War & Peace ended last night in the UK. I understand the 1st episode was screened in the U.S on January 16th has anyone watched it yet?

My own view—pros and cons.

The first episode introduces the main characters so not a lot is happening. It does take some concentration to remember all their names etc. I watched on the BBC which is advert free, so constant interruption by adverts maybe more irritating than usual.

The story line concerns the loves and lives played out against the backdrop of the war between Russia and France in 1812. Filmed in Russia and the scenery can be breathtaking in parts.

If you are a history buff then there are some faults but that is the norm in most of these portrayals of the past and certainly not nearly as bad as in the movie ‘The Patriot’ which was pulled to pieces by so many American critics.

If you an ignore the young ladies 2015 hairstyles and makeup and the present day English accents of the characters then it’s a fairly good piece of romantic history.

Thanks, Cari. I'm not watching but from all I've heard, it is a good production. Glad you enjoyed it.

Wow, sounds like a fascinating series

I started to watch back in January but I could not get into it. When they act and talk like modern day it's hard to believe you've been transported back in time.

Yes I know what you mean, I think that one of the reasons is that War & Peace was expensive to make so that it was a joint production between the BBC and an American company. So maybe there was an insistence that the dialogue had to be understandable for both countries.

Of course in reality, the language would have been 90% Russian and 10% French and both in spoken in the language of 200 years ago which poses a problem. I don’t know if there’s an answer but it wasn’t as you say, by using 21century phrasing and speech patterns.

I think on the whole when a series or movie is set a couple of years in the past we have no real evidence to tell how the people spoke. For example the movies made of the War of Independence where the patriots speak with American accents and the British with theirs.
But we know from a census taken four years after the War of Independence that 80%of the population of the eastern seaboard, were 1st, 2nd, and 3rd generation British stock and mixed marriages were a big no no in those times. So it’s highly probable they spoke with Irish, Welsh, Scottish and English accents, the four nations that in the 1700s made up Great Britain.
The American accents which are spoken today were developed after by the mass migrations of the 18th and 20th centuries.

We do speak "English" here and can understand you.

By English I take it that you mean the Queens English which is in fact a manufactured version of English. When in truth the language on this side of the pond is spoken in many differing accents.
The reason why the Queens English is used is because it’s a form of the English language that is easily understood by all, but that doesn’t mean we use it when we are speaking to each other, we don’t.

Even we have trouble with some of our accents, for example the Newcastle or the Geordie accent--He's geet canny as oot - Translation--He's a really nice person.

Though we are used to our American visitors, so we can nearly all easily slip into ‘Proper English’ when we need to.

As for War & Peace I’m sure there will be no difficulty in understanding the language used in the episodes though I agree with Kaki's Sister, it does seem in part very stilted and modern for the time frame.