Customer Reviews

Darling Buds of May - Stranger at the Gates and A Season of Heavenly Gifts

5 star:		(1)
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We had watched this series on TV and loved it. I was somewhat disappointed that they kind of showed just the best of the series and not the full sections of each title. If you haven't seen the whole series it would be hard to follow. Needless to say, the series is wonderful and the way that the Larkins live is a testimont to the lay back life. It is well written and the characters are great. I am looking for the whole set of seasons.

This is a lovely show which drifts you off to some other world. The scenery is beautiful and the actors are superb although catherine Zeta Jones dominates all the DVD covers.

This refers to the DVD version. This is my first exposure to this popular British series. I am used to "As Time Goes By" "Keeping up Appareances" "Waiting for God"- all shown on BBC America and PBS. None of these shows prepared for "The Darling Buds of May." The closest comparison I can make is to the 1959 film "The Mating Game" starring Debbie Reynolds and Tony Randall. Randall plays an up-tight (I don't have a life) tax man who comes to collect back taxes from a large family living a simple life on a farm. It turns out that the family has never filed an income tax return. Randall quickly falls for Reynolds, the comely, if a little too innocent, elder daughter (yet another incarnation of her popular "Tammy" character). He sees the life he's been missing and succomds to the family's simplicity and charm, later defending them against his bosses who come to find out why Randall hasn't submitted his report. Pretty standard, gentle and non-offensive fare. This is the same premise as "Darling Buds." Catherine Zeta-Jones plays the comely daughter, a virtual "wood nymph" who snares the gentle heart of the young tax man. Interestingly, in the pilot episode, we learn that she probably is (but maybe isn't) pregnant. When her father asks his wife who the father is, the wife responds that their daughter "hasn't decided yet." There are other, standard British "small village"" characters, most of them as up-tight as the young tax man, and also very class conscious. If only they could see the family the way the young tax man does, they would loose their stiff collars and live "the good life." That's basically it. Although I love British TV programes, and watch what comes to American television, I found it difficult to get with the somewhat leasurely pace of this show. I don't mean to dismiss it at all. It is definately just a matter of taste.