The Darling Buds of May

this would have to be my all time favorite show. I paid a fortune to buy the DVD'S and have them shipped to Australia. It's a show that I can watch over and over again and never tire of. I just want to pack up and immigrate to England and Kent. I find it almost hard to believe that this was a made for television family. It must truly reflect a time when things were much simpler. If I could I would transport myself right back there with the Larkin's and I to would never leave. Pam Ferris and David Jason are so convincing as MA and Pa Larkin, that I try to bring some of that into my own children's lives. A show that certainly restores my appetite and good faith ion the world.

I just caught some re-runs of the on ABC iviews of this and I'm struck by how completely watchable it still is. Though I have lived for many years in Australia, I'm English country born and bred and the evocation of the countryside is just wonderful ( yes, I know it's not really like DBOM all the time )

Casting is, as others have said, utterly spot on and the ludicrous anonymous 007 who preferred an American film version - which, incredibly , relocated this quintessentially English scene TO America, is simply to be ignored. As, I would think, should be the film . I wonder what HE Bates would have thought.

If you can get the books, get any and all, HE Bates was a great writer poetic, funny and profound. Not unlike Thomas Hardy only with a lighter touch.

Big relief here that Bates's modern classic has not only survived its transition to the big screen but has actually been enhanced by it. It's difficult to find anything in this made-for-television adaptation that is at odds with the book of the same name. The characters are well cast, in particular David Jason as Pop Larkin and Pam Ferris as Ma, who live life with abandonment and cavalier disregard for society's expectations. The conversion of Charlie, a most challenging task in story and film, is accomplished with care and precision, Catherine Zeta Jones as Mariette providing the required enticement. This is a highly entertaining and deeply satisfying adaptation, and richly captures the life of post-war Britain. Perfick!

This is a reply to Annoymous-007 who considered the film better than the TV Series. Does this person know that the the film relocated the original setting from Kent to the United States of America. The TV Series was based on the actual books and filmed where they were set. Annonymous-007 has missed the point - the theme of novels is the rejection of control and the concept of Romanticism and the free individual. That is why HE Bates alluded to the idea of Marriette being pregnant at the start of the first story (which she is not). There is a great connection to Jane Austen and the Brontes in the opening episodes, based on the first book: this is indeed a love story worthy of mention alongside Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre.

I purchased the whole series "The Darling Buds of May" a few years ago and then watched the whole series within a few days. I grew up in the UK in the early sixties and this series reminded me so much of what life was like in England when I was growing up.

It is the best and purest form of escapism it fills one with a sense of longing for how life once was. The scenery, the lifestyle, the family and of course the farm are just "perfec" my favorite episode is the one called "Christmas is coming" (series 1 episode 7).

Even now, years later, I still find myself humming the opening theme song. It is one of the best feel good series that I have ever seen and the characters are so well played.

If you haven't seen the series do yourself a very big favour and go out and buy, borrow or steal it and then sit back and be prepared to be taken back to a time, long before laptops, iPhones, mobile phones and emails, where life was simple and almost idyllic.