track of in too little time. Usually MT shows have a FAR more leisurely pace.
I just remembered, Captain Brown said all the passengers were accounted for when the HatMaker and the Priest were looking for Harry, so I’m guessing drunken thieving brother is among the dead.
I’m so disappointed in myself; I completely forgot to watch the second part this past Sunday, and I didn’t record it.
Sad. : (
I ordered my copy from BBC America last week; it arrived yesterday and I stayed up past my usual bedtime to watch it all the way through in one sitting.
I was cautious during the first half–the absence of Mary bothered me, and I didn’t take to the new characters introduced (although young Lord Septimus was pretty much what I imagined he’d be). Also, two deaths right on top of each other seemed excessive even by Victorian standards.*
Things, however, picked up toward the end of the first half. I love the old-fashioned steam trains; I got to ride in two of them last fall, in Yorkshire and in Wales, so it was nice to see what, for me, was a nostalgic and relaxing ride through the countryside, represented here as an exhilerating experience–at the terrifying speed of 30 miles an hour!
When the first Cranford aired, I was disappointed that two of my favorite episodes from the book–the Scottish Lady and the magician–were missing. So I was very happy to see them both here, especially as played by Celia Imrie and Tim Curry.
*The death that really upset me was Bessie’s.