@merryapril said:

Thanks bratface. That article gives a nice, succinct sense of the French interest in India and why it waned, and how the decline of Muslim rule created opportunities for the English. In reading about the British East India Company today I learned the Portuguese were dominant there earlier. Some Spanish too. And of course the Dutch. So, all of the Usual Suspects!!!

You are welcome.

I watched Episode 2 the other night (have been endlessly playing catch-up with things for over a week, otherwise would have commented on this thread, anew, sooner than now), and it has me now invested in the story and feeling interest in various of the characters. (Last week's series premiere appealed to and clicked with me mainly for the sumptuous visuals.)

Indeed, the story is soapy - though that's perfectly okay; the soap factor is actually ideal, and I welcome it, for summertime weekend-night viewing when you just want to chill, not have to think too hard, and be divertingly entertained.

John Beecham's mother came quite a bit into her own in the 2nd episode, and I like her. I could just picture her type going around and unceremoniously inventing new names (for her comfort) for all the Indian servants, just so she'd not have to be bothered with remembering or pronouncing their "impossible" non-English names.

We now have a bit of progress made regarding the matter of who is baby August's mother (and who is not). By the way, I still don't have track of hardly any of the individual characters' names. I can easily enough remember Mrs. Beecham's last name though as, after all, it's right there in the title.

E2 has brought us a budding interracial romance (like of course is always inevitable in any story set in old-time India that involves natives' co-existence with European characters).

Now that I feel sufficiently invested in the series' various storylines, I was sorry to see E2 end as I was enjoying it.

Meanwhile, with E2 came the question some of us have no doubt been left wondering: Can you really pick up and hold a live scorpion in your hand and it not sting/kill you? Anyone here want to try that and (hopefully) then get back to us?

@genplant29 said:

I still don't have track of hardly any of the individual characters' names.

Here's an article that might help gen.

https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2020-06-22/beecham-house-itv-cast-tom-bateman-lesley-nicol-dakota-blue-richards-itv/

Thanks, brat. Probably by the time I've gotten all the names (particularly the Indian ones) straight and committed to memory, it'll be the finale. lol

Has E1 aired on your local station yet? I know you've said that station runs things 8 or 9 days after when things have their nationwide air date on most PBS stations.

@merryapril said:

....I agree that Leslie Nichol kind of seems miscast compared to what we're accustomed to seeing as the snooty British mother, but I wonder if the Beecham family may be newly wealthy at that point, perhaps mercantile, more gentry, IYKWIM? Ditto about her voice!....

I agree with everything said about A Passage To India and The Jewel In The Crown (re-watched it this past year for the umpteenth time and it continues to hold up extremely well) being superior, but it would be hard for anything to beat a David Lean film or Paul Scott's comprehensive (but dry in a matter-of-fact manner) Raj Quartet....I enjoyed Indian Summers and wouldn't mind viewing that series again too.

One thing I liked about the Beecham House premier, besides the promise of good production values, is that it will prompt me to look into the actual history (a big reason why I like period drama) of French interest in India (if it truly existed as depicted). I only associate the Brits as colonizers when I think of India....

I'm actually not at all minding Lesley Nicol's Mrs. Beecham character or the voice thereof. Nicol seems to have tried really hard to minimize the character's accent (in fact in E1 I thought she seemed to be almost trying to "sound American" [possibly the actress trying to quash her own personal accent]). I absolutely agree with the earlier-expressed opinion that Lesley Nicol is not the regal type. Still the type that she is I think works for the Mrs. Beecham character, as I don't think she's actually supposed to be a great sophisticate - just is a well-off, somewhat spoiled (more so I think simply set in her ways) English widow. I can easily picture the character having started out in life with relatively humble origins, but marrying a man who became either a military officer or a commercial success and amassed some wealth, thus she herself gradually moving up in social position through the class ranks.

@merry, I'd definitely like to at some point watch The Jewel in the Crown again. It was probably the late 1980s when I last saw it. That's one of the series that has always really stuck with me (another is the magnificent Brideshead Revisited, which is my #1 all-time fave, and I think is definitely one of the very best, t.v. miniseries).

I'm with you, that I hadn't realized there was any French colonization in India back during the period that Beecham House is set during.

@genplant29 said:

Meanwhile, with E2 came the question some of us have no doubt been left wondering: Can you really pick up and hold a live scorpion in your hand and it not sting/kill you? Anyone here want to try that and (hopefully) then get back to us?

