Love for Lydia - 5-DVD Box Set (in English, with optional Dutch sub-titles)

Love For Lydia is one of the best drama series you will ever buy; it is also exceptional value for money. This television adaptation of H.E. Bate's best novel is old-school television production of the highest quality. Made in 1977 it is organised into thirteen episodes on six discs and lasts for 650 minutes - almost 11 hours of top quality entertainment. H.E. Bates is a modern writer - he died in 1974 - and is England's most underrated and prolific writer.While I say he is a modern writer, in terms of the time in which he lived, in style, he belongs to a different generation. He is, essentially, a pastoral writer, writing with great detail and authority about the English countryside.Love For Lydia is set in `Edensford' a small town in the English Midlands. The arrival of Lydia, a neice of the wealthy Aspen Family and a young, gauche and seemingly fragile young woman, brings substantial and tragic change to the lives of others in the small semi-rural community, as she interacts with the others with whom she comes into contact. The story begins in the 1920s at the hight of gay young things and the `flapping' dance craze. Lydia, an amoral, hedonistic `butterfly, flits between the young men she encounters, causing jealously, fist fights, pledges of love, broken hearts and death. As a person, we should despise her and her worthless `high-society' type. As a character, brilliantly played by Mel Martin we love, hate and above all are utterly captivated by her - exactly the effect she must have had on the young men she encountered. Martin gives the performance of a lifetime in the lead role and how this actress did not go on to dominate stage, film and television, I will never understand. Other lead roles are played by Christopher Blake, Peter Davidson and Jeremy Irons. The casting of the lead roles is spot on. The quality of acting is high, the scripts very well edited and the settings expertly chosen. Whoever comissioned and produced this series should be congratulated for allowing this complex novel to unwind in a leisurely fashion without cutting too many corners. It is as good a TV adaptation as there has ever been.Five stars doen not begin to do justice to this series. Graeme Greene described H.E. Bates as `Britain's successor to Checkov'. In fact, he is more accurately described as the lineal successor to Thomas Hardy, though a writer of far greater range than Hardy. Love For Lydia is outstanding. While you are buying the DVD, treat yourself to a copy of the novel. Read the novel first - if you can bare putting off the viewing for a while. This is a purchase to completely delight.Buy this DVD.

The quality is ok considering how old the series iis, the first DVD jumps a lot. When I bought this I studied the info aaialable to see how many episodes it contained. As nowhere did it say the ENTIRE series, I also purchased two other DVDs - 6-9 and -10-13. It made sense. However now I have the three sets, I realise that the 5 DVD set is actually the whole series and I have purchased the others for nothing. Quite annoying. The blurb really should be more specific.

In the 1970s and early 1980s, we were treated to superb dramas. To Serve Them All My Days - Complete Collection [DVD]; Edward And Mrs Simpson [DVD]; Edward The Seventh [DVD] [1975]; Nancy Astor [DVD] to name but a few. Love For Lydia, first shown on ITV in 1977 was a thirteen part series that took modern classics into a sphere of their own. Coupled with Brideshead Revisited - Complete Series [DVD], these two dramas set the bar so high, very few serials since have even come close.Love For Lydia is H E Bates' finest moment - his opus - his semi-autobiographical novel. Set in East Northamptonshire (close to the countryside that surrounded Bates as a young man) between Rushden and Kettering, the novel charts the calculating captivating heiress Lydia Aspen as she comes of age and changes completely from an isolated shy girl into a flapping free spirited woman. It also charts the life of a young writer Edward Richardson as he falls in love with Lydia, makes a lifelong pledge to love her all his life, but slowly sees his pledge come crashing on the rocks as Lydia demands more and more attention from other suitors, two of which are Edward's best friends.These are the days of the late 1920s, the era of gaiety that the curtain finally fell upon when Edward VIII abdicated to marry Mrs Simpson in 1936. Edward VIII gets a mention as the popular Prince of Wales. Thankfully, that story is not told in Love For Lydia - what is told is a heartbreaking adolescent story of tremendous portions. We see the dusk on the last of the Edwardians in Lydia's guardians and the blossoming of the new bright young things.The DVD is superb. Whilst others have commented on its grainy jumpy appearance (which is minimal), I have to say this adds to the almost-sepia tones that the producers managed to achieve in 1976 during filming - accidental I dare say and a product of the tape used in cameras at the time.Mel Martin is beautiful and plays Lydia to a tee. The late Christopher Blake is brilliantly cast as Edward Richardson. We see a young fabulous performance by Jeremy Irons as Alex. Peter Davison is Tom Holland. A word about Sherrie Hewson (more famous these days for appearances on a woman's lunchtime chat show) - Sherrie Hewson plays Tom's sister Nancy Holland who is also in love with Edward Richardson but reluctantly accepts she is lost to him due to Lydia. As Nancy sees all the menfolk dance to Lydia's tune, she secretly nurses her pain - Sherrie Hewson's performance is superb but rarely given the accolade it deserves.If Northamptonshire is middle England, then Bates' was right to set his famous book in the region he knew so well as a young man. It is a quintessential setting that even today still has some romance left in its fields and villages. Evensford is possibly Orlinbury but likely also to be Rushden, Walgrave, Old, irthlingborough or Oundle all rolled into one! Certainly the social classes were merging into a more middle ground.This DVD is worth the investment. For me, buying the DVD has given me the first chance to see the series in full unabridged - I was just 11 when the first showing appeared on TV and I wasn't allowed to watch owing to the theme and content which my grandparents considered too-adult for a 11 year old.By the way for those wishing to know more about Northamptonshire of old, I recommend Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England).

It’s a beautiful series. I have never seen actors convey emotion so well through facial expressions. Jeremy Irons and Peter Davison are both great, and Christopher Blake surprised me with his wonderful performance. The sets are all gorgeous, and so is the lighting and camera work. It’s a true masterpiece from the golden age of British drama.I would only like to warn viewers that some of the content later on may be upsetting, especially for those who have attempted or lost someone due to suicide. If you fall into either or both of those categories, you may want to skip episode 10.

Love for Lydia is one of my favorite Brit Romantic/Drama Serials. I've rented it from Netflix twice, and will purchase it next Amazon order. Great acting, story, and scenery will linger in one's mind long after view. The story reminds one a bit of F.Scott Fitzgerald and wife but set in England. It must be very common for writers to be attracted to damaged but beautiful young ladies....and early if not the first film for Jeremy Irons who steals every scene he's in. Not a film for those who like it to 'move fast'. It is for one whom enjoys every little morsel, and wants it never to end. Later...... I purchased a used set of this via Amazon. It's in great shape. I was careful to buy the one that plays on a USA DVD player. Watch for correct zone. Still love it.

a "small" novel by a man named h. e. bates beautifully done in 12 episodes by the BBC. i watched each episode forty years ago as the story of a lovely young woman dramatically unfolded before me. it was mesmerizing. highly recommended. Caveat: there's several separate disks for the whole. be sure to get them all: probably 3 or 4.

One of the bad apples in British programming that I encounter sometimes when I buy something I haven't seen... like "Portrait of a Marriage" as one other example...