The Camomile Lawn

Today I watched the first two episodes of The Camomile Lawn, a British TV adaptation from 1992 of a novel with the same name by Mary Wesley. Curiously the novel was published the same year that I was born, in 1984.

The story starts in 1939, just before World War II broke out. As it says in wikipedia the story is about the lives of Richard and Helena Cuthbertson and their five nieces and nephews; Calypso, Walter, Polly, Oliver and Sophy. As I am watching this almost exclusively because of Toby Stephens I will not keep a detailed record of the events of the story, but only write about the parts that interest me, as I usually do ^_~

Jennifer Ehle as Calypso and Tara Fitzgerald as Polly

Tara has also starred in Jane Eyre and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall with Toby Stephens.

In the beginning there is a lot of talking about the impending war, one cannot escape the tenseness of that fact, yet this hardly seems to affect the younger generation, who go about in their frivilous ways on their vacation and talk proudly how they are going to join the marines and such. Oliver arrives in town, returned from the Spanish Civil War and has a crush on Calypso.

 Toby (Stephens) shocked me when one of the first things he says is "May I fuck you? Now, at once." It shocked me because all the roles I've seen him in have been very romantic (so far) and so it never struck me as something he would say. It makes me wonder what other treats I can expect from him... 

Though Oliver says he wants to marry Calypso, she will not have him, she says she'll only marry a rich man. (Stupid girl, when Toby Stephens asks you to marry him, you NEVER say no!) :P

A scene I thought was hillarious was when they had done The Terror Run and Oliver and Calypso stand there alone catching their breaths in the middle of the night and he holds her close to him and they go:

looking down on his thing

Calypso - "Oliver, what's that?"
Oliver - "It's me, my cock"
Calypso - "It's enormous!"
Oliver - "It's quite ordinary, I've got an erection, I want to poke it into you."

LOL, that made me laugh so much! 

Their little cousin Sophy is only 10 years old and she is fond of all her cousins coming to visit, but she is especially fond of Oliver. Before the first episode is concluded Oliver declares that he's joined the army.

In episode 2 Calypso marries a rich man whom she does not love, Oliver shows up to the wedding, taunting her and spends the rest of the episode trying to have sex with her, unsuccessfully. 

This series is better than I expected. It's sometimes hillarious, sometimes confusing, sometimes a little sad (but never really sad) and very naked. Very, very naked. If you want to see lots of naked women, by all means watch this one. I'm looking forward to watching the remaining 3 episodes.

Will Calypso leave her emotionless marriage? Will Oliver realise he is a fool for loving this heartless woman? I think he should just move on and find someone who is worthy of his passion and devotion. 

We'll see...