Desperate Romantics Episode 1

It was very strange and exciting to watch this programme which stepped into the Pre-Raphaelite world, a place which has been the source of my inspiration for so long. So far there are only two characters in this episode of Desperate Romantics who appear in Possessed - Lizzie and Gabriel. It was very curious to watch someone else's chracterisation of them. This episode focuses on the entrance of Lizzie into the Pre-Raphaelite milieu and Possessed sees her leaving it with Gabriel's grief and sense of inadequacy. Possessed comes about ten years after this when the original Brotherhood has gone its separate ways and Gabriel is at the heart of the second wave.

Bowker has invented the character of Fred Walters as a narrator and commentator acting as a link between the artists and the audience. Although he is a fictional character he is very likeable and takes the place of the ordinary man, surrounded by the larger than life characters of the artists. I wonder why he didn't use William Rossetti, Gabriel's brother, who was a member of the PRB even though he wasn't an artist. William could have acted as much the same character.

It is impossible for me to be objective about the series, in any kind of way, but I am pleased that it has happened. I am on the Greek Island of Patmos at the moment and so will have to wait until I return to see the rest of the series.

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