Cranford

Cranford is a popular novel of the 19th-century English writer Elizabeth Gaskell. It was first published in 1851 as a serial in the magazine Household Words, which was edited by Charles Dickens. A collection of comic sketches, these stories look to sympathetically portray changing small-town customs and values. Bringing back memories of her childhood in the small Cheshire town of Knutsford, Cranford is an attempt to portray an affectionate picture of a class and customs already becoming anachronisms. The novel has been adapted for television by the BBC three times, latest in 2007. The 2007 version featured Judi Dench and Eileen Atkins in the leading roles as Miss Matty and Miss Deborah Jenkyns, with Imelda Staunton cast as the town's gossip, Miss Pole, and Michael Gambon as Miss Matty's former admirer, Mr. Holbrook. The BBC sequel, Return to Cranford, was broadcast in 2009 in the UK and 2010 in the USA.