Kingdom

Free disks in this week's Telegraph have helped me catch wup with an enjoyable series I missed.

Collect Kingdom Series Two, starring Stephen Fry, free with the Telegraph, March 1 - 7.

We are giving you the chance to catch this hugely popular ITV series free before it hits the shops with our seven-disc collection. Episodes one and two will be given away free inside the Telegraph on Saturday, March 1 and Sunday, March 2. For the remaining five discs, collect the tokens printed in your paper between March 3 and March 7. As part of your collection you will also receive a bonus CD, Kingdom Classics, of quintessentially British classical music inspired by the hit series.

Kingdom stars Stephen Fry as Peter Kingdom, a compassionate solicitor whose life is overshadowed by the mysterious disappearance of his brother. Set in Market Shipborough in the beauty of the Norfolk landscape, the drama focuses on Peter's dysfunctional family, his law practise - Kingdom and Kingdom - and the colourful residents of the town who rely on his services. The show also stars Hermione Norris, Celia Imrie and Tony Slattery, with a guest appearance from Richard Wilson.

Episode one
Market Shipborough's lighthouse is threatened by the combined forces of coastal erosion and city bureaucracy - can Peter stop tide and time? Meanwhile, Lyle is caught in the cross-fire of an almighty food fight between rival burger vans.

Episode two
Simon's back from the dead and the Kingdom family is growing; Beatrice finds herself pregnant. Lyle intervenes in the stand-off between a conservative couple and the local nudists.

Episode three
Low-flying jets are terrorising the locals and a young woman's relationship with a fighter pilot is not quite as it seems. With Simon banged up in jail, Peter's left holding the baby.

Episode four Peter becomes a social pariah for backing the local sex shop in a case against the cricket team. Simon doesn't help matters by having an affair with the wife of the cricket team's captain.

Episode five
Peter is called back to Cambridge to help his old tutor to investigate the matter of some stolen academic research. Left to run the practise alone, Lyle learns some important lessons in people (and cat) management.

Episode six
Peter's office becomes a temporary retirement home after a sprinkler malfunction at Aunt Auriel's, and Lyle investigates why a 12 year old girl seems to be carrying the world on her shoulders. Meanwhile, Simon's past is creeping up behind him...

Bonus disc - Kingdom Classics
A superb CD of classical music inspired by the series including Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March No.4, Holst's Finale, and Purcell's When I am Laid in Earth from Dido and Aeneas.1. Elgar, Pomp and Circumstance March No. 42. Delius, On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring3. Purcell, When I am Laid in Earth from Dido and Aeneas4. Elgar, Nimrod from Enigma Variations5. Tallis, Spem in Alium (40-part motet)6. Holst, Finale (The Dargason) from St. Paul's Suite7. Elgar, Salut d'Amour8. Delius, La Calinda from Koanga9. Elgar, Cello Concerto - Adagio-Moderato10. Parry, Prelude to Lady Radnor's Suite
BONUS TRACK 11. Holst, Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity from The Planets


Stephen Fry: His Norfolk Kingdom

The tourist bosses across Norfolk must be rubbing their hands with glee - a prime-time television show starring Stephen Fry starting tomorrow will show off the county to the rest of the country… DEREK JAMES reports.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . “Norfolk,” says Stephen. “I love Norfolk,” and that's one reason he has returned to the small screen as the star of a new drama series.Thank goodness.When Insp George Gently, the Norwich cop created by Alan Hunter, finally made to it television there wasn't a mention of the city or county. The action was set in the North East and Gently said he used to work in Dorset!This time around it is different.

Stephen Fry is a Norfolk boy, a Norwich City fan and a man who loves the city and county with a rare passion.He is also a novelist, director, writer and presenter and has, according to Michael Parkinson, a brain the size of Kent - or should that be Norfolk?Kingdom was filmed in Swaffham, not far from where Stephen lives with his long term partner Daniel Cohen.“Yes, I love Norfolk. One of the things that excited me about Kingdom was that it was set in a country town, which I think is a much overlooked part of Britain.“The beauty of the country town is that it' all about the tradition of lovely old England, and also the modern issues of scratch cards, wheelie bins, youth unemployment, drinking and drugs. So I think it's a better reflection of what England really is,” he says.Stephen was brought up in Norfolk and still lives in the house he bought on the back of rewriting the script for Me and My Girl 20 years ago.And he is delighted this series will introduce the rest of the country to beautiful Norfolk.“When was the last time you looked at television and seven-eighths of the screen was taken up by the sky? Which it is when you stand in Norfolk,” he said.“Everything about Norfolk is unusual for people who don't know it, and it will look different in drama. You either get Norfolk, with its wild roughness and its uncultivated oddities, or you don't. It's not all soft and lovely. It doesn't ask to be loved.“But there's something so fantastically beautiful about it; the skies are so big that they have an effect on the mind,” he said.“You belong to a part of the world and you think's it's gorgeous. Sean Connery and Robbie Coltrane do it for Scotland, Martin Clunes does it for his part of Cornwall in Doc Martin…You feel a loyalty to the place you call home, especially when it has qualities that you think are different,” said Stephen.