MrsE

Segundus: Childermass! What happened to your face? Childermass: Someone mistook it for an apple.

Re Drawlight's pronunciation of Norrell: spelling and pronunciation in English surnames/place names are only loosely connected! The tendency to Frenchify names by placing stress on the second syllable is simply snobbish (French displaced Latin as the, well, lingua franca of the educated and wealthy after the conquest, and British English, by contrast with French, emphasises the first syllable as a rule); Drawlight is nothing if not a snob. Lady Pole tried to kill Norrell because she knows of the deal he made with The Gentleman, a deal which has landed her in the purgatory of Lost Hope.

I suppose we each find some actors easier to read than others; I find his face - and eyes - very expressive. There is a scene which takes place at Trenwyth over Christmas in which he doesn't say a word, but conveys perfectly the emotional epiphany he is undergoing.

I think that Childermass can be described as Mr Norrell's man of business. And he is most alluring.

I love Childermass. That is all.

I can't agree that all he did was smoulder. Is that what he was doing at the dinner? What I saw was someone trying very hard (and actually succeeding) in keeping his feelings in check out of deference to others. He wasn't smouldering when he got back to Nampara; he wasn't smouldering in the sequence in America; he wasn't smouldering much at all as far as I can see. Perhaps you have a different idea of what constitutes smouldering.

There will be another season when Mantel finishes the third book.

He's taking names, and will be looking for opportunities to make them pay. They consistently underestimate him because of his humble origins and unshowy manner, but they may well regret that. In answer to an earlier question, the programme attracted huge critical acclaim in Britain. I don't know anyone who watched it who wasn't completely entranced by it. The production design, lighting, very sparing use of music unless it's "in scene", all very atmospheric. Rylance I think perfectly conveys the rise of a new class of courtier, a process started under Henry VII who valued ability over social standing. His very unobtrusiveness is dangerous because it means that he is overlooked by those who equate power and agency with status and bravura. He's like an animal that stays very, very still and so goes unnoticed by other predators. The King recognises his worth and that in itself is a double edged sword. And this is what I think makes this not a straightforward history, but the use of historical figures to illustrate certain human traits and immutable truths: these people represent power, ambition, hubris, ego, pragmatism, love, loyalty. Oh, and there is some absolutely top notch swearing from Norfolk which is worth the price of admission in itself.

I think it likely that the first appearance of Sweating Sickness in 1485 is coincidental. It wasn't recorded in Europe before then and appeared there later, which doesn't suggest, to me at least, that it was imported by the invading army. There have been a number of theories about what it was, including hantavirus, but it disappeared entirely which might mean that it mutated into something less lethal.

The doctor was played by the late Richard Morant (d. December 2011) and he did indeed also play the estimable Bunter to Edward Petherbridge's Lord Peter Wimsey.

I'd like to add that I think that the post coital, erotic daze Demelza was in was beautifully conveyed. The lying amongst the flowers, the gazing at her man in the field and the heartbreakingly giddy run into the house with the cornflowers at which point the whole fantasy fell apart. I could have cried for her.

Wrong show. Turner's character, the vampire John Mitchell, fought and (un)died in WWI. I think his flaws are fairly obvious - he doesn't think things through or consider the impact of what he does on others; he is, it seems, prone to hit the bottle when things go wrong and he has a tendency to be arrogant and self righteous. I'm not sure that the wedding and subsequent celebrations took place on a day that those involved should have been working. People did, after all, get married and celebrate the fact. I'm also not sure what the alternative to the human chain in the mine would have been at that time. The point of the sequence was, I thought, to illustrate that he rolled up his sleeves and mucked in, in contrast to the drip Francis.

It's not a remake of the earlier series though, it's a new adaptation - and one that's more faithful to the source material - of Winston Graham's books. I'm enjoying it so far although I think that the cliff top galloping would benefit from a little judicious editing.