Love in a Cold Climate (2002) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Two episodes and approximately 2 to 2 1/2 hours is not enough time to do justice to Nancy Mitford's hilarious and moving novels The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate. In this version so much of the humor and far too many of the characters are either eliminated or cut down sharply.
Nevertheless, given the time constraints this is a very fine adaptation. The main story concerns the love interests of three upper class young women in 1930s Britain: Fanny Logan (the narrator), Linda Radlett (the primary heroine who bounces from husband to husband to lover), and Polly Hampton (the enigmatic beauty who temporarily falls for an extremely distasteful older man). At that time girls from aristocratic families were expected to make their Society debuts at age 18 or so and marry by the time they were 21. Fanny, the most sensible of the trio, follows this path without any wrong turns and ends up with a husband she truly loves. Linda and Polly's vicissitudes lead them down many roads to tragedy in one case and final happiness in the other.
The series is beautifully filmed in England and France. Nancy Mitford's ancestral home Batsford Park stands in for the Radlett mansion, Alconleigh; while the magnificent Castle Ashby serves as Polly's enormous residence. In France similarly beautiful chateaus are used for Fabrice Sauveterre's homes. There is a real 1930s/1940s ambience throughout the series, particularly in the second episode set in the early years of World War II.
Although many of Mitford's funniest lines and scenes have not been included, there are some extremely amusing segments, such as a fur-coated Linda urging Londoners to join the Communist Party, or Sheila Gish's indomitable Lady Montdore's statement "hardly any of one's friends had even heard of India before we went there", or Uncle Matthew's emotional outbursts over Romeo and Juliet, or Fanny's aging socialite mother (The Bolter) arrival at Alconleigh with her Spanish lover.
There is also quite a bit of social commentary mixed in with the humor. The old landowning aristocracy is well represented by the Radletts and the Hamptons, and their encounters with nouveau riche types like the Kroesig family are a good depiction of the social changes going on in Britain during the early twentieth century. The Spanish Civil War scenes remind us that World War II's mass horrors are shortly to unfold.
So, even though this mini-series should have been much longer, it is still delightful and moving. If this is your first introduction to Nancy Mitford, by all means buy The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate and read Linda, Polly, and Fanny's stories in their entirety.

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Based on Nancy Mitford’s beloved novels The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate-part thinly-veiled memoir, part biting satire, and part fascinating window on a vanished way of life-this witty drama from the BBC follows the romantic adventures of three young aristocrats in the decade between the wars. Starring British acting legends Alan Bates (Gosford Park), Celia Imrie (Bridget Jones’s Diary), Sheila Gish (Mansfield Park), and Anthony Andrews (Brideshead Revisited), with young stars Rosamund Pike (Die Another Day), Elisabeth Dermot-Walsh (Bertie and Elizabeth), and Megan Dodds (Malice Aforethought). Providing an authentic backdrop are several English castles and country houses, including Batsford Park, home of the Mitford family from 1916 to 1919.

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