Love in a Cold Climate

Nancy was the first to exploit the glittering vein of inside jokes and family legend that's sustained the Mitford industry for over fifty years, and when her two most popular books, the titular "Cold Climate" and the earlier "Pursuit of Love," were "adapted" (sliced and diced and drastically condensed) to fit this stingy two-episode format, there were bound to be a few loose ends. My brilliant wife, a fiction editor by trade, spotted a brief two-character scene that didn't seem to make much sense; it turned out to be a collage of the zingier lines from three different scenes involving two sets of characters and spread out over twenty pages. Do admit, Fanny!

Mitford loyalists will mourn the loss of Uncle Davey; they may also wonder why, say, on the page it's Aunt Sadie who can't talk horticulture with a dinner guest because she prefers to leave such matters to the gardeners whereas on the screen it's daughter Linda who can't identify the soup because she prefers to leave them to the cook.... Still, if the script is a little dodgy, the cast is just about perfect: Alan Bates, as Uncle Matthew, prowls the floor at a deb dance like a Rottweiler on parade; Celia Imbrie is delightfully distracted as Aunt Sadie; Elisabeth Dermot Walsh and Rosamund Pike are charming as lovely, clueless Linda and the all-seeing narrator, Fanny. Special mention goes to Jemima Rooper and Anna Popplewell as sex-mad innocents Jassy and Victoria. The earlier, 8-ep version, still available on disc, has more room for plot material (including Uncle Davey), but the younger characters aren't nearly as well cast.

My Review- of 2 versions Love in a Cold Climate 1980 on YouTube & Love in a Cold Climate 2001 on Britbox

My Rating 1980 version 10/10 My Rating 2001 version 7/10

It's the first time I've reviewed 2 versions of the same adaptation together however because I watched them simultaneously out of interest I'll review both together.

The 2001 remake is a short 3 episodes while the superior 1980 adaptation consists of 8 episodes.

I enjoyed both versions but was a little disappointed with the 2001 remake and after watching both versions the remake to me is like a redacted sanitised version with many characters and story lines missing.

Both are television adaptations of 2 famous novels written by Nancy Mitford titled The Pursuit of Love and Live in a Cold Climate.

Both have very impressive casts the 2001 remake includes stars Alan Bates as Uncle Matthew and Celia Imrie as Aunt Sadie with beautiful Rosamund Pike as Fanny and Sheila Gish as Lady Montdore.

The superior 1980 version includes Judy Dench as Sadie , Michael Aldridge as Uncle Matt and Isabelle Amyes as Fanny plus veteran actress Vivian Pickles playing the acid tongued Lady Montdore who is transformed into a glamour fag hag when her effeminate nephew Cedrick Hampton arrives to inherit his estate from Canada.

The masquerade ball scene left out of the later version is a joy to behold .

The story set between 1924 and 1940 draws on the authors experience of being raised in an aristocratic climate just before World War 2 when three cousins Fanny , Linda and Polly are led down very different paths due to the consequences of their life choices .

My main criticism of the most recent version apart from editing out characters like Davey Warbeck played by Michael Williams the real life husband of Judy Dench in the 1980 version was the miscasting in the 2001 adaptation.

Rosamund Pike who plays cousin Fanny the daughter of "The Bolter" and narrator of the story is far to beautiful to play Fanny . Her character is supposed to be a shy wallflower not plain but modest in appearance compared to her glamorous cousin Linda played by Elisabeth Dermot Walsh.

The casting of Lucy Gutteridge as the glamorous flirtatious Linda and Isabelle Amyes as cousin Fanny is much more believable in the 1980 version of Love in a Cold Climate.

It's fascinating to me to appreciate 2 very different screen writer's and directors adaptations of the same story for my money Simon Raven screen writer and Donald McWhinnie's 1980 version is the superior adaptation.

Especially the conclusion of the series which in the 2001 version was especially abrupt and very different in moral tone.

Both adaptations are entertaining however the characters are much expanded and I would suspect more faithfully portrayed in the 1980 version which if you only want to watch one adaptation I recommend.

This is a beautifully made remake of Love in a Cold Climate, but whereas the 1980 series had seven episodes to tell us the story, this film tries to do it (and Nancy's Mitford's previous novel) in 150 minutes.

While the performances are done well, and the insights into the oddities of the English aristocracy are just as Mitford would have known them, there really isn't the time to offer deep characterisations, and explain people's motivations adequately. You feel you're only skating on the surface half the time, which is a pity.

If there had been more of it, I would almost certainly have rated it more highly.

I loved this show! So much! I was just so disappointed when it ended after only 3 episodes! Broke my heart! Such a good mini-series!

This is generally brilliant entertainment even if the political bits are clichéd and pointless esp the Spanish War scenes. But Rosamund Pike (as Fanny) is utterly spellbinding . You'll rarely encounter such photogenic beauty on film. The camera adores her and so do I. Some may find this comment lacking in gravitas or even frivolous. But forgive me - I'm in love !!

Of course "Love in a Cold Climate" has more going for it. It's a superb insight into the foibles and eccentricities of that most fortunate of social groupings - the English aristocracy of the inter-war period where fascism masqueraded as inherited privilege.

And the whole period is lavishly recreated and technically superb. Alan Bates is great fun as the sewer hating head of house who makes ingenious use of a bureau drawer to soothe his volatile temper.

But all else matters not a jot. What stands this costume piece apart is the astonishing radiance of the exquisite Rosamund Pike. I wholeheartedly recommend this study of happy English whimsy.