Pillars of the Earth
This one almost got away. I just happened to be on Channel 4. I just happened to see a trailer for this. I just happened to remember (on the first Saturday it was screened) about it and I just happened to have nothing better to do.
It's a medieval drama, suitably muddy, damp and dim, about an itinerant stone-mason and his family, wandering around southern England looking for work, getting caught up in the religious shenannigans of the time. Now, that doesn't sound much and if I'd only seen this precis in the TV listings I'd probably have passed on it. However, the delivery and characters are what stands out with this 8-parter. It manages to convey with some depth the lives of "ordinary people" of the time (although since no-one here was alive then, we don't really know what their lives were like - but this programme gives a credible description). There are no heroics, fantastical feats or heart-stopping thrills. There are no massive set-piece battles or escalations to increase dramatic tension. What there is, is good acting a sensible story and a reasonable pace: not too fast and not too slow - there's always something developing, but it doesn't crash from crisis to crisis.
The scene is set in the 12th century - around the time of the civil war (and by coincidence, the same period as Cadfael though there is no similarity with its clean, ordered and sanitised stories - other than there being a lot of monks in both). It weaves between the story of the stonemason and the intrigues of the royal court and machinations of the ruling classes. Although I don't usually know (or care, or have an interest in) which actors play what roles, a worthy mention goes out to Ian McShane for his depiction of a shifty, dodgy bishop.
The series help itself greatly in two ways. First of all, by being screened on a Saturday evening: generally a televisual desert, unless you think games shows and reality TV are the acme of quality viewing. Further, it started off with the first two 1-hour episodes back to back. That made it easy to get hooked and invested in the characters and the story. The series came from a book of the same name by Ken Follett. I'll definitely be looking out for more programmes made from his content in the future.
Good work.