This should be a lot more loved than it seems to be. If you like fantasy stories you will find this to be a very ambitious and well executed. Top shelf acting, sets and ideas. Bravo! Probably not going to be as appealing to some of the Harry Potter fan base because it's a bit more cerebral. Although, I like Harry Potter too. If you like Neil Gaiman's stories you will probably like this.

Living in the U.S., I'm not able to keep up with what's on television across the pond but I was pleasantly surprised to find that someone had made a TV adaptation of this wonderful fantasy book. I figured it would be mediocre since I hadn't heard much about it up to this point but was pleasantly surprised. This miniseries exceeded my expectations.The casting was great and the set design and direction really encapsulated the book's feel. I won't squabble over the parts it glossed over since it had to compact a 1000 page book into a 7 episode mini-series. Overall, I thought it did a fine job of keeping the important events. For television, the CGI and special effects are quite good. Despite the fact I already knew the plot, this series kept me on the edge of my seat.

After reading some reviews and seeing the high ratings Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell got I thought it was going to be really good. The truth though is that it isn't that good as you think it was going to be. It's okay to watch once though but in a couple of weeks I will already have forgotten everything about it. The main actors Eddie Marsan and Bertie Carvel did a good job though, like everybody else of the cast. There's nothing bad to say about the acting nor the actors. It's just the story that is sometimes a bit long and boring. The way they talked in that time doesn't do it any good either. Aside the odd magical scene every now and then there is not much sensation about this series. But like I said, to watch it once is okay I guess.

I enjoyed this book (it's one of my sons' top three books ever) and bringing this to the screen is a masterpiece of casting, use of sets, costume and effects. This would have been great on the big screen. I watched this with my wife who is not into fantasy type books or films and her summary at the end was "I loved it!" Eddie Marsans portrayal of Mr. Norrell is a masterpiece of characterisation but there are no weak portrayals anywhere in this. I've only given 9 stars rather than 10 because of the modern curse of sound recording and accent whereby realism takes precedence over clarity and there are a few lines where it's easy to miss what has been said and I found myself going back to listen again. This is infrequent enough to be only a minor criticism. Overall, even for no fantasy lovers, this is well worth watching.