Mapp And Lucia (1985/86)

Au Reservoir

Mapp and Lucia 
Two Series
comprising ten episodes
Series 1 1985
Series 2 1986
Granada TV for Channel 4
Cinema Club DVD Region 2

Well now… after years of waiting for a Blu Ray release (which has never happened), I finally revisited (to be fair, for about the fifth time), what is probably my second favourite TV series of all time (lagging just behind The Prisoner), the one and only Mapp And Lucia. Not to be confused with he shoddy BBC remake (which I also plan on rewatching at some point), this was based on the last three novels in a series of six books written in the 20s and 30s by E. F. Benson… the first three novels being Queen Lucia, Miss Mapp and Lucia In London… followed by the full-on crossover novels which are covered by this show, Mapp And Lucia (which comprised series one) and then on to Lucia’s Progress and Trouble For Lucia (which both were adapted for series two).

What can I say… bearing in mind I don’t watch a lot of comedy and I’m also somewhat averse to certain kinds of British period pieces… I saw these back when they first aired and the family was so struck by them that it wasn’t long before we were all visiting the town in which the books were kinda set… in Rye, where Benson lived. In the books the town of Tilling was based on Rye (if memory serves) and the show was shot there. It’s a lovely place and you can see a lot of it in the show. So, of course, while I was down there I bought and read all the books (I need to revisit those now, over 40 years since I last read them) and, also discovered one of the last surviving CD Soundtrack shops left in the country, Backtrack Records.

The show, adapted by Gerald Savory and directed by Donald Machinise, is a work of genius. The first episode shows Miss Emmeline Lucas aka Lucia, played incomparably by Geraldine McEwan and her effeminate best friend Georgie Pelson, played beautifully by Nigel Hawthorne, finishing up business in their home town of Risholme but, there’s a long interlude in the story in this episode to show their house hunting trip to Tilling, where the rest of the show is set. It’s here that we meet all the other regular characters in the show, in their brief overnight stay.

There’s Mistress Map, played ‘perfectly tiresomely’ by the late, great Prunella Scales, who is the rival character in the show (and books) to Lucia and who stole Lucia’s farewell pun catchphrase of “Au Reservoir” in a former book. There’s Godiva (Diva) Plaistow, played by Mary MacLeod, who is a bit of former canon fodder in Mapp’s social circle but now she’s a little more shrewd about things after Lucia comes to town. Then there’s the exquisite performance of Denis Lill as the almost permanently drunken Major Benjy Flint, with his constant shouts of “Quai Hi!”. 

Other quirky characters are James Greene as the local padre, who hails from Birmingham but affects a Scottish accent throughout (peppered with Irish sayings in the second series) for his own amusement. There’s Mr. Wise played by Geoffrey Chater, with his little bows to people to punctuate his various bits of dialogue and there’s his wife played by Marion Mathie, who also has her own quirks and foibles. 

And then there’s Irene Coles, aka Quaint Irene, who is easily my favourite character, played amazingly by Cecily Hobbs. The queer or bisexual local artist who shocks with her bold canvasses and steals some of the best lines in the show. She’s the saucy one who is obviously besotted by Lucia, once she’s become a resident of Tilling.

And rounding out the regulars are the long suffering servants of Lucia and Mapp. Geraldine Newman as Grovesnor, Ken Kitson as Cadman, Lucinda Gane as Foljambe and Cherry Morris as Withers.

And the comedy is high, right from the word go and, honestly, there’s not a bad performance among the lot of them. It’s like watching very broad but somehow subtle acting as Mapp and Lucia go about their business of oneupmanship against each other. The facial expressions from all of this lot which tells you exactly what they are thinking, whether they’re delivering their hilarious dialogue or just staying silent, is absolutely brilliant. In fact, I’d go as far as to suggest that all of the actors in this one did their finest work here, which is saying something considering the calibre of some of the cast.

And it’s what the British perhaps do best... a wonderful comedy of manners set among the upper classes and the silly shenanigans they get themselves into. With Lucia conquering the social heart of Tilling as Mapp continually tries to sew the seeds of discontent as her own grip on the social circle begins to slip through here fingers. With incidents like the way Lucia managed to get out of a jam which would expose her fake Italian as just that, a fake… or the time when Mapp and Lucia float out on an upturned table during a flood and get lost at sea, presumed dead... and the aftermath of all that. Plus three separate marriages throughout the show and the political pressures these seem to provoke.

If I had one criticism it’s that the second series seems more episodic rather than a single arc and maybe loses a little in the mix. With incidents like the shares and stocks craze, the Roman excavations in Lucia’s gardens, the bicycle craze and the hunt for Lucia’s mayoress, it feels like in that second iteration they don’t spend long enough on each separate thing.... and I suspect this is a symptom of trying to squeeze two books into one series of five episodes at this point. That being said, once you know the characters and exactly how they’ll think in any given situation, both series are an absolute joy to watch and, like I said, it’s my second favourite TV show of all time (and much better than the rebooted BBC mini series of a few decades later… which I guess I’ll have to revisit soon, I suppose). 

And that’s me done, for now, with Mapp And Lucia. If you are a fan of British comedy and want to see the absolute best comic performances of a very witty script, then you should definitely try and get hold of the original 1980s series for sure. What a joy but, for now… Au Reservoir!