With Cranford going out on a high last night and a bag of Baftas pretty much guaranteed, what is the appeal of costume drama? Yesterday, the Observer published a list of readers' favourite period pieces and it made for predictable reading, with Pride and Prejudice claiming the number one spot. (Of course, as Rachel Cooke pointed out, this was before Elizabeth's Gaskell's ladies made their mark).
But why? What is it about these stories? Is it the simple escapism - to times we imagine to be gentler, or simply better dressed? Is it the "room after room of the best props money can buy" that attract? Is it not so much the stories but the production values we love? After all, Elizabeth Gaskell's concern with the plight of the working classes, in North and South say, is a world away from the Brontes' tales of love on the Yorkshire moors.
Or is it something else? Is it the comfort of the conservative worlds that are depicted, even if they are in upheaval? Is it the absence of difference - of black faces, for example - that some people find consoling. (I'm sure that's certainly part of the appeal of Heartbeat and its ilk). Is it the more traditional gender roles we find attractive - when men were men and women were girly?
If period dramas says as much about the time in which they're produced as the times in which they are set, what does the popularity of Cranford especially say about Britain in late 2007? A cosy town, wary of progress, fearing the influx of strangers - the Irish! - and the threat of the old ways being trampled on or trundled over by the coming of the railway and, by extension the outside world. Is it some commentary on the UK's uneasy feeling about globalisation? The residents of Cranford have, after all, quite happily reaped the benefits of empire and welcome the influx of silks into Mr Johnson's shop but aren't so enamoured by reciprocating such a relationship. That there's even been a collapsing bank in Cranford is just plain spooky. Or - and here's a thought - is the appeal and importance of costume dramas overplayed by wanky media types, eager to show off their appreciation of 19th century novels? Be very careful with your answer ...
Read more McLean on TV here