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Mapp & Lucia is perhaps best described as an affectionate salute to British eccentricity. It is packed with larger than life characters, who treat seemingly innocuous occasions such as village fetes as if they were matters of life and death. Geraldine McEwan (currently incarnating Miss Marple) stars as Emmeline 'Lucia' Lucas, an unconventional widow who swoops upon her quaint village of Tilling, where she soon ousts Miss Mapp (Prunella Scales) as the reigning party hostess. Lucia and her fey companion Georgie (Nigel Hawthorne) are a seemingly unsinkable pairing, but Mapp doesn't give up that easily. McEwan and Hawthorne are a superb double-act. Babbling in baby-talk (using "me" instead of "I", "ickle" instead of "little"), their feigned innocence masks a rivalry, which comes to the fore in a hilarious piano duet which soon turns into a duel. Scales also excels as Lucia's formidable opponent, her faux bonhomie failing to conceal her self-centred rudeness. A stock of excellent character actors fill in the numerous supporting roles, but it's the joyous moments when Mapp and Lucia lock horns that make this wonderful series such a classic of British TV.

 

MovieMail on 1st April 2006
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This is one of the most delightful series ever screened with eveyr one of the cast quite brilliant and the production perfect. Few people will fail to enjoy this sophi... more >

This is one of the most delightful series ever screened with eveyr one of the cast quite brilliant and the production perfect. Few people will fail to enjoy this sophisticated comedy. It is a pity that it does not have subtitles < less