The Magic of Ordinary Days

Hallmark Hall of Fame television presentation, The Magic of Ordinary Days is based on the same name novel written by Ann Howard Creel and adapted by Camille Thomasson as teleplay.

The presentation was first aired on 30 January 2005 on CBS. It was produced by Cameron Johann, Andrew Gottlieb, Jim O’Grady, Richard Welsh and was directed by Brent Shields.

In 1944, Livy Dune (Keri Russell) a young woman became pregnant before marriage and was sent to rural southeast Colorado. Her father, Reverend Dunne (Daryl Shuttleworth) decides to deal with the embarrassing situation by marrying her to a shy farmer with the help of another preacher. Ray Singleton (Skeet Ulrich), the groom lives on a distant farm and has a very different nature than Livy. He focuses on things that are close to him – his land, his family, today, while Livy thinks of life on a much grander scale – the world, far away places, ancient civilisations.

Ray Singleton’s farm uses the help of Japanese Americans to work on the farm. Livy befriends 2 well-educated Japanese American women working on the farm, Rose and Flora (Gwendoline Yeo and Tania Gunadi) and finds familiarity and comfort in their friendship.

Livy is civil and polite to Ray, her new husband and Martha (Mare Winningham) his sister but still has feelings for the baby’s father and feels guilty for the pregnancy. However, Ray is supportive and caring of Livy but is hurt deeply by the fact that she doesn’t want him.