The Modern Foreign Languages department is making the most of lockdown to catch up on some of their favourite French and Spanish TV series and read the books they didn’t get around to reading during the last lockdown. We thought you might be interested in what we are currently watching and reading. All programmes are easy to find on Netflix, Channel 4 and BBC iPlayer (all with subtitles) and the books are available from Amazon or Waterstones.  If you watch any of the programmes or read any of the books why not write a review for the newsletter.

Mrs de Castro

Currently watching – Engrenages (Spiral) Series 8

This is the final series of the popular French police drama set in Paris.  All series are currently available on BBC iPlayer.

Currently reading – The Nightingale by Kirstin Hannah

This story is about what it was like to be a woman during World War II when women’s stories were all too often forgotten or overlooked . . . Vianne and Isabelle Mauriac are two sisters, separated by years and experience, by ideals and passion and circumstance, each embarking on her own dangerous path towards survival, love and freedom in war-torn France.

Mr Ellmers

Currently watching – Lupin

Highly recommended French heist drama whose protagonist sets out to avenge his father for an injustice inflicted by a wealthy family.

Current reading – La Peste by Camus

A topical choice that tells the story of a plague sweeping the French Algerian city of Oran.

Madame Heurtevent

Also watching Engrenages (Spiral) along another Netflix series called The Queen’s Gambit, which follows the life of an orphan who is a chess prodigy. She is learning to compete while struggling with drug and alcohol addiction.  

Currently reading: The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes

Alice married to get away from her life in England, only to find herself in a cold relationship in America far from everything that she knows and understands, until one day she volunteers to join the newly-established ‘travelling library’. Here she forms an unlikely friendship group. Their library opens a new world and an appreciation of reading to the children of the town and the people living in the surrounding area.