If you were as unhappy as I was about the end of the Larkrise to Candleford series, you will be very pleased at the new arrival of The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency on BBC TV.
This is because the programmes have much in common, even though they are set on different continents and in different centuries. There is in each setting the strong single female, pillar of the community, with her careful use of words, her considerate adherence to etiquette and the desire to do what is right in every situation. Dorcas Lane and Mma Ramotswe would agree on many things, but, having said that, a small town probably wouldn’t be big enough for both of them.
Redeemable features
Both programmes are concerned with the redeemable features of troublesome mankind and the virtues of choosing the better path. McCall Smith himself says on the back of his latest novel, Teatime for the Traditionally Built, that, rather than being satisfied with judging purely on the strength of what we see, ‘we must dig deep to uncover the goodness of the human heart’.
