Orlando Sentinel Tribune
August 25, 1992 Tuesday, 3 STAR
SECTION: STYLE; Pg. E1
LENGTH: 467 words
HEADLINE: A FRESH TV IDEA SET IN THE 1300'S
BYLINE: By Greg Dawson, Sentinel Television Critic
BODY:
Everyone's Irish on St. Patrick's Day, and when the new fall TV
season rolls around (in late summer now), everyone's from Missouri:
Viewers are in a show-me state of mind as in, "Show me something
new."
So the networks give us a couple dozen comedies and dramas with all
the freshness of discount bread. There are exceptions, of course, and
tonight the new fall season lives up to its billing as ABC premieres
Covington Cross, the boldest deviator from the norm among the 33 new
series.
The schedule is jammed with family sitcoms and dramas, but Covington
Cross is the only one set in 14th-century England and filmed on
location in and around a real castle, with a mostly British cast.
It's a hoot - a high-spirited, handsomely mounted, tongue-in-cheek
romp that blithely mixes swordplay and slapstick, feudalism and
feminism, in a whimsical meeting of the 1390s and the 1990s.
This is the story of a widowed dad, Sir Thomas Gray (Nigel Terry),
who could be Fred MacMurray in My Three Sons, except that he has a
beautiful daughter (Ione Skye) in addition to three rambunctious
sons, and he carries a broadsword instead of a briefcase to work.
"Try not to destroy the place while I'm gone," Sir Thomas says wryly
as he rides off to do battle with an evil lord who's been burning and
pillaging where he shouldn't.
The period costumes and action sequences in Covington Cross are
superb. The opening scene tonight, a spectacular, comic sword duel,
captures the spirit of the show. Not all the jousting is in jest -
the occasional serf and black-hat lord gets run through. But it's
bloodless mayhem.
Ultimately, most of the action in Covington Cross (a name chosen
simply because it sounds good) happens inside the castle where poor
Sir Thomas is looking for "a little respect, a little peace and
quiet." His teen-age sons are bouncing off the walls and his daughter
is more interested in studying the crossbow than the lute.
He has an outspoken second wife, Lady Elizabeth (Cherie Lunghi), who
scolds Sir Thomas when he arranges the marriage of his daughter to
the thuggish son of his sneering chief rival (James Faulkner) as sort
of a peace offering.
"You're sending your daughter into bondage," she says.
Gee, sounds like 1392 was a Year of the Woman, too.
Terry, who played Prince John in The Lion in Winter, holds the show
together better than Sir Thomas holds together his fractious brood.
He exudes the strength and chivalry of a 1390s man with the grooming
and sensitivity of a modern guy - forgetting his views on arranged
marriages.
Some things never change, such as the younger generation's distaste
for history. One of Covington Cross' minor charms is the running joke
about the castle's resident friar and history tutor who keeps being
locked in the privy by the boys.
GRAPHIC: PHOTO c: Nigel Terry, Glenn Quinn, Ione Skye, Tim Killick
and Jonathan Firth star in 'Covington Cross.'