ANOTHER GRAND BRITISH EPIC STORY IN FILM.
This is 15 hours (18 episodes) of delightful English storytelling that takes place just after WWI. You will be glad you have the complete series with no need to wait a week between each episode. Each segment builds upon the next drawing you into the story as though you are part of the family of The Grand hotel.
It ranks along side series giants like The Pallisers, The Barchester Chronicles, and Monarch of the Glen. Part of the reason might be that Susan Hampshire (3-Emmy winner) stars in all of those. She is outstanding in The Grand, playing Miss Harkness, a resident of the Grand, a prostitute, and proud of it. It takes a bit of acceptance, at first, seeing her as a lady of the evening,, instead of someone like Lady Glencora Palliser. Hampshire scores a perfect 10 for this performance.
Mrs. Harvey, played by Christine Mackie, is the Grand's head housekeeper. She acts and sounds quite like Gemma Jones in The Duchess of Duke Street. In my opinion, Mackie...
Wonderful program!
This series has everything one could want: love, hate, war vets, lust, deceit, betrayal, money, and power. You will love some of the characters and hate others, but will definitely be drawn to the compelling storylines. The sets and period dress serve to transport one directly to the twenties, and give one a taste of what life was like for not only the privileged but the not-so-privileged as well. The only complaint I would have is that there are not MORE episodes!
Overwrought soap opera
I think my negative reaction to this series was a result of my unrealistic expectations. I had just finished watching Upstairs Downstairs and thought The Grand was along those lines, or at least more like The Duchess of Duke Street.
Instead, this was a seamy (and at times steamy) and trashed up soap opera. I failed to like or even feel sympathetic for the majority of the characters and, in real life, I would NOT have cared to stay an hour at a time with any of them. Why, then, would I sacrifice an hour of my time watching them?
Within the first two episodes, we're "treated" to someone blowing his brains out (focus on all that blood on the wall, please), a masochistic pervert being serviced by a former whore, and a swarmy villain who might as well have had a handlebar moustache to twirl.
Another reviewer noted, "This series has everything one could want: love, hate, war vets, lust, deceit, betrayal, money, and power." The problem for me was that it...
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