This is just a quick overall view of what is coming this year on PBS Masterpiece Theatre....
(Please check your local PBS stations to be sure the times match!)
JAN 9 – 30 Downton Abbey, DVD
(Four 90-minute episodes; TV-PG)
A stately country house, a noble family, and a succession crisis caused by the sinking of the Titanic are the backdrop for this epic drama by Oscar-winning writer Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park) about the lives of aristocrats and servants in the years before World War I. A runaway hit during its UK broadcast, Downton Abbey stars Hugh Bonneville, Dame Maggie Smith, Elizabeth McGovern, and other great actors in a production that brings a glittering bygone era to life.
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*THIS FILM IS NOT FAMILY FRIENDLY. Please see my MOVIE REVIEW page for More Details!
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FEB 6 – The Unseen Alistair Cooke (Encore Presentation)
(One 60-minute episode; TV-PG)
Told in his own voice, never-before-seen home movies, and interviews with family and close
friends, The Unseen Alistair Cooke offers a rare look into the life of longtime
MASTERPIECE THEATRE host, Alistair Cooke—one of the most celebrated broadcasters of
the 20th century.
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FEB 13 – 27 Any Human Heart, DVD
(Three 90-minute episodes; TV-14, S) (NOT for Young Viewers!)
William Boyd adapts his acclaimed 2002 novel about a man—at various times a writer, lover,
art dealer, and spy—making his often precarious way through the 20th century. Matthew
MacFadyen, Gillian Anderson, Hayley Atwell, Kim Cattrall, and Jim Broadbent star.
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MAR 27 – The 39 Steps (Encore Presentation), DVD
(One 90-minute episode)
An adaptation of the popular John Buchan adventure novel, set on the eve of World War I. Filled with romance and humor, the 90-minute drama stars Rupert Penry-Jones (Persuasion) as mining engineer Richard Hannay caught up in a conspiracy following the death of a British spy found in his apartment.
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APR 10 – 24 Upstairs Downstairs
(Three 60-minute episodes)
An enormous success worldwide, the original Upstairs Downstairs won seven Emmys during
its run on MASTERPIECE THEATRE in the mid-1970s—including Best Actress for Jean
Marsh, who reprises her role in the new three-part series as Rose, the parlor maid. Dame
Eileen Atkins, the co-creator of the original program, will also star. Screenwriter Heidi
Thomas (Cranford) is setting the new Upstairs Downstairs in the same house at 165 Eaton
Place in 1936, during the period leading up to World War II.
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MAY 1 – 15 South Riding
(Three 60-minute episodes)
Anna Maxwell Martin (Bleak House) and David Morrissey (Sense & Sensibility) lead the cast
in Andrew Davies‘s (Bleak House, Little Dorrit) three-part adaptation of Winifred Holtby’s
moving love story, which provides a panoramic portrait of a Yorkshire community in the
1930s.
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Just from reading the descriptions, I think Upstairs Downstairs looks to be the most interesting. Are any of you, Masterpiece Theatre watchers?
