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ammie119
, January 04, 2008
(view all comments by ammie119)
Jean Pargetter and Lionel Hardcastle are two 50 something adults who meet again 38 years after their youthful, passionate affair during the Korean War, where Jean was a nurse and Lionel, an officer in the British Army.
Now Jean is the owner of a secretarial agency, who of late has become so hidebound and humorless that her employees are beginning to call her "Iron Drawers." Jean's marriage was happy, but all too brief; she was left a widow with a small daughter to raise; she began her agency by doing typing in her home.
Lionel, whose own marriage "died of boredom" is back in England after spending decades in Kenya running a coffee plantation, doing the final revisions on his mouldy epic,"My Life in Kenya," which is just as dull as it sounds. The publisher, hip, happening, boy-wonder Alistair Deacon is a constant source of irritation and bemusement to Lionel. Lionel, always taciturn, is usually irritated, though. He does not suffer fools gladly.
With very little contrivance, they meet again, because of course Lionel hires one of Jean's temporary secretaries to do his revisions, and of course his temperament, the fruit of years of dissatisfaction, leads him straight to Jean, who because of years of being independant and authoratative meets him head-on and dares him to compare her to her 20 year old self and find the present Jean one iota less attractive.
Judi Dench is wonderful, she plays Jean Pargetter as a mercurial force of nature. One moment a hard-bitten business woman, the next snippy and defensive, or wistful and nostalgic. Lionel has fewer layers, but Geoffrey Palmer imbues him with years of pompishness, and years of regret.
This is wonderful series, much beloved and adored by its millions of fans.
Enjoy.
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