This is about caring, worrying and loving your nearest and dearest
As a new Darling Buds of May adaptation lands on ITV, RACHAEL POPOW asks, will it be perfick?
IT’S set in the late 1950s, but there’s a chance new period drama The Larkins will also make viewers feel nostalgic for the early 1990s, when ITV brought us The Darling Buds of May, starring David Jason, Pam Ferris and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
Like The Larkins, it was based on the books by
H. E. Bates about a loving, unconventional family who have created their own rural idyll, but new stars Bradley Walsh and Joanna Scanlan will be hoping to quickly put all thoughts of the previous adaption out of our heads.
Actor and The Chase host Bradley, 61 – who can also be seen making another much-loved show, Blankety Blank, his own over on BBC1 on Saturdays – thinks that while it may hark back to the past, The Larkins is perfectly timed.
He says: “This is a big family values show – this is about caring, worrying and loving your nearest and dearest. “Which, in these strange and worrying times we’ve all had recently, seems to be more prevalent and has become more important than ever. I think the pandemic has brought a lot of people closer together and they’ve realised how much they miss people in their lives and to stop rushing around, stop chasing and spend more time with your family.”
Bradley also hopes we’ll want to spend time with his character, saying: “Pop Larkin is the kind of man you’d like to spend a day, an evening, a weekend with in the pub. If you want anything he can get it, he’s always looking for a deal, and why not?
“He cares about his family, he loves his family being around him, he loves the fact that he’s the sort of dad you’d have wanted as well... for example he lets his kids drive this truck!
“He is a genuinely nice man, there’s not a bad bone in his body.”
It’s a real family affair as Bradley’s son Barney will play village policeman PC Harness.
Joanna, star of The Thick of It and No Offence, plays Ma Larkin. She became a fan of the free-wheeling, fun-loving Kentish family aged just 14.
“I was poorly and had to stay in bed for a couple of weeks,” she says. “My mum bought me a little box set which had the five books in it called The Larkin Saga.
“I still have that collection of books to this day.
“I absolutely fell in love with the Larkins. They put two fingers up at everything that didn’t count and embraced everything that did. The spirit of the books – here’s a family who are vulgar, ribald, fun, but with a wise way of life – really appealed to me and cheered me up as I got better.
“I felt I could get through anything with Ma Larkin holding my hand. She’s loving and warm but real and flawed.
“She’s not a victim, just a happy woman who’s spreading the love, someone who knows that kindness is the solution to most of life’s problems.”
This adaptation is written by Simon Nye (of The Durrells and Finding Alice) and in the opening episode, the family is looking forward to the May Day Fair. Unfortunately, there are some clouds on the Larkins’ horizon as the taxman comes calling, and daughter Mariette (Bridgerton’s Sabrina Bartlett, in the role that made Catherine Zeta-Jones a star) has some bombshell news.
The Larkins starts on Sunday, ITV, 8pm