Good Stuff! By John Brown News of the World, Belgravia, and Dr. Thorne

I recently watched a movie and two British TV mini-series that were just terrific.

The movie is News of the World. It’s a Western set in 1870, starring Tom Hanks as Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, a former Confederate officer who makes a living traveling from town to town in Texas and reading newspapers to local residents for an admission fee of ten cents.

After departing Wichita Falls, Kidd comes across an overturned wagon on the road and finds the driver, a black freedman, had been lynched. He also finds the stray, young white girl who only speaks Kiowa (the language of an American Indian tribe), that the freedman has been transporting.

Kidd learns from the girl's paperwork that she is Johanna Leonberger, who had been kidnapped and by Kiowa six years earlier. She doesn’t speak English. Doesn’t want to go with Kidd. But Kidd is tasked with getting her to safety. Of course there are all sorts of perils and issues along the way that threaten that goal.

There’s suspense, action, drama, bad guys, and some poignant moments that will move your heart strings. If you like westerns or Tom Hanks, I think you’ll love this movie. It’s the best western I’ve seen in a long time.

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Those of you enjoyed Downton Abbey will be very happy to hear that Julian Fellowes, who was the executive producer for that series and wrote many of the episodes, is back and has written two more historical dramas with that same type of feel.

The first is Dr. Thorne, a three-episode miniseries based on the novel by Anthony Trollope.

It’s set in the late 1800s. Mary Thorne and Frank Gresham, the only son and heir of the squire of Greshamsbury, fall in love. However, Frank’s parents want him to marry wealth because they have very little to leave their son. Mary is penniless and of suspicious birth. She’s not anything at all that would help Frank in the world. And so the drama begins. You get to enjoy the historical setting, the manners, and romantic suspense.

The second is Belgravia, a six-episode miniseries set in the 1800s and based on the novel of the same name by Julian Fellowes.

 For you geography buffs, Belgravia is an actual place, an affluent district of London. And the story set there is about two couples. The first, the Richmonds, are part of the aristocracy. The other, the Trenchards, are from the business class.

The Richmond’s had one child, a son. The Trenchards had one child, a daughter. The two fell in love. But the son was killed in the battle of Waterloo. And the daughter died in childbirth. However, it was an illegitimate childbirth that the Richmonds don’t know about. The Trenchards thought it best, to retain the reputation of their daughter, to have someone else raise him.

Twenty-five years later, however, both couples still feel the hole those deaths left in their hearts. Mrs. Trenchard feels it’s time to reveal the truth to the Mrs. Richmond. But it does not go as planned. Especially not when the Richmond’s nephew wants the Richmond’s inheritance and is willing to remove all obstacles in his path.

It’s a story full of manners, heartbreak, suspense, hope, and, well, I won’t tell you the ending. But I will say that if you like these types of historical dramas, you’ll probably love this.