[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Nosferatu@Cult Labs

At first, I wasn't overly enamoured with it, but I'm glad I stuck it out and it vastly improved as the series progressed. I have the other two on my Lovefilm rental queue, so will finish watching it in due course.

It's one of those BBC shows which really benefits from location shooting (in the Czech Republic), quality costume design, a close-knit and high-quality cast and intelligent writing from highly regarded source material.

It's difficult to compare it to the Dickens/Austin/Brontë adaptations because it's much dirtier and isn't such an obviously 'English' production (no doubt because the source material is French and the cast aren't your typically white middle-class English RADA educated actors), but all of the Andrew Davies-penned miniseries (and similar shows which aren't written by him) all have the same qualities in terms of pre-production, production, and post production.

Series 2 improves on the first and i thought series 3 was the best yet. Pity it's now ended, however it was wrapped up properly rather than left hanging.