| DVD Information |  | A Fine Romance (Episodes 1-9) | | | | UPC: 054961574292 | | | Amazon.com
As the Jerome Kern-Dorothy Fields standard goes, this is A Fine Romance, a smart and low-key 1981 British series starring Oscar-winning Judi Dench and her real-life husband, Michael Williams, as a mismatched couple. This three-volume boxed set contains the first nine episodes, in which a comedy of errors keeps linguist Laura (currently translating a German textbook on urinary infections) and struggling landscape gardener Michael from hooking up romantically. It is, to again quote the song, a fine romance with no kisses (at least not until episode 6).
Like Glenda Jackson, Dench excels at portraying prickly women of fierce intelligence who possess a quick wit and a sharp tongue, and who do not suffer fools. I don't have any small talk, she complains to her matchmaking sister at a party. Or any medium talk.
Williams has a rumpled Dudley Moore quality as sad-sack Michael, the odd single chap for the odd single girl. He is, as one character notes, second division: quiet, nervous, short, and shy. His desperate attempts to find common ground with Laura--witness their ill-fated excursion to an ethnic mask museum exhibit in episode 2--make up much of the humor of these initial episodes.
As one observer notes, I like you two; you're odd. It is a pleasure to watch Laura and Michael's mutual apathy blossom into, well, you know the song. --Donald Liebenson --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition. | | | | Products related to "A Fine Romance (Episodes 1-9)" from Amazon.com | |
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