Berkeley Square [DVD]

A pleasant enough series, though I agree it was a little disappointing there was only one series and you were rather left 'hanging'. I must dispute the praise for story line and characters. The story line was surely stretching it a bit to have Hannah (Victoria Smurfit), suddenly find the baby in her charge is dead and decides to run across London, substitute the dead baby for her live one, and persuade the child minder to bury the employer's child about 2 feet from the back door of her house. Hannah then tells the young boy (8years old) of the house and then continues as if nothing had happened although now HER child is masquerading as the employers child. Oh come on, get real! One surely does not expect a 8 year old boy NOT to blurt out that the Nanny has substituted his REAL brother for the Nannies child. The story line is at best adequate, but certainly there is no real depth to it, and the baby changing idea should have been shot down due to the ridiculous events which just would not have happened. Lazy, slapdash script control. The premise of three Nannies and their adventures is good, but it is as if once the contract was signed the writers just did not realy bother to effectively draw in the viewers, and spent a couple of hours on the script and gave it a "that's good enough, let's head down the pub" attitude.As to characterisation: we have the least attractive of the 3 nannies (Lydia)being propositioned by just about every male she meets. I am sure Lydia had a lovely charcter, but a focus of uncontrolable sexual desire, I don't think so. She is at best, 'homely', and her country accent !!!!! "OOh arrr me dear, I be up from the country arrrhh!!!!". The most attractive of the 3 nannies by far was Hannah, but apart from one rather innocent 'friendly' remark made to her on a picnic, one would have thought she was 18 stone with a moustache! We then have Mattie, a mildly attractive, but extremely professional Nannie who within a few weeks stands to throw it all away by VERY quickly becoming enamoured with a rather rough bare knuckle fighter who is on the run from the law for murder! Give us a break here.So all in all, a pleasant watch, but realy one should look at it in a superficial way and just let it flow over you, and not think TOO much about the story line, or what magic potion did 'Plain Jane' Lydia used to entice every male in view to her embraces! Pete M

Berkeley Square tells the story of 3 Nannies who becomes friends as they meet up in the park, walking the infants that they care for. Irish girl Hannah (Victoria Smurfit) is the mother of an illegitimate child and she has to keep the existence of her son secret in order to maintain her job. Thankfully, an understanding landlady is prepared to care for him.Matty (Clare Wilkie) works in a household where a young man wanted for murder is being hidden by his Mother, who is the housekeeper. The lady of the house (Hermione Norris) is a discontented creature who is having an affair with a caddish officer. Meanwhile, her children barely know her or her weak willed husband.Country girl Lydia is given the chance to escape rural life - and the care of her 11 younger siblings - when she becomes the Nursery Maid to Lord and Lady Lamson-Scribener. Initially the resident Nanny (the excellent Rosemary Leach) is unwilling to have her in the nursery but as Lydia's kindness and good nature are displayed day to day, Nanny Collins comes to care for her. But will she be able to save niave Lydia from the intentions of the spoilt older son of the house, Lord Hugh?The interwoven lives of the 'upstairs' families and the 'downstairs' nursery staff are skillfully told in 12 excellent episodes. There are plot twists galore (infanticide, adultery, murder, baby-farms, epidemics etc)as well as gorgeous scenes of a bygone age. The Coronation of the new King in 1902 provides entertainment for the staff and the details of dress, language and Edwardian London life are a joy to watch.It is sad then that no further series were made. Leaving the viewers shocked at the dramas in the final episodes, we are left to wonder if happy endings are going to find our 3 young ladies? Like the equally excellent 'Lilies', Berkeley Square got only one series. A great pity - it should have had considerably more!

I settled down to watch this lovely series - and relaxed into it, immediately.Of course, I watched it years ago when it was on telly, but nothing spoiled my re-visit of the lives of these 3 girls, their friendship, histories, and different dramas.Lydia was back then, and is still, my favourite. She came to London like a lamb among the wolf pack (the other two being much more street-wise) and her good nature and friendliness brought her through her trials. Her straightforward attitude to people and life also spanned the class-system and "touched" (among others) her well-to-do employers and their aged Nanny, benefitting the whole family, including the dasterdly (emotionally starved) "lech" of an elder son, who would have benefitted from a more caring father, if Series Two had ever been made!The future of the other two nannies was left in some doubt when the first series came to an end, and it's a pity the story wasn't so rounded off for them. But Lydia - with a friendship developing with the likeable butler of her employers home - had "promise" to look forward to. One happy ending, at least.A very worthy get-away-from-it-all buy.

Very competent period drama,well acted and with largely believable characters. The pivotal plot point concerns the death of a baby being looked after by one of the nannies,although the way that develops stretches credulity somewhat and this is a bit of a jarring note in the later episodes.Still, much credit goes to this production. It is thoroughly engaging. Obviously the programme makers were hoping to make another series but for whatever reason didn't manage it. A shame,since the myriad loose ends created are now left hanging for eternity! None of the nannies are settled in any sort of happy ending and we can only speculate about the future. That can be kind of fun, but it would have been better if some answers had been provided.