Every morning, Uncle Matthew appears on the house’s lawn, cracking a pair of stock whips and humming along to opera. And, generally, it must be said, he hated,” Fanny, who narrates the story, tells us in voice-over. Uncle Matthew, like many of the weirdo aristocrats in the Radletts’ circle, is an old-fashioned English eccentric: wealthy and supremely out of touch. They are also escape routes, offering a path, via marriage, out of the freezing, fortress-like Radlett family home presided over by Linda’s father, known to Fanny as Uncle Matthew (Dominic West). “Old and ugly.”įor Linda and Fanny, parties are not just about socializing.

“They’re all so small and ugly,” Linda says, despondently, clutching Fanny. Instead, they are largely ignored, as the men talk in low voices about the House of Lords and killing animals. The sheltered Fanny and Linda, not yet eighteen and kept largely away from “society,” have spent weeks fantasizing about the event and the possibility of meeting their respective crushes-a “fat, red-faced middle-aged farmer” for Fanny, the Prince of Wales for Linda-on the dance floor. It is 1928, and they are wearing awkward taffeta and organza dresses and facing a room filled with the much-older friends of Linda’s father’s, presented as potential suitors for Linda’s older sister Louisa. In the first episode of Emily Mortimer’s fizzy new three-part adaptation of Nancy Mitford’s 1945 novel about the English upper classes, “The Pursuit of Love”-coming to Amazon Prime Video on July 30th-the bookish teen-ager Fanny Logan (Emily Beecham) and her more glamorous cousin Linda Radlett (Lily James) find themselves at the stuffiest of soirées. On your own, the night might be an ego-bruising failure with an ally, it’s an anecdote. There’s nothing like a truly horrendous party for cementing a friendship.

The three-episode series stars Emily Beecham (left) as Fanny Logan and Lily James as Linda Radlett.

Nancy mitford the bolter