I've been revisiting this wonderful mini-series on DVD, watching it on a hi-res screen, and note that the image-quality is really appalling. It looks like they took an old VHS tape, and strained it through a sieve. Which is probably pretty close to what actually happened, the "sieve" in this case being a really crude digital-compression system. Too bad, because it contains a lot of beautiful scenic photography, which has been turned to mush.

I thoroughly enjoyed this series(VHS format) but the DVD version seems to be missing some scenes.
Has anyone else noticed this or is it my imagination?

This 4-video set is one of those rare birds -- an adaptation that is better then the original book. Peter Mayle's A Year in Provence is good, but the screenplay made a few important changes that made all the difference.

The addition of a wife for Mayle is the main difference. While Mayle has a wife in the book, she fades so far into the background as to be virtually invisible. I see from the dedication in the book that her name is Jenny, but since the screenwriter had to create a wife out of whole cloth here, he gave her a new name as well -- Annie. The addition of Annie and the casting of Lindsay Crouse make all the difference.

Another difference was to subtract ex-spouses and grown children, which serves to streamline the story. Peter in the film is somewhat more short-tempered and loud than Peter in the book, but this makes a nice contrast with Annie. And who is going to make himself out to be a blowhard in his own book, after all? The rest of the story is much as Mayle wrote it.

This set has become one of our family favorites. We borrowed the public library's copies several times, then finally bought our own and watch it at least once a year. It's broken down into twelve 30-minute chapters, one for each month. You can watch it in half hour chunks or 90-minute doses, a whole season (and tape) at a time. The chapters stand alone, but are also threaded together to make a real story. In fact, the story comes together so neatly, that one suspects that although these episodes may really have happened, perhaps they happened over a period of several years, or in a different order. Still, some of the best non-fiction writers out there are novelists at heart.

The acting and the scenery in A Year in Provence are just great. The French characters are played by French actors and speak no English in the film. Since the Mayles are learning French, they are able to translate for us and it doesn't seem awkward.

There you have it: entertaining writing, good acting, gorgeous scenery, and a free French lesson thrown in.

I enjoyed this. I enjoyed Lindsay Duncan as Annie Mayle having seen her prior as the looney blond in "Under the Tuscan Sun" -- totally different woman here. Having done renovations recently, I also completely identified with the ongoing kitchen renovations and other things. I confess I've only partially finished the book after 10 years of owning it. I always get busy and it seems episodic and not terribly compelling to continue with. The DVD, on the other hand, I enjoyed, but felt it might have been slightly wackier in tone like the books. I don't know what's up with the baker story at the end but it's a complete ripoff of Marcel Pagnol's "The Baker's Wife." Maybe it seemed like a good idea on paper, but it left me searching for the remote to fast forward through these sections. As for Provence, this isn't picture postcard Provence like we're used to but real Provence, complete with telephone poles in frame. It reminded me a lot of California farmland. This is enjoyable but it's not stellar. In the end I'll keep memories of Lindsay Duncan, the beautiful house they chose, a few scattered moments here and there, and little else. But don't get me wrong. I liked it, I just wasn't captivated by it and maybe that's really in the writing and especially the direction which is a bit pedestrian considering the book is so almost universally loved and is of a different tone than this more even-keeled film version. The second disc, by the way, is excruciatingly bad when seen as a whole. Except for the petanque storyline, one finds himself turning on this series as extremely contrived and resents that yet again for the 100th time too many it seems the Mayles are called in to save the day for the French, as if they haven't been doing it on their own just fine for some time. The sense of superiority is annoying. Go home to England TV versions of Annie and Peter Mayle. Your fish out of water story has run out of water and leaves just a little too much fish.

Peter and Annie, a retired ad executive and a tax accountant, leave behind England's dreary weather, wilted vegetables, and ironical dinner parties, for Provence, a region of Southern France. They throw themselves wholeheartedly and usually with good humor into the mysteries of truffle hunting, grape pressing, and french conjugations. No need to worry about what you remember from French class, if anything--Peter and Annie translate as they go along. Personally, I could watch John Thaw open mail and be satisfied, but this video is great for re-establishing one's faith in community loyalty, fine dining, the British sense of "humour", and happy endings. Suitable for children.