After reading the rave reviews on this site I bought this DVD. I love British (period) drama, and many favourite actors and actresses were in these mini-series (Jennifer Ehle, Paul Eddington, Toby Stephens...). What can I say? It's absolutely awful. There isn't anything redeeming about it: the plot is ridiculous and boring, the script is embarrassing and all seem to be giving the worst performances of their lives. As mentioned by others, there are lots of delicate issues like adultery etc. and usually I'm fine with it, but in these mini-series all incidents are just uninteresting and ridiculous. For the first time, I gave a 1 out of 10 rating to British mini-series. I'm not even watching the second DVD. P.S.: By the way, I was particularly disappointed with Jennifer Ehle, who I have loved in each and every role (Pride and Prejudice, Possession, Paradise Road).