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The Camomile Lawn [1992] | ![The Camomile Lawn [1992]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51HX87M586L._SL160_.jpg)
 enlarge | Actors: Polly Adams, Susanna Best, Ellis Dale, John Elmes, Jane Evers
Studio: Cinema Club
Category: Video
List Price: £9.99
Buy Used: £3.89
You Save: £6.10 (61%)
New (1) Used (18) Collectible (1) from £3.89
Rating:  5 reviews
Format: Box Set, Pal
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Media: VHS Tape
Discs: 1
Number Of Items: 2
Running Time: 262 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 4.7 x 2.4
UPC: 044008501039
EAN: 5024165071762
ASIN: B00004CMA0
Theatrical Release Date: March 5, 1992
Release Date: April 14, 2003
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Out of print title. Used. Some light surface scuffing to transparent sleeve of outer box. Limited areas of light edge-rubbing to colour slip note, and some rippling due to presumed water damage. Image and sound quality remain excellent. Adeptly packaged and padded for safe and secure shippng and dispatched from the UK within 2 working days.
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| Editorial Reviews:
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, menage a 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
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| Customer Reviews:
 How The War Really Was? October 27, 2004
Sarah Bonner (Eastleigh, Hampshire)
22 out of 24 found this review helpful
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 I can tell they portray the desparation of war very well, the whole "live for today, because you don't know if there will be a tomorrow" attitude. Each character is very strong and played by actors who have gone on to greater things. It tackles some rather "touchy" subjects very well. You really will not be able to stop watching it when you start!
Great Drama; Shame About The DVD Presentation October 26, 2003
E. A. Redfearn (Middlesbrough)
20 out of 24 found this review helpful
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 extras or even sub titles for the deaf and hard of hearing which is inexcusable. Still, its a good buy and can be bought at a good price. Fans will probably buy this anyway.
Gloriously decadent wartime drama April 27, 2006
james-Arundel (Arundel, West Sussex, U.K.)
17 out of 17 found this review helpful
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 ladies in the earlier period. Rebecca Hall shines as the naive but worldly child Sophie, trying to make sense of the adult world around her. There are also some cleverly observed turns from the male cast, including the irrascible Richard (Paul Eddington), Oliver (Toby Stephens), and some lovely supporting roles, especially that of no-nonsense, heart of gold Aunt Sarah played marvellously by Polly Adams (Aunt Helen, A Dark Adapted Eye).
Kendal reprises her role in the "present" with grey wig and heavy makeup, while Calypso and Polly are played by Rosemary Harris (Ehle's own real life mother) and Virginia Mckenna respectively, giving a convincing likeness to aid continuity whilst showing that time has most definitely moved on. Claire Bloom seamlessly takes the role of the older Sophie after a gap of forty years, giving a new perspective on the events she witnessed as a child.
The plot and characters are perhaps slightly frivolous against the backdrop of war, but nevertheless capture the essence of the time. The character of Calypso, a woman who most definitely "had a good war" is a very likeable but recogniseable stereotype.
The Camomile Lawn certainly contains some potentially shocking material, both in terms of language and sex, but it is a highly enjoyable and entertaining story of a family's survival and thirst for life under the shadow of World War 2, and their recognition in peacetime forty years later that some things were less complicated then than now.
 Reminiscent randy relationships of relatives and friends December 2, 2006
B. Chandler (Arlington, Texas)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
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 the casualties of war and the trials for those left behind. In the midst of this people are growing up and making decisions, strange or unconventional decisions. Some of the film has the feel of the movie "To Kill a Mockingbird".
At first I was distracted because the actors are so well known such as Felicity Kendal (Helena Cuthbertson) and Paul Eddington (Richard Cuthbertson.) Hoverer by the end I came to look on them as the characters that they are playing.
Being a mini-series there is more time to add the finer points of the book. However there are a lot of subjects and actions that are just implied or not complete thoughts. I can only assume that the film relies heavily on one reading the book first. With the exception on one story line being wrapped up in the end many lose ends lead one to realize this is not a story with a beginning middle and end; it is just a snippet of life that is taken at face value as we move on.
 The Camomile Lawn June 23, 2007
D. E. Gamble (London UK)
1 out of 7 found this review helpful
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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