Amy and I powered through Parts II and III (A&E miniseries, 1999) last night really because we couldn't turn it off. Richard E. Grant is the dashingly heroic Sir Percy Blakeney and Elizabeth McGovern is his French wife Lady Blakeney, the former actress Madame Marguerite. Grant isn't your typical leading man as far as looks go, but in the same way that Colin Firth IS Darcy, he's absolutely mesmerizing as The Pimpernel. Lady Blakeney is a strong female character who becomes an integral player in The Pimpernel's missions to rescue French aristocrats from the guillotine. The two of them had a fantastic chemistry that overcame the many implausible plot twists. (I won't even go into the whole accent issue except to say that it's so typical of an American production to screw that up.) The Bottom Line: We loved it. --Kim
Okay, I was actually disappointed by this one. Loved Richard E. Grant, of course, and would have sat through much worse just to watch him. But in the books it's all about his brilliant disguises, and he really doesn't do much of that at all in the TV series.
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