How to pick up a scorpion.

"When you pick up your scorpion, grab it at the tip of the tail just beneath the stinger using your index finger and thumb. This will prevent the animal from whipping its tail and injecting you with venom. Use two fingers to firmly yet gently grip the tip of the scorpion's tail when attempting to move the animal."

Thanks, @wonder!

You've saved any of us from needing to try and find out via personal experimentation.

@genplant29 said:

Thanks, brat. Probably by the time I've gotten all the names (particularly the Indian ones) straight and committed to memory, it'll be the finale. lol

Has E1 aired on your local station yet? I know you've said that station runs things 8 or 9 days after when things have their nationwide air date on most PBS stations.

Yes, I watched it last night. It is beautifully shot but I wasn't really drawn in. Maybe because I know the outcome? I usually love these kinds of programs but...? I also didn't like Nichol's character or her portrayal. I will watch the next episode but I'm thinking that will be it.

I think it becomes interesting and enjoyable in E2. In E1, not all that much seemed to actually be happening, though in E2 things finally get up and running.

Please, someone correct me if I'm wrong, but in Ep. 2 I thought I heard John Beecham allude to his father as having been transported to Australia. That indicates criminality (I don't know if transport would've been imposed for indebtedness as well), although in those days it wasn't uncommon for people to be given very harsh sentences for even minor crimes (by today's standards) and transported. Some didn't survive the long journey, which took several months. I don't know who he was referring to if it wasn't his father but he definitely said something about someone being transported to Australia.

merry, I think I kinda remember him stating something along those lines about someone, though if so I only half-heard it, so didn't catch the specifics.

Ummm, genplant, I can't say I agree with you about "not at all minding" Mrs. Beecham!!! Her son hasn't seen her for 12 years, yet she invited herself to India before he'd even settled into his estate or knows if he'll be granted a license to set up trade and do business, AND at an inopportune time weather-wise as well (yet she has the nerve to bitch about the heat and native summer apparel). PLUS she presumed it's her role to run the household, rudely giving the servants Anglo names because she can't be bothered to learn how to say their given names. She's insufferable. A mother from Hell. If bad language were permitted here (maybe it is but I'll restrain myself), I'd use THE HARSHEST in reference to that obnoxious woman! Crikey!!! HOWEVER, I won't be surprised if at some point she's given the opportunity to redeem herself magnanimously, somehow. I have to suspect the writer may have made her so bad so soon in order to astonish us later in the series. Time will tell!

merry, Mrs. B, indeed, is all the things you said. She definitely functions in a reality and vacuum of her own inner making.

I think she's supposed to be intended as the somewhat "comic relief" of the characters - sort of a scattered variation on the Countess Violet character of Downton Abbey who could get away with saying, or thinking aloud, pretty much anything.

It's an interesting side detail that apparently Mrs. Beecham is some extent of addicted to cocaine. I thought I simply imagined it the first time cocaine was mentioned, though then her companion, Violet, said the word "cocaine" again, and we then see Mrs. B having to take to her bed, with one of her heads, and it becomes evident that she truly does get herself doped up (apparently to relieve migraines). That was an unexpected revelation.

By the way, you mentioning her inviting herself to come live with son John has me thinking about her companion Violet. As far as I can tell, Violet is just a "regular person" (I mean not from some enobled or elite family) - which if the Beechams were actually significantly "somebodies" (of some title or whatever) in England I'm suspecting Mrs. B would think John could be expected to marry higher than Violet. Yet, for whatever reason, Mrs. B views Violet as a great catch for John. Meanwhile, local governess Margaret Osborne is looked down upon, by Mrs. B, as basically just hired help.

@merryapril said:

Please, someone correct me if I'm wrong, but in Ep. 2 I thought I heard John Beecham allude to his father as having been transported to Australia. That indicates criminality (I don't know if transport would've been imposed for indebtedness as well), although in those days it wasn't uncommon for people to be given very harsh sentences for even minor crimes (by today's standards) and transported. Some didn't survive the long journey, which took several months. I don't know who he was referring to if it wasn't his father but he definitely said something about someone being transported to Australia.

"John Beecham (talking about his brother Daniel): "He's irresponsible. When I look at him... I just see our father. God forbid, he ends up like him... in some convicts' colony in Australia."

Hmmm. So that was stated. I do remember that now! Thanks, @wonder!