COLD COMFORT FARM (TV)
Summary
This British comedy-drama, directed by John Schlesinger, presents the story of Flora Poste, a recently orphaned young socialite who goes to live at Cold Comfort Farm, the grim, gloomy home of her backward country cousins, the Starkadders. Flora is well-suited to the sophisticated life of 1930s London, where she visits nightclubs with her good friend Mrs. Mary Smiling and enjoys the attentions of Charles, a rich, slightly befuddled bachelor. However, when Flora's parents die unexpectedly, she must suddenly fend for herself with a meager trust fund. Mary suggests a job, but Flora finds this idea unpleasant. She reveals her desire to be a writer and her intention to publish a modern "Persuasion" when she is fifty-three. In the mean time, however, Flora sends letters to various relatives, requesting a place to stay. She is quite fascinated by the doom and gloom of the reply from her cousin, Judith Starkadder, who offers her a home at Cold Comfort Farm, because "her man" once did Flora's father a great wrong. Flora senses a challenge in Cold Comfort and journeys by train to the dismal, unkempt farm, learning upon arrival that it is cursed.
Flora meets the extended, unwashed Starkadder clan, which includes the intense, brooding Judith, who is obsessed with her own son, Seth; cousin Seth, a charismatic farm hand who regularly impregnates the hired girls, but whose real passion is for the movies; Judith's husband Amos, a preacher who keeps his flock terrified with unusually vivid depictions of hell; Elfine, encouraged by her father to become a sort of wood nymph, clumsily dancing about in the fields in praise of the sun and wind and such; suspicious cousin Reuben, who believes Flora has designs on the farm; and the reclusive matriarch, Great Aunt Ada Doom, who rules the family from her bedroom -- forbidding any of them to leave Cold Comfort, and cryptically reminding them that, as a young girl, she "saw something nasty in the woodshed." Flora enters this world with her chipper good sense and impeccable manners -- not to mention a commitment to modern standards of cleanliness and hygiene. She proceeds to bring the twentieth century to Cold Comfort, and in the process, lifts away the dark cloud hanging over the Starkadders.
One by one she finds happiness for the family and staff, including teaching the hired girl about the "precautionary arts"; suggesting that Amos take his hellfire act on the road; sneaking Elfine out of the house for a London makeover; arranging for Seth to be discovered by a Hollywood producer; finding a nice Viennese doctor for the psychoanalytic bonanza that is Judith; and more. Flora's stay at the farm culminates with a big country wedding, arranged by Flora for the re-styled Elfine; and here, Aunt Ada surprises all by revealing that she too has been transformed by Flora's efforts to "bring people around to a higher common sense." With her work complete at Cold Comfort, Flora's ship -- or plane, in this case -- comes in.
(This program is a 1995 International Emmy Award nominee in the Drama category.)
Details
- NETWORK: BBC (United Kingdom)
- DATE: November 30, 1994
- RUNNING TIME: 1:38:48
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:41460
- GENRE: Comedy; Drama
- SUBJECT HEADING: Comedy; Drama; International Collection - United Kingdom
- SERIES RUN: BBC - TV, 1995
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Richard Broke … Executive Producer
- Antony Root … Executive Producer
- Alison Gilby … Producer
- Noel Gueritz … Associate Producer
- John Schlesinger … Director
- Malcolm Bradbury … Writer
- Stella Gibbons … Based on the novel by
- Robert Lockhart … Music by
- Eleanor Fazan … Choreographer
- Eileen Atkins … Cast, Judith Starkadder
- Kate Beckinsale … Cast, Flora Poste
- Sheila Burrell … Cast, Ada Doom
- Stephen Fry … Cast, Mybug
- Freddie Jones … Cast, Adam Lambsbreath
- Joanna Lumley … Cast, Mrs. Smiling
- Ian McKellen … Cast, Amos Starkadder
- Miriam Margolyes … Cast, Mrs. Beetle
- Rufus Sewell … Cast, Seth
- Ivan Kaye … Cast, Reuben
- Jeremy Peters … Cast, Urk
- Maria Miles … Cast, Elfine
- Christopher Bowen … Cast, Charles Fairford
- Louise Rea … Cast, Meriam Beetle
- Sophie Revell … Cast, Rennet
- Rupert Penry-Jones … Cast, Dick Hawk-Monitor
- Angela Thorne … Cast, Mrs. Hawk-Monitor
- Tim Myers … Cast, Mr. Hawk Monitor
- Harry Ditson … Cast, Earl P. Neck
- Trevor Baxter … Cast, Sneller
- Frederick Jaeger … Cast, Doctor Adolph MŸdel
- Pat Keen … Cast, Aunt Gwen
- Robert James … Cast, Mr. McKnag
- William Masson … Cast, Bikki
- Susannah Morley … Cast, Mrs. Murther
- Richard Bebb … Cast, the Hawk-Monitor Butler
- William Osborne … Cast, the Coiffeur
- Basil Hoskins … Cast, the Couturier
- Allison Roberts … Cast, the Girl in the Hayloft
- Ninka Scott … Cast, the Tea Shop Waitress
- Myfanwy Hill … Cast, the Young Ada Doom