Product Details

• Actors: Fay Compton, Rosalie Crutchley, Brian Blessed, Sarah Badel, Alastair Sim
• Format: Box set, Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 3
• Studio: Acorn Media
• VHS Release Date: February 15, 2000
• Run Time: 135 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 1569383189
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #184,639 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This earthy, down-in-the-excrement adaptation of Stella Gibbons's 1932 popular comic novel stars Sarah Badel as Flora Poste, who at the tender age of 19 loses her parents to the Spanish plague. Flora has been left 100 pounds a year, which, her friend notes, "won't keep her in stockings and furs." "Possessed of every art and grace save that of earning her own living," she sends letters to her relatives asking to be taken in. Her plan, she states, "is to alter his or her character and mode of living to suit my own taste."

She gets much more than she bargained for when she accepts an invitation from the Starkadders of Cold Comfort. Thus begins her "career as a parasite." An aspiring author, Sarah will find no end of inspiration from the gallery of colorful characters who inhabit the farm, including the aptly named matriarch Ada Doom, who remains locked in her room and speaks of long ago seeing "something naaaaasty in the woodshed."

The distinguished cast includes Alastair Sim (the 1951 A Christmas Carol and the only Scrooge that matters) as glowering Amos Starkadder and Brian Blessed (Boss Nass in The Phantom Menace) as one of the Starkadder boys. Originally broadcast in 1971, Cold Comfort Farm helped to launch the first season of PBS's signature series Masterpiece Theatre, and vividly illustrated that even this distinguished series could get down and dirty. Though stagy, this vintage production makes for lively viewing and is ripe for classic TV collections. Also highly recommended on video is John Schlessinger's acclaimed 1995 film adaptation starring Kate Beckinsale. --Donald Liebenson

From the Back Cover

The original unedited BBC production of Stella Gibbons' classic satire, selected for the inaugural season of PBS' Masterpiece Theatre Flora Poste, a recently orphaned London sophisticate of insubstantial means and no real ambition save becoming the next Jane Austen, cheerfully determines to find a relative who'll take her in. When she chooses an offer from the Starkadders of Cold Comfort Farm in Howling Sussex, she expects it to be "appalling but interesting." And the clutch of gothic country cousins she finds there doesn't dissapoint.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A terrific film and a movie fan's delight., April 5, 2000

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cold Comfort Farm [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Flora Poste, is orphaned at the age of 19 and is left with 100 pounds a year -- barely enough to get by on. She accepts an invitation from the Starkadders rural British farm and encounters a gallery of colorful characters especially the family matriarch Ada Doom, who remains locked in her room, alluding to having spied something wicked in the past. This wonderfully produced, filmed and acted production is based on the Stella Gibbons 1932 literary novel and presented as a three volume miniseries first aired as part of the PBS "Masterpiece Theatre" series. Cold Comfort Farm would make a very popular addition to any community library video collection and is a "must" for Masterpiece Theatre fans and anyone else with an appreciation for British entertainment. VHS, 3 video boxed set, full color, 135 minutes.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why Isn't The Original Adaptation on DVD?, August 23, 2005

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Cold Comfort Farm [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I agree with everything that the other reviewers have said about this Masterpiece Theater adaptation of the book Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons. his is the older version that stars Sarah Badel nd Alastair Sim and not the newer version that stars Kate Beckinsale and Joanna Lumley. The remake is a a good movie too but why is the remake on DVD and not the original adaptation? I really think this version should be on DVD too!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Blast from the past, May 18, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Cold Comfort Farm [VHS] (VHS Tape)

when broadcast in the 70's this made quite an impression on me! It's great to see that it still holds up --- although the nature-montage sequences are a little hokey.

Alastair Sim's performance is fantastic! My family has been using the line "There'll be no butter in hell!" according to his reading for the last 30 years!

And Mr. Neck's sotto voce comment to Aunt Ada's "I saw something nasty in the woodshed!" --- "Did it see you?" --- is priceless.

Not as slick as the film, but compliments it nicely.