History Series / Cranford

Set in the early 1840s in the fictional village of Cranford in the county of Cheshire in North West England, the story focuses primarily on the town's single and widowed middle class female inhabitants who are comfortable with their traditional way of life and place great store on propriety and maintaining an appearance of gentility. Among them are the spinster Jenkyns sisters, Matty and Deborah; their houseguest from Manchester, Mary Smith; Octavia Pole, the town's leading gossip; the Tomkinson sisters, Augusta and Caroline; Mrs Forrester, who treats her beloved cow Bessie as she would a daughter; Mrs Rose, the housekeeper for Doctor Harrison; Jessie Brown, who rejects Major Gordon's marriage proposal twice despite her feelings for him; Laurentia Galindo, a milliner who strongly believes men and women are on equal footing; the Honourable Mrs Jamieson, a snob who dresses her dog in ensembles to match her own; Sophy Hutton, the vicar's eldest daughter and surrogate mother to her three younger siblings, who is courted by Doctor Harrison; and the aristocratic Lady Ludlow, who lives in splendour at Hanbury Court and perceives change as a peril to the natural order of things.

* BreakTheCutie: Miss Matty gets her heart broken at ''least'' once an episode. Seeing as how she's played by Judi Dench, [[TearJerker tears from viewers follow]].

The principal male characters are new arrival Doctor Frank Harrison, who is smitten with Sophy but unwittingly becomes the romantic target of both Mrs Rose and Caroline Tomkinson, who frequently feigns illness to hold his attention; Dr Morgan, an old-fashioned practitioner who finds himself challenged by the modern ideas of his young partner; Captain Brown, a military man whose common sense earns him a place of authority among the women; Edmund Carter, Lady Ludlow's land agent, a reformer who strongly advocates free education for the working class; Harry Gregson, the ambitious ten-year-old son of an impoverished poacher, who as Mr Carter's protégé learns to read and write; farmer Thomas Holbrook, Matty Jenkyn's one-time suitor, who was considered unsuitable by her family but is anxious to renew his relationship with her; Reverend Hutton, a widower with four children whose religious conviction is sometimes at odds with his instincts as a father; and Sir Charles Maulver, the local magistrate and director of the railway company.

* AnyoneCanDie

* BrokenBird: Miss Matty. She'd already had a rough go of it even before the BreakTheCutie began...

* DisappearingBox
* GorgeousPeriodDress
* GossipyHens

** The Honourable Mrs. Jamieson, who is carted about in a sedan chair and is terribly condescending to the ladies of Cranford who are not as well-endowed as she.

* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: Sophy Hutton, Peggy Bell. Miss Matty is an older example; she was this in her youth, and still retains the personality (and the hair) by the time the story takes place.

-->'''William''': You ''don't'' want to marry me, do you?
-->'''Erminia''': ''No!''

* PuppyDogEyes: Miss Matty. And given what the poor woman goes through... well, there's a reason viewers spend most of their time wanting to hug her.

* BrokenBird: Miss Matty.

* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: Sophy Hutton, Peggy Bell. Miss Matty is an older example; she was this in her youth, and still retains the personality (and the hair) today.

* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: Sophy Hutton, Peggy Bell. Miss Matty is an older example.

* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: Sophy Hutton, Peggy Bell.

* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: Sophy Hutton.

''Cranford'' is a [[Creator/TheBBC BBC]] television series based on four books by Creator/ElizabethGaskell: ''Cranford'', ''The Last Generation in England'', ''Mr Harrison's Confessions'' and ''My Lady Ludlow''.

* CoolOldLady: A cast full of them, particularly Matilda Jenkyns.

* ObliviousToLove: The extent to which Doctor Harrison can't seem to take the hint from poor Caroline Tomkinson is almost amusing.

* RousseauWasRight: While no character in the cast is free from flaws, all are trying to do what they honestly believe is right and best. The sole exceptions are [[spoiler:Lady Ludlow's wastrel son Septimus and Peggy Bell's no-good gambling brother. Both are only concerned with their own selfish ends...and know it.]]

* UnwantedHarem: Poor, poor Doctor Harrison.
* TheWoobie: Practically ''every single episode'' manages to break Miss Matty's heart in one way or another.

* TooImportantToWalk: Mrs Jamieson

* MoodWhiplash: Each episode is often so full of reversals, twists, and emotional upheaval that it can be quite exhausting to watch. Fortunately, it does these well, without ever devolving into a melodramatic mess. Incidentally, this wouldn't be [[Series/CallTheMidwife the last time]] writer Heidi Thomas would be noted for this.

* MoodWhiplash: Each episode is often so full of reversals, twists, and emotional upheaval that it can be quite exhausting to watch. Fortunately, it does these well, without ever devolving into a melodramatic mess.

* MoodWhiplash: Each episode is often so full of reversals, twists, and emotional upheaval that it can be quite exhausting to watch. Fortunately, it does these well, without ever devolving into a melodramatic mess. (Similar praise would later be given to ''Call the Midwife'', also written by Heidi Thomas.)

* MoodWhiplash: Each episode is often so full of reversals, twists, and emotional upheaval that it can be quite exhausting to watch. Fortunately, it does these well, without ever devolving into a melodramatic mess.

* AllStarCast