Return to Lark Rise

Back in November, I fell deeply in love with Lark Rise to Candleford, a BBC miniseries set in the Oxfordshire countryside, in the 1890s or thereabouts. I watched the first two seasons, relishing the daily round of life in the Candleford post office, where postmistress Dorcas Lane and her apprentice Laura sell stamps, send telegrams and dispense advice and comfort.

I watched as strait-laced postman Thomas Brown began courting sweet Margaret, the vicar’s daughter, and as Minnie, the hapless scullery maid, found her place in the post office family. (Thomas, who is devoutly religious, made the following declaration to Minnie at one point: “You have the Lord, and you have the post office. And neither will fail you!”)

During the cold, snowy days of February, I’ve spent many more hours in Lark Rise and Candleford, listening to the hamlet folk sing as they bring in the grain harvest, and grieving with them as a measles epidemic attacks their children. I’ve watched Laura’s parents, Emma and Robert Timmins, navigate the daily strains and larger crises of building a life and raising children together. Their marriage is strong and loving, but refreshingly complex and real.

This show is everything I love: warm honest friendship with lots of tea and cake, lovely clothes and a charmingly old-fashioned way of life, witty dialogue and lovable characters—ordinary people made extraordinary by their deep love for the land and their work and one another.

Dorcas Lane often says the post office is more than a job for her; it is a vocation, a life. Robert Timmins takes pride in his craft as a stonemason. All the adult characters, from the Pratt sisters (seamstresses) to Queenie (who keeps bees), draw strength from doing work they love, living in a community where they are respected and known. Their joy and contentment are utterly charming, and inspiring as I navigate my modern-day, faster-paced, big-city life.

At the end of my days, I want the same things they do: pride and purpose in my work, good food and a warm home, loved ones to share it with. That last is the most important of all: the people of Lark Rise and Candleford cherish their work and their independence, but most of all, they cherish each other.

I’ve got one more (shortened) season to go. Which is a good thing, because I’m not ready to leave Lark Rise just yet.

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