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Home Front - Radio 4 serial based in Folkestone


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I think that the Home Front series set in Devon is the best yet.

The storylines surrounding conscription and the spy-fear concerning the German monks at Buckfast Abbey, are gripping.

Found a link about the latter

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02fbgpd

My only gripe is that some of the expressions used in the dialogue aren't convincing. I'm sure I heard one character say 'sorted' (!) recently. Another mentioned having an 'issue ' with the crane at the quarry.

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I have kept listening and the storylines seem to be more engaging than in some of the previous series. I agree that, as mentioned before in this thread, the inauthentic-sounding dialogue is the main stumbling block to full enjoyment of the show. Setting the current series in Devon also courts danger with the potential for 'Ooh, aah, O'ill have a point o'cider' Mummerset accents. In this context there is an interesting short interview with the actress Maggie Steed, who has based her character's accent on her own great-grandmother's:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03qvdhx

One has to be careful about criticising accents and dialect in radio and tv drama. A few years ago, listeners complained about the obviously fake Scottish accent of the character 'Jazzer' in 'The Archers'. Needless to say, he is played by a real Scotsman.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The latest series has quite an interesting plot line based on the real-life rebuilding of Buckfast Abbey during the war. The fact that many of the monks were of German origin is made much of and the wartime Abbot, Anscar Vonier, appeared as a character in a recent episode.

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Indeed Mark. I hadn't realised about the German monks at Buckfast Abbey until read a kindle novel titled 'A Land of Shades' by Charles Lyte . The author is from Devon, and set a section of the novel in the area, and the said German monks are featured.

I think that 'Home Front' continues to improve all the time.What I particularly like is that for the moment the series seems to avoid setting up either heroes or pantomime villains.

Regards

The latest series has quite an interesting plot line based on the real-life rebuilding of Buckfast Abbey during the war. The fact that many of the monks were of German origin is made much of and the wartime Abbot, Anscar Vonier, appeared as a character in a recent episode.

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  • 4 weeks later...

We're now coming to the end of the current run of 'Home Front'. I've made a point this time of listening to every episode on the day it is broadcast. I have quite enjoyed the South Devon setting, knowing the area vaguely. I have also found the ongoing conscription storyline more engaging than some of the unlikely Folkestone threads. In my anorak way, I've picked out a few errors, including the apparently anachronistic use of the term 'foxhole' and two of the characters singing 'Roses of Picardy' months before it became popular or possibly was even published.

Presumably the series is moving back to Kent, in which case I wonder if they'll simply abandon the Devon characters they've introduced. Not much was made, for example, of Maggie Steed's eccentric old woman in the end.

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I didn't realise that the Devon sequence of Home Front was about to end. Think that overall this run has been the best. It was great to show the complexities of the cases that could come before Military Service Tribunals- I can't think of any other Great War related fiction or drama that has done this.

Agree with you about the expressions use in the dialogue aren't convincing. Hadn't noticed the error regarding of 'Roses of Picardy' .

Indeed, hope that the series will return to Devon at some point.

Regards

We're now coming to the end of the current run of 'Home Front'. I've made a point this time of listening to every episode on the day it is broadcast. I have quite enjoyed the South Devon setting, knowing the area vaguely. I have also found the ongoing conscription storyline a little more engaging than some of the unlikely Folkestone threads. In my anorak way, I've picked out a few errors, including the apparently anachronistic use of the term 'foxhole' and two of the characters singing 'Roses of Picardy' months before it became popular or possibly was even published.
Presumably the series is moving back to Kent, in which case I wonder if they'll simply abandon the Devon characters they've introduced. Not much was made, for example, of Maggie Steed's eccentric old woman in the end.

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I thought things went downhill a bit when the irritating Kitty Lumley rolled up from Folkestone. I know that she's effectively the heroine of the series but I thought things were going on fine before her arrival in Devon. It was good to hear the mellifluous tones of Anton Lesser on the programme; Brian Protheroe, the singer and actor, who plays crusty old Mr Gidley, I hadn't heard of in years. I must admit that despite at one time being a doyen of pub pop quizzes, I had to look up the name of his 1974 hit single: 'Pinball'.

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Oh my goodness me! I remember 'Pinball' , I was about 12 when it was in the Hit Parade. Apparently Morrisey is a great fan of the song.

Well I think that Kitty Lumley had to appear to try and connect Devon with Folkstone as it were.

I think that the Gidleys are totally convincing, behaving as a family from their class background probably would, and well acted.

I'm sure that Alex Gidley won't survive the War though.

I thought things went downhill a bit when the irritating Kitty Lumley rolled up from Folkestone. I know that she's effectively the heroine of the series but I thought things were going on fine before her arrival in Devon. It was good to hear the mellifluous tones of Anton Lesser on the programme; Brian Protheroe, the singer and actor, who plays crusty old Mr Gidley, I hadn't heard of in years. I must admit that despite at one time being a doyen of pub pop quizzes, I had to look up the name of his 1974 hit single: 'Pinball'.

