Monarch of the Glen review

Monarch of the glen is a televison drama which was broadcasted on BBC one, it was created by Michael Chaplin and produced by Nick Pitt, Paddy Higson, Jeremy Gwilt, Stephen Garwood and Rob Bullock. The series started being broadcasted on television in february 2000 and concluded with its seventh series in october 2005, in total over the five years that it was broadcasted 64 episodes were produced. Monarch of the glen, is partly based on comptons mackenzie novels, which were set in the same location, however they were set in the 1930s and 1940s. The first novel in the series is called monarch of the glen. The television drama Monarch of the Glen, is set in the modern day, in scotland we can tell this because of the accent, the backgrounds; loch, mountains and a castle which is where the monarch lives, we can also tell that the setting is scotland, because of the instrumental celtic soundtrack that we hear throughout the series. Monarch of the glen is predominatly a family drama, because it was broadcasted before the 9pm watershed and does not include any bad language, sex or any actions or connotations that would cause offense to any viewers.

The director uses a vast amount of diegetic sounds for example; dialouge, the moving of furniture, people moving around, the use of these diegetic sounds creates a more realistic feel to the drama, however non diegetic sounds are used, just not as frequently, the soundtracks that we hear are mainly instrumental celtic music, which sets the scene because of the scottish location around the loch and the setting of the castle. In the drama we can see a strong difference between the working class and the upper class residents of the village. The colour palette plays a strong part in the differentiation between working and upper class residents, for example the use of dull and drab coloured clothing worn by the young boy and girl and also the use of this colour palette on the tea towels the young boy is hanging up and the colour of the courtyard they are standing in, the use of this dull and drab colour palette gives connotations that they are working class.

In the drama, there is an intertexual reference to the soap opera; Hollyoaks, the use of this reference makes the drama more appealing to the younger generation; who are predominatly the audience of Hollyoaks. The use of the younger charcters, also makes it more appealing to the younger generation.

The use of a variety of shots shows the status and wealth of the charcters, for example a low angle shot is used to introduce the monarch, the shot has connotations of importance, wealth and an upper class status, also the postioning of the shot makes him look taller than the other charcters around him, which has a reference to the his position in society. The use of props inside the monarchs home, also shows us that he is upper class because of the use of the glassware,wooden panelling and the old books. The positioning of the characters shows their importance and status.

In conclusion to my review, i believe that monarch of the glen, is a well constructed family drama, because of the split in status amoungst the charcters and the intertextual refrences.