This reminds me of an anecdote told of actor Robert Hardy, when he was making Sense and Sensibility in 1995. Emma Thompson asked if he could ad lib some appropriate-sounding, 1820-ish conversation with co-star Elizabeth Spriggs in the background of one scene, and Hardy proceeded to do just that.

Carol is still going strong, though, and that’s the main thing. Melissa McBride has been the beneficiary of the show’s best character arc, and even when the writers let her down, McBride manages to power through by dint of fine acting.

Jumping ahead to next week, I hope there’s room for a mention of J.S. Le Fanu’s masterful 1839 tale ‘Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter’ (a revised version called ‘Schalken the Painter’ was published in 1851). It’s a deeply unsettling story, and there’s little doubt it involves a marriage between the…

I’ve heard enough stories about Harlan to know that ‘prickly’ is putting it mildly. My only personal interaction with him was when he phoned my husband and I one night - we ran a small press publishing company specialising in classic ghost/horror stories - because he’d heard we were doing a collection of stories by…

Why not just an iced coffee? I make them at home all the time. Brew up a pot of strong coffee, put it in a pitcher in the fridge, then pour some coffee over ice and add 2% milk (no sugar or syrup). A lovely ice-cold caffeine kick.

My dad was, for several years, head referee for the British Columbia Junior Hockey League, and when I was in my teens I used to help him with the schedules: who was reffing, who was lining. For years before that I used to go with him to games he was reffing; I spent hours and hours sitting in cold, draughty arenas (I…

Your incessant monologizing fills the castle with ennui.

You should. I’d never heard of Cenac, and only stumbled across the show earlier this month when it came on after Last Week Tonight. Intrigued by the opening credits (really!), I kept watching, and now I don’t miss it. Cenac is an engaging and laid-back host who doesn’t get in the way of the people he’s talking to, and…

Seconded. On the one hand, yay for a show that has a definite end point; on the other, boo that we’ve seen the end of that haunting, beautiful, savage (but with unexpected moments of tenderness) world.

Watch Ric Burns’ documentary The Donner Party, which is brilliant. It was on YouTube for the longest time, but seems to be gone.

I think that’s pretty much what they’ve planned: each series will explore a different real-life tragedy. The Donner Party has been suggested a lot (naturally).

It did say that the search party showed up two years later, but I didn’t take that final scene on the ice as necessarily being at that same time.

Stan Rogers’ ‘Northwest Passage’. Greatest Canadian song ever written? Quite possibly.’Seeking gold and glory / Leaving weathered, broken bones’.

I see the episodes available, but even though it says I can watch if my provider isn’t supported (which it isn’t, being Canadian), there doesn’t seem to be a sign in option for me.

I don’t think I can from Canada - I’ve checked before - but I’ll take another look and see if it’s changed.

Thanks all who replied. Like I said, it was really bright here; our living-room window faces due east, it was about 6.15 p.m., and it’s been a scorching hot day with a blazing sun, which a) aren’t the best conditions to watch The Terror in and b) make it hard to see details on the screen sometimes. It’s one reason I…

Sean: First of all, thank you for your sensitive, thoughtful, often poetic reviews of this series. I doff my (wholly inappropriate for the Arctic) hat to you.

I might have to watch a repeat later tonight, but I thought that might be Crozier’s Netsilik family at the end, and his son sitting beside him at the ice hole waiting for a seal, which would indicate how much time has passed. The boy looks to be six or so, and didn’t Crozier say in an earlier episode, when discussing…

It was way too bright in our place to see the picture clearly (I watched the eastern feed at 6 west coast time), so I couldn’t tell what drew Crozier’s gaze to Hickey’s (I think it was Hickey’s) left boot when he ws brought to the camp. My best guess it was Fitzjames’s, but I couldn’t see well enough. Can anyone…

I heard ‘ghost’ too, but didn’t have the subtitles on.