Audience Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 5024165071762
Format: Box set, PAL
Label: Cinema Club
Languages: EnglishOriginal LanguageAnalog
Manufacturer: Cinema Club
Number Of Discs: 1
Number Of Items: 2
Publisher: Cinema Club
Release Date: April 14, 2003
Running Time: 262 minutes
Studio: Cinema Club
Theatrical Release Date: March 05, 1992

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Editorial Review:

Amazon.co.uk Review:
Adapted from the novel by Mary Wesley, The Camomile Lawn proved one of Channel Four's most successful dramas, telling an intricate story set during World War II and over two days in 1984. In this portrait of the Home Front in Cornwall and London in the Blitz, the titular lawn becomes a symbol for halcyon pre-war days, and also for a lost innocence on a personal level. For this is very much about growing up and sex, including rape and child abuse (both handled tactfully, mainly in dialogue), adulatory, ménage á trois, bisexuality and rampant promiscuity. The attitudes, from the war-damaged, nihilistic Oliver, (a powerfully charismatic Toby Stephens) to the mercenary Calypso (an incendiary Jennifer Ehle), and some individual scenes, shock in their very matter-of-factness. What could be salacious soap is leavened by a comic touch, intensified by tragedy and elevated to intensely moving drama during its final half hour set around a funeral in 1984. Generally excellent production values make the best of the television budget, and there are outstanding performances by a large cast including Felicity Kendal and Paul Eddington (reunited from The Good Life), Tara Fitzgerald in her first starring role, and especially Rebecca Hall as Sophy.

On the DVD: The four episodes are presented on two discs, with a total running time of approximately four hours 22 minutes. There are no special features of any sort. The picture is standard television 4:3, and while marginally better than VHS has a slight softness, with occasional after-images to shots with moving lights betraying that the series was made on video rather than film. Some scenes are rather grainy and there is the occasion brief instance of MPEG artifacting. The sound is stereo and appears to have been remixed from mono, some elements such as the music remaining in mono, while some sound effects are stereo. --Gary S Dalkin




Rating: - The Camomile Lawn
In this war time drama everybody seems to be doing it - and I don't mean their bit for King and country. Sometimes the events of World War II appear to be used as mere padding for a series of gratuitous sex scenes. This otherwise good war time drama would be considerably improved by the removal of some of the unnecessary breasts and bare bottoms.
"Oh Max, the weather was simply beautiful during the fall of France - let's have sex!!"

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Rating: - Reminiscent randy relationships of relatives and friends
The story starts out with people going to Max's (Oliver Cotton) funeral 40 years after WWII. On the way to the funeral each person, several generations of family and friends reminisce on their earlier war years where five cousins gathered at their uncles' house with a chamomile lawn.

The costumes and sets were impeccable and carried you to a different world and time. You feel that you lived through the war. We see the destruction and disruption caused by the war.

We see ... Read More

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Rating: - Gloriously decadent wartime drama
The Camomile Lawn is a production bursting with delicious characters superbly portrayed by a quality cast. The "action" is split between the early years of World War 2 and the "present": 1980's/1990, telling a number of individual but interlinked stories that are by turns touching, shocking and humorous. The lovely Jennifer Ehle as the promiscuous and self seeking Calypso, Tara Fitzgerald as Polly and Felicity Kendall as Helena all bring glamour to their excellent performances as the three leading ... Read More

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Rating: - How The War Really Was?
This film is set in two time scales: now and during WW2. The characters are played by the same actors in both, just aged in the "now" time frame. The story revolves around a group of teenage cousins who spend summer at their aunt (Felicity Kendal) and uncles (Paul Eddington) house in Cornwall, where there is the Camomile Lawn. Then war breaks out and they all go their own ways leading their own (fascinating) lives. This really is a whole lot of individual WW2 experiences which intermingle. As far as ... Read More

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Rating: - Great Drama; Shame About The DVD Presentation
I first saw this drama when it was first broadcast by Channel Four during the early 1990s. Its still wonderfully entertaining today. Based on a Mary Wesley novel, its a story of families and friends as they prepare for war in 1939. Many fine actors grace this drama, and as far as I know, it was the lovely Jennifer Ehle's debut. The only complaints I have though is that the soundtrack is a little inconsistant; the picture looks smudgy at times, maybe because it was shot in soft focus. And there are no ... Read More

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