Prismark10 Given Queen Elizabeth the First once remarked about the amount of coloured people in London, it is safe to assume we have had black and Asian people in England for centuries. Shakespeare even wrote a play about a black king. Back in the Victorian era there was a black policeman on the beat in Carlisle in 1837.There was a magisterial film version of Howards End in 1993. This adaptation of the EM Forster novel was done by Kenneth Lonergan, fresh from his best screenplay Oscar success for Manchester by the Sea.Set in Edwardian England we see a saga of three different families in the social and class divide. The wealthy Wilcoxes, the middle class and idealistic Schlegels and the lower class Basts.I found this four part version rather slow going and flabby. It is very difficult to feel any sympathy for the selfish Wilcoxes with a couple of big houses, putting their oar in and causing misery for others especially the Basts. We never really see them doing any work for a living.Even the Schlegels, a Jewish family from Germany who might be liberal idealists, they end up being comfortably off with Margaret marrying Henry Wilcox despite them having little romantic chemistry.It is a shame about Leonard Bast, he always ends up with the brown end of the stick as others tell him what is best for him and then wish to give him a thrashing to the inch of his life.I expected something better from Lonergan, something more waspish with a contemporary sting.

janicehughes Jacky Bast as an African women, racially mixed marriages in Edwardian England? I don't think so, especially since no one so much as raises an eyebrow. Not to mention the Schlegel's family doctor as an Indian man and the Schlegel's housemaid as an African women? Domestic servants in Edwardian England were white. Many scenes with carefully placed non-Europeans. This is supposed to take place in Edwardian England, not modern day London. Tibby Schlegel's un-Forsterian rant, comparing Henry Wilcox to Joseph Conrad's Kurtz in Heart of Darkness is ridiculous, if not subversive. I cringe to think of what's coming next, so I'll stop watching. It's so consciously politically correct that it distracts from the actual E.M. Forster story. The Schlegel women's strong, resolute personalities however are an important part of E.M. Forster's story. This is not E.M. Forster's though, it's a dishonest representation of Howards End and Edwardian England. For the real thing watch Merchant Ivory's beautiful and respectful 1992 film adaption of E.M. Forster's Howards End.

asastewart I'm writing this review after episode 2, mainly to counter some of the other overly critical reviews of Howard's End.I loved the movie version with Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins, but I feel this miniseries version can explore further some of the issues and topics E.M. Forster touched on in his book; class, gender, nationality etc. Also the mirrored circumstances across the class divide and how characters deal with themAs regards race and some of the casting i.e. the housemaid and Jacky Bast, I think they were interesting choices and one Forster would have approved of. He was a fierce opponent of racism (especially anti-anti-semitism) and, to answer another question a reviewer posed, yes there were black people in Edwardian London, all part of the class struggles of the period.The cast are all excellent, especially Hayley Atwell and Philippa Coulthard. The costumes and cinematography are great. In the first episode the background music seemed rather loud and obtrusive, but this wasn't a problem for me in episode 2. I'm looking forward to episodes 3 & 4.To those who say it's slow and nothing happens, I'm not sure what to say. Maybe watch the other channel with 'I'm a celebrity get me out of here' on it, or a Transformers movie.

derek-eynon In a whole one hour episode virtually nothing happens, various vacuous letters are exchanged, and that is about it.The locations are superb, and a very good cast, but the whole thing is utterly, utterly vapid.Uninspired, colourless, uninteresting, feeble, flat, dead, dull, boring, tedious, tired, unexciting, uninspiring, unimaginative, lifeless, zest-less and spiritless