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- Free Download Parade's End
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- Story is set against the backdrop of WWI and follows Christopher Tietjens, a top civil servant from a background of wealth and privilege, whose marriage flounders almost as soon as it begins. He falls in love with another woman, but he remains honorable for some considerable time to Sylvia who has several affairs. On top of this, Chris is dealing with shell shock and partial memory loss that he endures during the war.
- Revolves around a love triangle between a conservative English aristocrat, his mean socialite wife and a young suffragette.
- Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch (yes, that's his full name) has been busy. Between filming episodes of Sherlock Holmes, he worked elsewhere starring in this interesting and entertaining series entitled Parade's End. The story is based on a series of novels by Ford Maddox Ford.<br/><br/>Benedict plays the character of Christopher Tietjens in five episodes. After one indiscretion, his life takes an unexpected turn when he meets a woman on a train. She seduces him, and they end up copulating quite wildly in their private quarters. He deposits his seed into Sylvia on a one-train stand and ends up marrying her after she declares the child in her pregnant womb belongs to him. The entire affair is questionable because of her many lovers, but Christoper does what he does best--the right and proper thing.<br/><br/>He is not a man that is necessarily well liked and is socially awkward. The relationship with his family members is poor, he's the object of gossip, and appears to have trouble communicating his feelings. However, he is intelligent, and works at the Imperial Department of Statistics crunching numbers. In his spare time, he reads the encyclopedia and jots down corrections to the content in the sidelines of the book.<br/><br/>Sylvia, on the other hand, is quite the opposite. She's not exactly the stellar wife. To her shame she parties, flirts with men, and ends up having an extramarital affair. She blames her motives for living on the wild side on Christopher, who is the picture of perfection. She loathes him and his values, and is determined to destroy him one way or the other. In fact, she seems to treat all her men with disdain. When she leaves Christoper for another man because she's bored, abandoning even her son, Christopher keeps the proverbial stiff upper lip and parades before society, friends, and family that all is well. He refuses to divorce, because he's a good Catholic. You just don't do those things. You bear it. Live with it. And parade onward.<br/><br/>However, during his wife's escapades with another man, Christopher meets Valentine Wannop, played by Adelaide Clemens. She is young, intelligent, and a suffragette. It's one of those love at first sight moments for the two of them. Unfortunately, he's too proper to do anything about it even though they keep running into each other exchanging heartfelt glances and having pleasant conversation. When they are not in each other presence, they daydream of being lovers, but Christopher cannot cross that line.<br/><br/>Eventually, Sylvia returns to Christopher, after having a spot of remorse. She turns to religion, though you don't believe there's an ounce of purity in her conniving mind.<br/><br/>World War I breaks out, and the series takes a diversion toward wartime and life in the trenches. However, during this period of time, Christopher begins to change for the better. He becomes a stronger man who leads, and finally realizes that times are changing. It's no longer necessary to parade around as if life is peachy and all can be handled. The parade has ended, and he needs to do what is right for him as an individual--even if that means making immoral choices in order to find love and happiness.<br/><br/>It's a fairly good series, and you'll find that Benedict is not the Sherlock Holmes you know. The portrayal of this character is vastly different, but also extremely convincing and well done. He looks rather dashing in his military uniform with blond hair. You'll also enjoy the Edwardian fashions worn by Sylvia, the manipulating wife.<br/><br/>Parade's End is streaming on Amazon Prime for free. You might want to check it out. Only negative point is that I don't seem to be the only one complaining that you cannot understand what is being said about 10% of the time. Sometimes Benedict talks very fast, and it's difficult to catch the words with that thick British accent. On the other hand, it just might be poor sound quality on behalf of the producers of this film.
- Parade's End is Tom Stoppard's new adaption of Ford Madox Ford's First World War novel. One knew it was going to be good as soon as one noticed that the novelist's first and last name were the same – a sure sign of a serious and thoughtful writer.<br/><br/>The series stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Christopher Tietjens – a tightly wound, deeply honourable English gentlemen with an annoying penchant for not having sex with beautiful women who want to have sex with him. They pursue him, they flirt with him, they sometimes get down on their knees and beg him, but old Christopher doesn't want to know. He is far too busy being tightly wound and deeply honourable.<br/><br/>Directly by Susannah White, Parade's End is BBC costume drama at its most costumy, with plenty of expensive tweed, pinched in waistlines, and heaving powdered cleavage.<br/><br/>For daily TV reviews visit Mouthbox.co.uk<br/><br/>Cumberbatch must have watched many thousands of hours of Edward Fox movies, as he seems to have perfectly mastered Fox's uniquely contorted lower facial expression – that of pressing one's lips together and using one's cheek muscles to somehow force one's down-turned mouth painfully southwards towards the chin.<br/><br/>Rebecca Hall, (daughter of Sir Peter) plays Tietjens' beautiful but sex-starved socialite wife, who on one occasion strips naked in front of her husband, only to be told that he can't bear to turn away from the wall and look at her. On another occasion the poor woman is so desperate for intercourse that she jumps into a taxi in London, drives hundreds of miles to where he is fighting in France, and practically throws herself on top of him in the trenches. Meanwhile, Christopher's sagging mouth slides further and further down his face as he daydreams about his beautiful suffragette admirer Valentine (Adelaide Clemens), and what it might be like to not have sex with her again when he returns home to Blighty.<br/><br/>Clearly Parade's End is intelligent, beautifully crafted drama, without the TV soap-like qualities of the more mainstream Downton Abbey, and Benedict Cumberbatch is destined to become one of our finest serious actors. That is, of course, if he manages to avoid being cast as Doctor Who.
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