Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Load of rubbish!!

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

It's been a long time since I've thoroughly enjoyed anything this good. I'm an extremely discerning viewer and I'm at a complete lost re what some reviewers were watching. Queenie, Miranda Richardson, was simply brilliant and so too was the scrumptious Anna Chancellor. Every character was brilliantly cast. I would certainly like previous reviewers to state other shows that could possibly match this level of viewing. I would so be eternally grateful. It's faultless television and probably better than Jeeves and Wooster. How has the acting world bypass Miranda Richardson whose talents are simply stupendous. Her facial expressions were magnificent and too funny. The wittisms, OMG!! Absolutely brilliant. Au Reservoir!

I really didn't think I would like this but as each episode played I grew to love it more and more and was actually quite upset when it finished. I've been to Rye and so got a lot out of watching the series and trying to familiarise myself with the streets and the extraordinary church. I thought each character was well cast and I loved the cat and mouse games between Mapp and Lucia and not knowing what plot each one would come up with next. I thought Miranda Richardson was fantastic in her portrayal of Mapp, including her fake teeth and the way it forced her to talk.... very funny. The characterisation was brilliant, as was the set and the way Tilling looked exactly as you would imagine. Had I seen the 1980's version I would be able to understand why a few of these reviews favour the former series, however I feel in love with it and just wish there were another series to follow.

I think I know my "Benson(and Holt etc)".I watched this entertaining contemporary take on Lucia's progress with great interest.Longitudinally,Mapp is Lucia's nemesis.What ever is going on in Lucia's busy social life there is always an awful possibility Mapp will pop up.She,well,is not a nice person.One thing I'd like to suggest to the makers of this current series,your production is absolutely sumptuous with fine views of Rye and environs,please don't truncate stories to fit time slots.Two tales ought never be abridged,"War and Peace" and "Mapp & Lucia". That said,there is now surely enough written material to make a longer series than "Downton Abbey"!

The BBC version of Mapp & Lucia was adapted by Steve Pemberton who also appeared with his The League of Gentlemen collaborator, Mark Gatiss.Miranda Richardson plays Mapp with a shark like toothy smile, Anna Chancellor is Lucia a manipulative woman trying to pass as accomplished and both ladies vie in a game of acidic one upwomanship as outrageous snobs in the town of Tilling.The version has been compared unfavourably to the Channel 4 version from the mid 1980s and frankly this was a misfire. The first episode dragged with the highlight being Chancellor dressing up as Elizabeth the First in a parody of Richardson's own portrayal as a brattish Elizabeth in Blackadder 2. The second episode was better as the cook from the Bengali restaurant pretending to be a guru and swindling everyone but by this time the audience had dwindled and they did not return for the final episode where Lucia tried to pass as a fluent Italian speaker as she puts on a music recital.The episodes were bitty, never really flowed and never truly engaged and even after the poor first episode had a tendency to be heavy going. After the recent poor version of Blandings by the BBC, this was a notch above that but this types of acidic-comic adaptations of books are more a state of mind, difficult to bring to the screen for a mass audience to enjoy and this serial should had gone out on BBC2.