The 13th Tale

Contrived and cliche'd.

Ana Emmeline was the 'ghost' lady in white, scrabbling in the ground looking for who knows what.

What a load of rubbish

Oh I don't know now.................... maybe you're right Ana!

how can anyone not understand it, it was so simple, Ive read the book three times and I love the story. there was much more to it than the bit we saw on tv. I don't like simplified versions

Well, if you've read the book three times of course you think the story is simple to understand, cactus! As you say, the adaptation left a lot out, so I think we're entitled to be a bit confused!

I think that more than a few GNetters had a wee dram or two [or three or four] before watching The 13th Tale, it wasn't THAT complicated. LOL

Drunken thickos are we?

I needed a stiff drink after I'd watched it!

We missed Mrs. Brown's Boys for that load of old codswallop

Cactus, Please will YOU tell us exactly what happened??

Wouldn't do for us all to be alike would it? A choice between Mrs Browns Boys and The 13th Tale .... hmmmmn let me see now.

No choice at all for me. Can't see the appeal of Mrs Brown's Boys - but as you say, rosesared....

Emmeline was the old lady in the attic who the nameless woman now known as Adeline (who died in the fire she started) was looking after until she died. Then Adeline died. I would still like to know how many of the sudden deaths and disappearances were the real Adeline's doing!

That's right Lilygran, Emmeline was senile and ill and being cared for by Adeline [not the real murdering Adeline, she died in the fire she started] but Vannessa Redgrave's character who took on the name Adeline.The baby was Emmeline's and was left on the doorstep of a kind couple after the fire.He grew up to be the slightly simple minded man with long hair.The father of her baby was the boy who helped with the garden. The real father of the twins [and also the other sister] was the mad brother [who's sister and lover was carted off to an asylum]he then killed himself in the woods next to a shrine he had made there for his sister. The girls must have buried him, or covered him up , and it was his bones that were found there ages afterwards.I'm sure that the book is better and fills in the gaps that we couldn't see as a short film, but on it's own it was still excellent.

How do we know it was Adeline who died in the fire?

Because the one who saved the baby also wrestled with Emmeline who thought the baby was still in the room, and Adeline was still in there too.
When the other two got out Adeline was left................^I think^

Yes I watched 13th Tale and thoroughly enjoyed it. So well written and
performed so naturally by two brilliant actors. I've always enjoyed Vanessa.
Saw her in the 60's on stage in Prime of Miss Jean Brody. She is SO tall !
She always made me cry at the end of Camelot.
Sorry.....off topic.....I must watch the play again on iPlayer.

The best thing on TV throughout Christmas. Didn't bother with anything else.

Olivia Coleman cannot do anything wrong for me, she is so expressive and warm. Delightful in whatever she does. Never been too kean on Redgrave but cannot deny her acting skills as brilliant. What a great story.

Just because the plot is 'silly' doesn't mean it can't turn into a cracking good story - that's why I enjoy the Jack Reacher books so much. I loved The Thirteenth Tale both in book form and the dramatisation. You just have to suspend belief and let your imagination run riot!

Well said grammargran

I'd still like to hear cactus60's definitive explanation...

The Thirteenth Tale was confusing,
It didn’t have much of a plot,
If ask if I found it amusing,
I might well reply, ‘Not a Lot’

Olivia Coleman looked worried,
It’s something she does rather well,
Vanessa just wouldn’t be hurried,
Although she’d a strange tale to tell.

We all settled down to a thriller
As one of the twins was quite bad,
A child who turned into a killer
And their mother was obviously mad.

The cast was now dropping like flies,
You may well have been scratching your head
But there was yet another surprise
When a toddler appeared in the shed.

We still had a lot to discover
In case you were holding your breath,
It seems Emmeline was a mother
And mad Adeline burned to death

We need a definitive version
From somebody who's read the book
Or we might as well just cast aspersions
Which means that we don't give a f**k

Very good merlot.

They seem to have bought Olivia Coleman up as a job lot at the moment. She was in the 9 pm drama on BBC 1 this evening.