Based on the novel by Emile Zola, The Ladies’ Paradise is a rags-to-riches story about a young girl in the 1890s who arrives in the city and falls in love with the intoxicating and dangerous charms of the modern world. Made homeless by the death of her father, and with nothing to live on but her wits, Denise comes to work as a shop girl at the glittering store, just at the moment when society is waking up to the joys and temptations of shopping. But behind the dazzling facade of the store, she finds a world of intrigues, affairs and shopfloor power struggles.

Creator and writer Bill Gallagher says: “This project has been close to my heart for a long time and I’m thrilled to be making it with the BBC. The Ladies’ Paradise is set at exactly the same time as Lark Rise – but now we’re in the city, at a time of great change and upheaval, so the series is exciting and constantly dramatic. Like Lark Rise we will explore the lives of a colourful cast of characters struggling to survive and flourish in difficult and dangerous times.”

Ben Stephenson, Controller, BBC Drama Commissioning says: “A romantic, thrilling and sexy post-watershed relationship drama set in a bustling Northern department store where Bill Gallagher’s well-crafted characters will bring an addictive mix of scandal and gossip to BBC One.”

The series is made by BBC Drama Productions and created and written by Bill Gallagher for transmission on BBC One in 2013. It begins filming on location next summer.

How are you feeling about the end of this smashing series?

With tonight’s final episode is this the last we’ll see of Lark Rise?

Is there any hope of a reprieve for the show or a movie?

Where you satisfied with the ending?

This is a small, local event but we thought it might be appreciated by some LRC fans living nearby who have an interest in the author’s life story. Further details can be obtained from the FamilyLine office 01372 841125; email admin@familyline.org.uk or FamilyLine, PO Box 402, Leatherhead, Surrey, KT22 2GH. As the hall is small and we have only a limited number of places, please do not turn up on the day unless you have a ticket, we would hate to have to turn anyone away.

So I can now officially say that this will be the LAST series of Larkrise to Candleford, enjoy the last four episodesx

Lark Rise To Candleford, Bill Gallagher’s adaptation of Flora Thompson’s charming memoir of her Oxfordshire childhood, is the perfect winter warmer for the New Year on BBC One.

The drama sees the welcome return of favourite characters including Julia Sawalha as post mistress Dorcas Lane; Olivia Hallinan as Laura Timmins, her assistant in the Post Office; Claudie Blakley as Laura’s mother, Emma; Ben Aldridge as handsome journalist and Laura’s sweetheart Daniel Parish; John Dagleish as Alf Arless; and Ruby Bentall as Minnie. Victoria Hamilton is Ruby Pratt, back to help run the fashionable clothes stores in Candleford with her sister Pearl, played by Matilda Ziegler.

Joining the much-loved cast for the fourth series is Richard Harrington (Holby Blue, Collision), who plays Gabriel Cochrane, the handsome and once-wealthy owner of a large iron foundry. Here, Richard tells us about his character and writer and executive producer Bill Gallagher explains how Gabriel fits into the drama. “He is a very interesting character. He comes to Candleford down on his luck, having suffered a tragic loss in his life with the death of his wife, which culminated in him losing his family business,” says Richard.

“Prior to his wife’s death, he was offered a loan by the bank to expand. He didn’t really want the loan but went along with it because his business may have been under threat if he hadn’t. Then his adored wife became desperately ill, and instead of expanding the business, he did what his heart told him to do and made sure that the last months of her life were spent seeing and doing as much as she could.”

Gabriel, now homeless and penniless and grieving his wife, arrives in Candleford looking for a new start. Dorcas offers him a job as blacksmith and a room above the forge. It will tide him over until he regains his wealth and position. As well as restoring his fortunes, Gabriel is determined to bring down the banker who he blames for the loss of his home and business. He quickly wins the support of the people of Candleford as he mounts his campaign against the bank.

“What is striking about Gabriel is that he is a man who acts first and thinks later,” says Richard. “Everything he does is for a good cause. He has got a very big heart and he is very considerate of other people. I think that is what his great quality is and why people try and help him.”

Executive producer/writer Bill Gallagher explains how the new character came about: “Before I finished writing series three I had some clear ideas of what I wanted to do with the characters in series four, particularly Dorcas. This meant introducing a new character, a man who has lost everything – his wife, his home, his business. I wanted to create someone who had to start life again.

“Gabriel was my invention. We had portrayed a man of wealth and standing in Sir Timothy, and a self-made man in James Dowland, so I felt it might be interesting to look at a man who has lost his position and fortune. However, having created Gabriel we draw on things from the books to bring him to life and make him part of the community that Flora Thompson so vividly depicted.

“The difficulty in creating a love interest for Dorcas is that her situation as post mistress would be affected were she to marry. She would loseWeight Exercise her place and would have to leave the Post Office. I decided to turn this to our advantage, to make the drama about her dilemma, and to make this still more interesting by making this man an employee of hers. It created an interesting dynamic that could look at the issues of her situation and the times in which Dorcas lived.”

Richard says: “Theirs is a turbulent and charged relationship, and they have a respect for each other as they have both been desperately hurt by love as it transpires that his wife wasn’t all that she was made out to be. So they tread very carefully with each other but they gravitate towards each other.

