Life After Life - BBC begins this evening

Thanks for the explanations everyone who has read the book etc. I will persevere with it.

It is very rare that I don’t finish a book. In fact the only two that I can remember is Life After Life and the Time Travellers Wife. Got really fed up with the dying!!!! Still they will probably change it so at least I won’t wring my hands in frustration as I usually do when books I like or love are spoiled in this way.

I disliked 'Life after Life' intensely and am disappointed that they chose to film that one out of all her books most of which are terrific. 'A God in Ruins' is one of the best books I've ever read.

Thanks Calendar Girl for the info that the all of the episodes are now on iPlayer.

I think they must release them all after the first episode has aired. They definitely weren't available yesterday afternoon

I know what i will be doing tonight

I haven’t read the book and I found the first episode somewhat confusing. I had read about the dying several times, but I took that to mean they were showing various possibilities, different outcomes of events. So a suspension of belief. Ok. What I did not get was Ursula’s age. Born in 1910 would have made her four when war broke out, yet when her father left she was much older.

I haven’t read the book but I quite enjoyed watching it last night.

Like Love to Paint, I started to read Life After Life but couldn't get on with it. (I loathed The Time Traveller's wife and soon gave up. I seem to recall that I found it rather snobby).

However, I decided to give this series of Life After Life a go and I absolutely love it. The acting is wonderful and the photography brilliant.

Only one episode to go and I hope the ending doesn't disappoint.

I think the only book of Kate Atkinson's that I read and enjoyed was Secrets of the Museum, which my friend got me for my birthday. Also I think Transcriptions, which I didn't enjoy.

Isn't it meant to be a meditation on the many lives that a person could have led?

Just binge watched it all, loved it, especially episode four. It’s been a good while since I read the book, but will have to look it out for a re-read. The acting, the costumes, the cinematography were wonderful. There was definitely bits of the book totally missed out, but it still worked. Overall, imo, it more than did credit to the book.

Might give this one a go.
We are after something new to watch.

Thanks for this.
I loved this book as well, and A God in Ruins, I never read Transcripions as it had such bad reviews.
Like so many of you, I started with
Behind the Scenes at the Museum, loved it, leant it to a friend who thought it was awful

It’s interesting to read the mixed opinions on this. When I first saw it was going to be a series I thought how difficult it would be to put it on screen and I thought they did a pretty good job, especially with the casting. They did, of course miss a lot of the book out. I wonder if they will follow up with A God In Ruins but I suppose it depends on the viewing figures. I’m interested that those who disliked it also disliked The Time Traveller’s Wife which is one of my favourite books. It wouldn’t do if we all had the same tastes.

First time I'd seen this advertised tonight, that's my Sunday sorted!

Finished watching this adaption last night, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I loved Doris Day singing “Again” over the closing credits of episode one.

I usually like time travel and changing outcomes but this was a bit strange because each time she died she didn't die. So there was only actually one life story but it had several possible points where it could have ended.....but didn't. I'm not sure what the purpose of this is. We all have near death experiences (there was a thread about this) but we are all here, having come through them. So why is her life any different to any of our lives? I could write this story about my own life, nearly run over aged 2, nearly drowned at age 4 and again aged 17, and so on. No different from this story.

I loved the book.
I had one of those very rare evenings with no one home but me, and I planned on watching at least a couple of episodes.
I watched one, and didn’t feel interested enough to watch another one.
I think the casting was excellent, where did they find such adorable babies? I will watch the rest, and hopefully become a bit more engrossed.

Sara1954 Although I really loved it all, I enjoyed the first episode less than the next three. The repetition in it gets a wee bit irritating imo, but that obviously does fade off as she ages. I thought parts of episode four were wonderful. And I agree, the casting is excellent, so nice to see less well known faces.

Grannydarkhair
Thanks for that, I will watch it, especially now I know it becomes more engrossing.

I'm another who loved the book, definitely my favourite of hers. I've only seen one of the episodes I'm kind of savouring them rather than binging on the whole series. I thought the first one was beautifully filmed, conjuring up a bygone Buckinghamshire throughout the seasons and very well cast. Possibly, if I hadn't read the book I might be slightly baffled by the umpteen deaths of Ursula only to survive another day by living a different scenario. It's very much a suspend belief narrative. Some comparisons to The Time Traveller's Wife, personally I hated that book

I think Life after Life and A God in ruins were both phenomenal novels, and perhaps I was expecting too much.
I agree, the filming was exquisite, beautifully cast, and very atmospheric, it just hasn’t gripped me yet.

I hadn't read the book, which is probably good. I was drawn into this series immediately, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I just suspended belief, loved it, watched it over 2 days.

I too am interested in the comparisons to The Time Traveler’s Wife, which is probably my favourite book ever, and I loved Life After Life which I think I said upthread. It helps to suspend disbelief and just go with the concept. I was so disappointed with the film of The Time Traveler’s Wife. It missed out all the music that was in the book which brought it to life for me. But I’m enjoying Life After Life on telly, I think it’s done well. Looking forward to future episodes, and I agree Teddy’s story would make an enjoyable follow up.

Treebee Good point. I started and gave up with The Time Traveller's Wife twice before having to try again for a book group. Third time around, I gave up trying to reconcile their different ages each time Claire and Henry meet, just went with the flow and enjoyed it immensely. Terrible film though!

I am rereading Life and Life and have only watched one episode so far as I don't want to get ahead of where I am in the book. I felt the first episode rushed and missed the nuances and humour in Atkinson's writing but it gets the concept across well - each time Ursula is born again she knows more about what the future holds and can act to change it. I wonder whose decision is was to omit the first crucial chapter of the book. I guess someone decided it would give too much away.

Odd thing about Atkinson's novels. I've read them all and always enjoy them but can rarely remember anything about them. I remember enjoying A God in Ruins more that LaL but until I reread it I won't know why!

Just started watching it and think I feel a binge watch coming on once I realised she wasn’t going to die. Was getting upset about watching children in dangerous situations. I, too, struggled with The Time Travellers Wife until one day I just ‘got’ it. My ex husband said he read it on a plane and cried at the end. I thought the film was quite good given that it was such a difficult book to adapt. Current thinking is that when the licence fee is abolished we won’t be getting series like this….

Luckygirl3

Hmmm ... it's a good try. But the beauty of Atkinson's books is the slick verbal humour, which is not in the form of dialogue and cannot be replicated on screen.

I so agree with this.