11th Day of Christmas

My former colleague — and eternal friend — Barbara Nachman e-mailed me yesterday to say she's been watching the PBS rebroadcast of "Cranford" and pronounces it "perfection."

Well, Babs, the 11th Day of Christmas is just for you and other "Cranford" buffs. Herewith The Arts Muse offers a brief review of "Return to Cranford," airing at 9 p.m. this Sunday and next on PBS' "MASTERPIECE Classic" (THIRTEEN locally).

Judi Dench heads a superlative cast, reprising her role as kindly Matty Jenkyns, the compassionate core of an Arcadian town in 1844 England that's on the cusp of the Industrial Revolution. (It's a measure of Dench's range that while she is known for playing powerful women, like M, James Bond's no-nonsense boss, she makes Matty utterly convincing.)

Of course, Matty is powerful in her own right: She has the power of love. Love for fusty friends Olivia Pole (Imelda Staunton), Mrs. Forrester (Julia McKenzie), Mrs. Jamieson (Barbara Flynn) and Augusta Tomkinson (Deborah Findlay). Love for the town's Romeo and Juliet — rich, striving William Buxton (Tom Hiddleston) and poor but sterling Peggy Bell (Jodie Whittaker). Even love for the railroad that threatens to tear the town of Cranford apart as it brings progress.

Progress is kind to some, unlucky for others. "Return to Cranford," like its predecessor, is very much about the way we seize shifting fortunes — or don't. And while there are plenty of men in Cranford and "Cranford" — including Capt. Brown (Jim Carter), in charge of bringing the railroad through the town; Peter Jenykins (Nicholas Le Prevost), Miss Matty's peripatetic brother; the aforementioned, delicious William Buxton; and his old-fashioned father (Jonathan Pryce) — this is really the story of women as what Anna Quindlen once called "the fabric of society".

That fabric, too, undergoes changes. The women of Cranford feel the stirrings of feminism and even set their caps for careers. At one point, Mary Smith (Lisa Dillon), a friend of Miss Matty's, opines about the solitary difficulties of being a woman and a writer. (Amen to that, sister.)

Mostly, though, the women of Cranford tend the cows and gardens, run the shops, refurbish the assembly halls, and mend the broken hearts. These are the kinds of people who won't be found in history books. But we are all the richer for their having lived.