So what is Gabriel’s perspective on the folk of Candleford and neighbouring hamlet Lark Rise, and what is in store for him?

“He is a great mediator between the two worlds,” says Richard. “He sees past class and doesn’t really belong to either, so treats everyone with the same respect. He says what he thinks and he doesn’t do that for effect, he just does it because he is a unique man.

With an average of more than 6.8 million viewers for series three, what was it like for Richard joining the cast and crew of such a popular drama?

“They were wonderful and I couldn’t have wished for a better welcome,” he says. “The crew and the cast are astounding and they give you all the infrastructure and tools to do your job, and if I can’t do my job after the welcome I had then there is something wrong with me! It was a great pleasure to come into work and tackle these enormously big scenes.”

Talking about his co-star Julia Sawalha, Richard continues: “I think our dynamic as actors together worked really well and I felt safe in her company and respected her completely. She doesn’t miss a beat and she is so intuitive and bright so you have to up your game a bit.”

Filming took just over three months around Bath and Bristol. “It is stunning there and even though I belong to the Candleford clan there is something magical about the Lark Rise set,” recalls Richard. “I particularly loved filming my first episode because it sets me up as a character. It is always very exciting when you play a new character because you don’t really know what you are going to do until you open your mouth. You can prepare to a certain extent but until you actually get on to the set with the costumes and stand there with the characters it doesn’t really come alive. I think I quickly got into it and that is due to the fact that I was with an esteemed cast and crew who were willing you to do well.”

Note: Phew! There’s Laura…

This Autumn ITV 1 are showing

Downton Abbey
Sunday 26 September
9:00pm – 10:30pm
ITV1

itvpresscentre tweeted

Confirmed: @ITV1‘s brand new seven-part period costume drama Downton Abbey starts Sunday 26 September at 9pm..

And in the Radio Times

Maggie Smith and Hugh Bonneville lead an all-star cast in this drama written by Julian Fellowes about the lives of the Crawley family and the servants who work for them in an Edwardian country house. In 1912. RMS Titanic has gone down, taking with it Lord Grantham’s heir, James Crawley, and his son, Patrick. So who is the new heir? Britain is apparently placid but teetering on the brink of the First World War, and also looming is the Jazz Age when every certainty will be ripped to shreds.

Free up your Sunday evenings!!

Elizabeth Gaskell authored six novels, two novellas, numerous articles, short stories, and an acclaimed biography of her friend Charlotte Brontë.

Her most famous novel Cranford famously depicts life in Knutsford, Cheshire where she grew up, and was adapted into two BBC drama series.

The exhibition features highlights from the Library’s world renowned collections including unpublished personal correspondence – on display to the public for the first time.

Other items, generously loaned by Gaskell’s descendants and a Gaskell archivist include her passport, prayer book, a teapot and other personal memorabilia.

Sarah Prince, great great great granddaughter of Gaskell, will officially open the exhibition and there will also be contributions from actor Lesley Manville, who appeared in BBC adaptations of North and South and Cranford.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a full programme of public events – including:

• Community singing led by the Grace Darling Singers and Manchester Balladeers Mark Dowding and Chris Harvey Pollington.
• Talks on the fashions of the time by The History Wardrobe.
• A series of public lectures by leading Gaskell scholars including Jenny Uglow and Pamela Corpron-Parker, curator tours of the exhibition and family fun days.

Public Programmes Manager Jacqui Fortnum said: “This exhibition, which marks the bicentenary of her birth, draws on the Library’s world-class Gaskell collections to explore her place in these diverse communities.

“It looks at how her social networks influenced her fiction and the worlds she depicted in her books.

“It also considers the worldwide community of readers past and present who have found enjoyment in Gaskell’s work.”

NOTES FOR EDITORS
Elizabeth Gaskell: A Connected Life will run from 14 July to 28 November 2010 at The Christie Gallery – The John Rylands Library.

The launch will take place from 6 to 8pm  on Wednesday, 14 July.

The John Rylands University Library is open to the public free of charge. Opening times: Mon 12.00-5.00, Tues-Sat 10.00-5.00, Sun 12.00-5.00.

The  exhibition celebrates Gaskell’s bi-centennial, and draws upon the Library’s extensive and unique collections of Gaskell material in addition to personal items which have been generously loaned by Rosemary Dabbs, Sarah Prince, Heather Sharps and the Brotherton Library, The University of Leeds

Heather Sharps is the widow of John Geoffrey Sharps, the Gaskell scholar whose collections are now part of the Library’s archive.

The BBC has ordered a fourth season of its period drama Lark Rise to Candleford which stars Julia Sawalha, Olivia Hallinan and Linda Bassett. The news that a fourth season of the drama, based on the series of books by Flora Thompson, was confirmed on BBC One’s rural magazine programme Countryfile last night.

Fourth series of Lark Rise has been commissioned according to posting at: www.johnowensmith.co.uk/flora/

It says: Fourth Series — six episodes commissioned to be filmed May/June 2010 for transmission in 2011 [source Bill Gallagher]

Does anyone know any more?