I grew up on a Sunday ritual of
Masterpiece Theatre. Each week a new episode filled with great characters and stories. The original mini-series format can be found in Masterpiece's Upstairs Downstairs and the
Forsyte Saga. The heart of the original series,however were the classics. I really do think that one of the reasons I am a Reader is because of time spent with Masterpiece Theatre.
Oliver Twist
That is why I was thrilled when the all new Masterpiece was launched last winter. Now divided into three formats, Masterpiece Classics, Masterpiece Mystery and Masterpiece Contemporary. I once again have a weekly appointment with PBS! Tonight Masterpiece celebrates its beloved and iconic host Alistair Cooke on his 100
th birthday with The
Unseen Alistair Cooke featuring the 8mm footage that Cooke took to chronicle his travels throughout his career.
This week
Rebecca Eaton, Masterpiece's executive producer, unwrapped Christmas early with the announcement of the new 2009 season which will begin on January4. A perfectly! cast new host, Laura
Linney, will present Thomas Hardy's
Tess of the D'Urbervilles 
followed by, grab the Kleenex,Emily
Bronte's Wuthering Heights 
on January 18, February 1 brings a reprise of
Sense and Sensibility 
(LOVED!) and then the cream of the season with an "Incomplete Collection" of the writer Masterpiece belongs with, Dickens!- February 15 a 2 part
Oliver Twist 
,March 15 an encore showing of
David Copperfield 
, March 29 a 5 part!
Little Dorrit
,and May 3 Old
Curiousity Shop. The season ends with encore showings of last season's Persuasion on May 10 and My Boy Jack on May 17.
The Old Curiousity Shop
Television can never be a replacement for books and the joy of being drawn into a story through reading...but if Masterpiece can introduce young readers, and not so young readers, to Dickens and Bronte and Hardy and Austen...then it is indeed a Masterpiece! Go Read then Go Watch!!!
Oliver Twist
The Old Curiousity Shop