'Cranford': Life as an Open Book

Imagine a time before online social networking sites alerted the world to a person's relationship status.

Enter Miss Pole, the town crier of sorts in "Cranford," PBS's three-part miniseries that chronicles life in a small British village in the 1840s.

"She brings all the news, the most important news to everyone, whether it's about lace or whether it's about someone ill or dying -- she gives it the same importance," said actress Imelda Staunton, whose character spends almost as much time running from house to house with gossip as she does sitting still.

The miniseries, which was so popular when it aired in England in 2007 that work has begun on a sequel, is based on the novel "Cranford" and two other stories by 19th-century author Elizabeth Gaskell.

Judi Dench, Michael Gambon and Eileen Atkins portray some of the other town denizens.

But the actors are just one part of the story's appeal to modern viewers, said Rebecca Eaton, "Masterpiece" executive producer. The sense of community embodied by people such as Miss Pole also is important.

"Because everybody knows everybody else's business . . . privacy is a little bit of an issue," Eaton said. "On the other hand, you're never alone, and people look out for each other in a way that is getting lost."

In addition to comedy that includes a cow in pajamas and a lace-ingesting cat, "Cranford" tackles the fear of change, as represented by the arrival of the railroad.

"Their world would literally never ever be the same -- and we know what that feels like," Staunton said.

-- Becky Krystal

CRANFORD

Sunday, May 11 and 18

9 p.m., PBS