Following critical acclaim, the residents of Lark Rise and Candleford return to the screen in this warm-hearted adaptation of Flora Thompson’s novels.

Set in the Oxfordshire countryside in the 1890s, Lark Rise To Candleford is a love letter to a vanished corner of rural England and a heart-warming drama series teeming with wit, wisdom and romance.

Seen through the eyes of young Laura, the series depicts the relationship between the contrasting communities of the small old-fashioned hamlet Lark Rise and its neighbouring market town Candleford whose residents are eager to embrace the future.

This second series sees the arrival of a dashing and elegant stranger in Candleford. Rich, enterprising, worldly and without a wife, James Dowling soon has the Pratt sisters batting their eyelashes in his direction. Where did he come from, and what is his business in Candleford? It soon transpires that not only is he the owner of the new Golden Lion Hotel, but he was once a resident of Lark Rise, and the Lark Risers are thrilled that ‘Little James’ who ran away to make his fortune has returned.

Now a successful businessman with a string of London hotels, James has come to “transform Candleford and bring new prosperity to this sleeping economic giant of a town”. But not everyone welcomes his entrepreneurial qualities, and it isn’t long before he is sparring with the spirited – yet suddenly unusually flustered – Dorcas over the post office refurbishment, and aggravating the pride of the male Lark Risers with his superior business acumen and somewhat overbearing manner.