I read the book by Philippa Gregory a few years ago and thought an adaptation of the book would be worth watching. However, the T.V. version did not have the menace of the book. The T.V. series might have worked better as a three parter as the 2 parts seemed to be rather rushed. Why was the male teacher character in it?, what was the role of the sister in Canada? why did the dad change character in the last half hour? Who were the American relatives (and why were they mentioned at all?) And worst of all why change the ending - the ending in the book was far more clever

This two-part TV production was going along quite well, I thought, heading for an anticipated showdown between Francesca Annis's mother-in-law from hell and her would-be victim Lucy Griffith and also one really good twist surely just around the corner waiting to finish it off neatly. Instead, we get a blink-and-you-miss-it denouement with Annis at last getting her just desserts and Griffith turning the tables on her even after the wicked witch is dead, but it was an ending without surprise or tension and for me let down what had been reasonably effectively built up till then.Not that there weren't other faults too, for example, Annis's husband Tim Pigot-Smith's character is too ambiguous. In episode 1 you're convinced he's in cahoots with his wife's nefarious and frankly unfathomable wish to appropriate Griffith's child for herself but in the second show, he's revealed to be innocent and in fact exposes, even if unwittingly, some of Annis's devious plans. There's also a male friend of Griffith who you think is going to play a bigger part than he does and there's also an obscure red-herring too in the references to Annis's other daughter, who now lives aboard and obviously has a testy relationship with her mother, presumably because she wasn't a boy.There were no genuinely scary moments, the only fairly mundane attempt being Annis's silly dressing up as Griffith's late mother, in full 60's hippy gear, to supposedly convince her victim she's lost her mind, but it maintained a decent head of steam up until that anti-climactic finish which let it down.The acting by the four leads is all good and a chilly if not chilling atmosphere is pretty well conveyed from the start. Again I felt a bit more menace could have been conveyed in the sets for the houses themselves especially given the series title, after all.

The beautiful Miss Lucy Griffiths is the only reason for watching this weary exposition of one of T.V.'s favourite themes - two strong women in conflict over two weak men. Miss Francesca Annnis - looking scarily like Cherie Blair - is made up like a pantomime dame and about as convincing as the loopy mother - in - law.Used to dominating her husband and son,she initially finds her daughter - in - law equally submissive,but,as they clash over her obsession with controlling her son and grandson,she finds the tables turned. For no good reason that I could make out there were unresolved sub - plots about a fatal car crash,an absent sister,a work colleague with a crush on Miss Griffiths and a mysterious figure skulking in the woods. Halfway through the first episode we are told Miss Griffiths is in fact American by birth - a complete irrelevance. At the end it appears that Miss Griffiths has in fact turned into her mother - in - law. The scene where Miss Annis sniffs the sheets on which her son had just made love to his wife made me laugh more than watching Michael McIntyre's entire output. And another thing...having been trailered by ITV so assiduously for so long before its transmission,I felt that I had seen most of the relevant parts of "The Little House" many times before. Perhaps if it had been sprung upon me cold - as it were - it wouldn't have been such a disappointment.

This was aired in the UK in November 2010 in two parts on ITV to great hype. The story concerns a woman who moves in with her new husband after unexpectedly falling pregnant. The couple initially move in with her husband's parents, Annis' creepy mother and her meek, doting hubby. The first part is extremely creepy, well written and acted by all and very believable. The plot concerns the mother-in-law's seemingly unhealthy fixation on her new grandson. Does she have a secret agenda or is it all in the mind of our young protagonist, the baby's mother? The paranoid tension is sustained throughout the first episode and we are left gagging to find out what happens next. Unfortunately, the second part doesn't do so well. Sub-plots are tantalisingly introduced and promptly dropped, e.g. a long-distance call from the grandparent's estranged daughter, the main character's mysterious background involving a car-crash and her missing parents, the main character's friend and confidant (who has feelings for her) and who it turns out has nothing to do with the story, and the grand-father who has a bewilderingly unexplained out-of-character change of heart toward the end. Worst of all though is a deeply unsatisfying and unbelievable cop-out of an ending that seems to have been made up on the spot. Perhaps they should have stretched the plot out to three episodes to allow the story to breathe and the plot threads to be resolved. Overall, an exciting drama but one I'd have reservations in recommending due to the silly ending