'Cranford' on PBS

Judi Dench, Imelda Staunton and Eileen Atkins may be the draw, but charming as it is, this adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell novels also has plenty to say.

It's been a good run on "Masterpiece Classic," which began in January with the start of a complete Jane Austen and ends this month with the three-part "Cranford," so it's only fitting for the series to go out with a bang. Or if not a bang, than a suitably stoic and subtle celebration of the tensions between passions and propriety, tradition and ambition that make 19th century Britain so fascinating to all us modern folk.

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