Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Greetings, everyone.
[00:00:03] This is Moya with how Bette Davis saved my life. With a new segment for how Bette Davis saved my life. Life lessons from classic Hollywood called late to the party.
[00:00:15] As you can hear, the party's already started. And what I mean by late to the party is recent movies that Georgia and or I have recently seen, and you've probably already seen, but we want to talk about them. So sit back, relax and enjoy this brand new segment of how Bette Davis saved my life. Life lessons from classic Hollywood called late to the party.
[00:00:48] This time I want to talk about the palisters and barset chronicles by Anthony Trollope from the 18 hundreds. Anthony Trollope was a writer. He and Dickens came out around the same time. They're contemporaries, I believe.
[00:01:08] But to say that he and Dickens were around the same time, they took very different views of british life, London life, the british empire life. And let's get into that, because I did not know about Andrew Trollope until recently.
[00:01:27] I had seen and I didn't know one of his movies or movie based on his work, Doctor Thorne. And I really enjoyed it. And they mentioned his name then, but it did not dawn on me that Anthony Trollope was such the great writer that he was until I saw the Palacers bar set Chronicles. And I just want to say thank you to Daisy Mason and books and things, their YouTube channels for their content, because I. Daisy Mason has the Pallisers, the BBC series on YouTube. It's for free. And books and things. She talked about Anthony Trollope and a little trivia. So go and check those channels out. They are really, really good. Great. And I want you, if you haven't already seen it, because I am 46, 46 years plus late and you guys have probably seen it, the Palacers and the Barsack Chronicles, 50 times over. But let's talk about it because I so enjoyed it. It stars Susan Hampshire as Glencora, Philip Latham as Plantagenet. Also has Barbara Murray, Donald McCann and so many great actors I can't even name.
[00:02:45] Again, it's set in the 18 hundreds between victoria and edwardian times.
[00:02:50] And again, this was in 1974, this BBC series, 26 episodes. It was on tv, and it follows the aristocracy at the time. It features a duke who is a cousin to Queen Victoria. And this is all fictional, by the way. Now, the duke's only heir is Plantagenet palliser, aka planty pal. That's what his friends call him and some of his detractors. But planty pal, and so planty pal again is the duke's only heir, he eventually goes on to marry young, rich orphan named Glencora. Now, keep it in mind. Glencora is rich, filthy rich, has her own money. But this union is not welcomed by either them, by planty Powell or Glencora, because they are both in love with other people.
[00:03:44] Glencora is in love with a highly questionable young man of no means, who may or may not be a fortune hunter. And let's just go with maybe.
[00:03:57] And Plantagenet.
[00:03:59] He's infatuated with a married woman. Both of these things are unacceptable out in the daylight or out in the open. And, you know, they had these. These rules back then. If you were married as backwards as this was, it looked better for you if you were having an affair. Crazy, crazy, crazy. But those were the norms of high society, the aristocracy back then.
[00:04:27] So the powers that be, the duke and some, these two old dragons, these two old crows and battle accents that were in Glencora's family and on her side, they harangued Glencora and planty pal to get married again. Neither one of them wanted to. And you can just see the anguish of both of their faces as they walk down the aisle and take their vows. And Glencora hesitated because she was daydreaming about the other guy. I mean, it's great, you know, I love this kind of stuff.
[00:05:00] Also in this series, Glencora and Plantagenet, they're the Pallisers. But the series also takes off on other peripheral characters that are in the Plantagenet. I'm sorry, in the palace lives. And some of them are Phineas.
[00:05:21] And we also have Lady Laura.
[00:05:24] We also have. And that's a saga between them and their love affair. Okay. And I'm not gonna get in. I want you to watch it. This is Dallas. Good. As I say, I could not stop watching it. But. And, you know, back then, money was everything. Money meant a lot. Money and status. So obviously, the more money you had, just like now, the more options you have. But there was. The norms of society are not as strict. You can marry outside your class, your race, or whatever back then.
