Mapp & Lucia (Complete)

Star Review

Mapp & Lucia is perhaps best described as an affectionate salute to British eccentricity. It is packed with larger than life characters, who treat seemingly innocuous occasions such as village fetes as if they were matters of life and death. Geraldine McEwan (currently incarnating Miss Marple) stars as Emmeline 'Lucia' Lucas, an unconventional widow who swoops upon her quaint village of Tilling, where she soon ousts Miss Mapp (Prunella Scales) as the reigning party hostess. Lucia and her fey companion Georgie (Nigel Hawthorne) are a seemingly unsinkable pairing, but Mapp doesn't give up that easily. McEwan and Hawthorne are a superb double-act. Babbling in baby-talk (using "me" instead of "I", "ickle" instead of "little"), their feigned innocence masks a rivalry, which comes to the fore in a hilarious piano duet which soon turns into a duel. Scales also excels as Lucia's formidable opponent, her faux bonhomie failing to conceal her self-centred rudeness. A stock of excellent character actors fill in the numerous supporting roles, but it's the joyous moments when Mapp and Lucia lock horns that make this wonderful series such a classic of British TV.

MovieMail on 1st April 2006

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Film Description

All of the episodes from both series of the classic comedy of manners set in 1930 and based on the books by EF Benson. Geraldine McEwan and Prunella Scales star as the two social climbers aiming for village supremacy.

Forever the centre of the village’s preparation for fates, pageants and events, Emmeline ‘Lucia’ Lucas’s world is turned upside down when social adversary Miss Elizabeth Mapp from neighbouring Tilling shows up. Cue a pitched battle for supremacy in a small Middle England village, where only the etiquette and manners of the day prevent the animosity from boiling over.

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DVD Extras

• 3 discs.

Film Details

Cast

Prunella Scales, Nigel Hawthorne, Geraldine McEwan

Technical Details