Really impressed with the first episode!  Rebecca Hall was, of course, amazing and Ben was, naturally, brilliant!  I think I probably would have been confused on a few things if I hadn't read the books first (for instance I would have had no idea that 'Hullo Central' is what Sylvia calls the maid), but I think it was easy enough to follow so far.  Looking forward to next week!   

I agree the first episode was really good. (Unfortunately, I missed some 10 minutes, stupid live stream.) Now I definitely have to read the book!
The documentary afterwords was interesting as well.
Yes, so looking forward to next friday! :D

Damn i need to get HBO. My stupid satellite company makes you purchase top of line package just to have right to buy HBO. A real ripoff. But i need to cut out groceries and pony up so i can watch Parade's End and also Newsroom which i also love I need to diet anyway.

I didn't see the episode but I read the book. And, yes, it goes back and forth in time and there are scenes you only understand in retrospect. It's interesting but demanding and I think if they kept to it in the film it will be the same for the viewers.

The documentary that goes with Parade's End is definitely worth watching and not just because of the interviews with Benedict.

If I remember correctly they've lost their way and drive through the night, also hindered by the dense fog. In those days spending a night with a woman out in the open was considered highly improper. I don't know how the episode ends but in the book they collide with General Campion's car and the horse has to be put down. The general's sister Lady Claudine sees Valentine and assumes that something indecent has been going on. Hope this helps.

The presumption was that Christopher was the one being unfaithful and that is why Sylvia had left (despite the attempts to cover up her leaving with the fictitious looking after her mother). It was more socially acceptable for a man to have an extra-marital affair than for a woman to have one. A cuckolded husband would be seen as a compete social embarrassment. Better to be unfaithful oneself than to be cuckolded. Also, Sylvia is such an outwardly attractive woman who knows exactly how to manipulate all men (apart from Christopher) that they all think the world of her; this includes men such as the General.

The story jumps around because that is the way the original stories are written; they are a modernist text. This is of itself difficult to understand as a reader and likewise difficult to transfer to the big or small screen. Another example of such a novel would be The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles which plays with time and plays other literary tricks upon the reader. When made into a film the screenplay had to adopt whole invented new sections. Tom Stoppard has also done this, to a certain extent, with this story. Just as well it isn't a stream of consciousness text or we wouldn't stand a chance!

Hope it stays like that in spite of Benedicts mumbling  .

BTW, I always like your explanations. You have a great way of making complicated things clear.

A glimpse of next week's episode. Particularly happy to see the Osprey. (We visited the Glaslyn (N. Wales) nest last year and I follow the Scottish and Rutland Water nests online). Such magnificent birds persecuted to extinction in UK and then reintroduced 1950s. I didn't expect to be mentioning them on this forum though. Oh, and Benedict is in the clip too ( and some other flighty bird)

Last edited by JaneCo (August 28, 2012 10:01 pm)

An article with plenty of interview input from Benedict on Parade's End but also Sherlock, playing Smaug etc.

www.timeout.com/melbourne/timein/features/1945/benedict-cumberbatch-on-parades-end?DCMP=OTC-RSS-