[00:05:56] And a woman, you know, if she had money, once she married somebody, it all became his. That's why the guy in Glencore's life, who she really loved, you know, probably was a fortune hunter. But the woman gave up all rights to her money. And this happened with Plantagenet. Even though he was not a fortune hunter, he was heir to the duke's fortune, but he became lord over her money.
[00:06:21] So that plays a part in the saga with Lady Laura, and it is very tragic for her. But she. And Phineas. Phineas is from Ireland, I believe, and he goes on to have this political career. And it's a roller coaster emotion, guys, you have to look at it. Now, there's also Madame Max, who is absolutely. She is the angel of this whole saga, if you will. If you will.
[00:06:49] She is a fabulously wealthy widow, I believe, from maybe Austria, from german or some of that parts. And she's in banking, and she helps the pallisers and Phineas and everybody around here. She's nothing but a help to them. So pay attention to her. And an actress who played her was absolutely fabulous. And I also want to go back, go and talk to. I'm sorry to talk about, again, how trollop goes through all these. He has all these moving pieces, all these different characters, but yet they all coincide with each other. They orbit around each other and they. It makes sense. None of the pieces don't fit. And they're not just characters for character's sake. There's murder, there's sexual incompatibility, you know, people getting together just for survival, betrayal. It's fabulous. Now, I also want to go into the Barsack Chronicles. Now, the bar set. So the palaces is a sequel to the Barsack Chronicles. So the palaces has a lot of political intrigue. And Plantagenet becomes, of course, this is all fictional. He becomes prime minister. So. And this was a piece of history of. From british history that I did not know about, about this establishment. I'm not saying it right, but decoupling them, the british empire from the Church of England. Okay, disestablishment. I'm not.
[00:08:26] I'm not saying it right. But again, that's what I said. So I didn't even know they were trying to do that. Trying to remove Church of England as the established church of the realm. And very interesting.
[00:08:41] Now, Barr said chronicles, that when you go on YouTube, YouTube, it's called the barrister Chronicles. It's mislabeled, but it's the barset Chronicles. But if you type in barrister, you might still get it. It is the prequel to the pallisers. So where the pallisers is political, secular, political intrigue. The bar sec Chronicles is church intrigue. And whereas the pallisers has a lot of funny moments, the bar set chronicles is hilarious. And it's really frightening how the clergy play these games and use people. And there's a young Alan Rickman in it. He's so handsome, but it is a riot. Donald pleasence is in it. So take a look at that. And if you look at that first, I did not look at that first. I didn't know about it. I looked at the palace first. But I highly recommend look at the bars at chronicles first, then look at the palisters. Because the political intrigue about church disestablishment, if that's the right word, it will make more sense to you.
[00:09:48] And as you watch the palisters, the relationship between Glencora and Plantagenet, in my opinion, really defines what marriage marriage can be.
[00:10:05] Especially when you marry under duress, or the opposite. You marry in total love and romance, but it kind of fizzles.
[00:10:19] Is there a sense of duty? Can you look at the big picture?
[00:10:25] Can you accept certain uncomfortable truths about each other still go on?
[00:10:32] Can you see beyond this person's flaws and move on and do what's best for the family?
[00:10:42] They were a power couple and I'm pretty sure no one was using that term back then and in the seventies when this came out. But people throw that word around nowadays. But they were a power couple because they understood the importance importance of their relationship and it went deeper than emotions and feelings. Very mature. Plantagenet and Glencora were extremely mature about the whole situation and as you will see their relationship grow and evolve organically through some very rough times. And the unity and understanding that they had for each other, you will see, comes across as very genuine. So kudos to Trollope for writing this like this and for the production company behind this series, this epic saga for conveying that. But again, tell me, what do you think about it? I love to know.
[00:11:42] So, my fellow stars and starlets superstars, don't forget to comment. Let us know what you think about these movies. Did you see these movies?
[00:11:53] Comment, share, subscribe, like follow, do all that. We really appreciate it. Let's keep these great series and films alive.