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The series returns on 8th August. There were several loose ends left dangling at the end of this run.

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  • Admin

A barn fire - bit Archers don't you think? I enjoyed the perspective on the tribunals even if at times there was some stereotypes in the name of drama.

Espionage to look forward to

Ken

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Previous Home Front recordings are available on CD. I was given series 1 as a birthday present last year.

Regards

Alan

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Yes a barn fire seems to be obligatory in an agricultural drama just as much as a 'medieval ' novel. And the cliff hanger concerning whether Dieter / George will emerge or not is obviously a standard ploy.

Well there some stereotypes used during the tribunals but having read some contemporary local newspaper accounts of them a few years ago, I thought that they were quite believable.

Glad to hear that other pals are enjoying 'Home Front' .

A barn fire - bit Archers don't you think? I enjoyed the perspective on the tribunals even if at times there was some stereotypes in the name of drama.

Espionage to look forward to

Ken

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All the episodes broadcast so far (nearly 300) are also available on BBC Radio iPlayer. As I said I have finally got into this series despite or possibly because of its echoes of 'The Archers'. Apart from the barn fire (when I swear I heard one of the characters cry ' Grace, for God's sake don't go in there!') my favourite was the device of characters addressing each other by their full names, in the manner of Joe Grundy.

Incidentally, I still have a copy of one of 'The Archers' tie-in novels from the 1970s, 'Spring at Brookfield' by Brian Hayles, set in the immediate aftermath of the Great War when Walter Gabriel, Dan and Doris were young. I'll have to dig it out.

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  • 2 months later...

Only just realised that 'Home Front'  is back on again ! Have  started listening to the latest Ominbus . Anyone else joining me in celebrating its return ? 

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I must admit that I have been otherwise occupied and haven't listened to any episodes of the new series yet. As I mentioned above I made an effort to hear the whole of the last run, set in Devon and was a bit disappointed that the setting had moved back to Folkestone this time. I'll have to try and catch up.

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  • 2 weeks later...

For one reason or another I missed the first few episodes of the new run but tried listening to the last omnibus. I couldn't really make head or tail of what was going on but what I heard didn't make me terribly keen to catch up on what I'd missed. I enjoyed some of the last series set in Devon but am coming back to my previous opinion that for various reasons this show doesn't really work. I've listened to a lot of radio drama over the years so don't have a problem with it per se but I simply don't find 'Home Front' that involving as a story or convincing as a drama.

Edited by Mark Hone
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Yes tend to agree. The plot lines are silly at the moment, and I started laughing out loud in places.. I hope that the series gets back on track. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

There was a band playing in the background under the dialogue of two characters today. The action is supposed to represent this date, 8 September, one hundred years ago.

 

The tune ? "Fame and Glory" by Albert Matt. First published in 1924.

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Oh, dear, that's even worse than the scene mentioned in an earlier post in which two characters sang ' Roses of Picardy' on a date several months before it was published.

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It's the scene where the wounded policeman with the face mask (is his name Morton ?) is out on the beat with a colleague for the first time after returning to the force.

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Yes, I heard it on the omnibus edition repeat on Friday night. In retrospect Folkestone was a pretty good choice for plot lines, with e.g. the Canadians and its real life role as a centre of espionage during the war. Unfortunately, the spy story in this series just seems daft. On the other hand, I found the episode about the disfigured serviceman returning to his former job in the police quite affecting. 

Edited by Mark Hone
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Continuing the theme of historically inappropriate music in TV dramas:

 

last night's episode of the excellent "Victoria" portrayed the courtship of the Queen and Albert, so was set in 1839.

 

In a dance scene, the orchestra played the tune I know as "The Barren Rocks of Aden" as accompaniment to a polka/Gay Gordons.

The tune was originally written by a piper of the 78th who was stationed in Aden, and it remains a very popular pipe tune, which was indeed taken up under other titles as a polka. Authorship has been disputed but was strenuously claimed by Alexander McKellar who enlisted in 1842.

In any event, there was no garrison in Aden until 1839 so even if another composer had set to with his pen as soon as he arrived there, it would be virtually impossible for the tune to have achieved popularity, reached England, been transcribed for an orchestra and found it's way on to the Buckingham Palace orchestra's repertoire by the time of the scene in the programme. 

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I'm afraid Mr Drill that, like me, you really do need to get out more.

Having said that, I was once in a production of 'The Roses of Eyam', set in 1665-6. During a church service the director had us singing 'We Plough the Fields and Scatter', originally an 18th Century German hymn not translated into English until 1861. I'll get me cassock...

Edited by Mark Hone
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