First viewed : 12th October 1981
There is no doubt that this was the TV event of 1981, a monumental adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's novel that proved that commercial television could match the BBC in quality given the right circumstances and a lasting memorial to the glorious reign of David Plowright at Granada Television.
Plowright commissioned the project as Controller of Programmes in 1979 and kept the ship afloat through numerous production problems and changes in direction. For example though credited as screenwriter John Mortimer's scripts were not actually used as the producers tried to be as faithful to the book as possible over 11 mesmerising episodes. The casting was faultless, the cinematography sumptuous and the music almost a character in its own right.
The story details twenty years in the life of Charles Ryder ( Jeremy Irons ). As an army captain on the cusp of middle age in 1943 Ryder finds that his unit has been billeted on the Brideshead estate and is overwhelmed by memories of his involvement with the aristocratic family, the Marchmains who lived there. From an upper middle class background Charles bumps into the second son Sebastian ( Anthony Andrews ) at Oxford and forms a romantic friendship with him. Sebastian is spoiled but vulnerable, clinging to his childhood teddy bear Aloysius and drinking too heavily. Depressed by his joyless home with his fussy , self-absorbed bibliophile father ( John Gielgud ), Charles is spellbound by the architectural glories of Brideshead and is soon introduced to the rest of Sebastian's family his devout Catholic mother ( Claire Bloom ) , ultra-conservative elder brother Brideshead ( Simon Jones ), and sisters , socialite Julia ( Diana Quick ) and pious wallflower Cordelia ( Phoebe Nicholls ).
Lord Marchmain ( Laurence Olivier who was Plowright's brother-in-law ) flew the nest some years earlier and lives on the Continent with an Italian mistress.
Charles recalls idyllic summer days with Sebastian but clouds begin to gather. The Marchmains know their lifestyle is under threat from "the Socialists " in what Charles calls "the age of Hooper " ( after his coarse, philistine lieutenant ). Sebastian's drinking gets out of hand and Charles eventually has to choose between remaining faithful to him and maintaining his privileged position as a family friend. The result is exile from both as Sebastian follows his father's example and runs away. As in the novel there is then a big jump of some years in Episode 8 where we find Charles , a fairly successful but morose and dissatisfied artist , married to Celia ( Jane Asher ) and sailing back to England with her on a luxury liner . She has been unfaithful to him for which he is grateful as it liberates him to begin an affair with Julia when he finds she is a fellow passenger. They go to live at the Hall until Brideshead informs them his new wife couldn't share a house with an adulterous couple. However they are spared eviction by the return of the dying Lord Marchmain ( his wife having died earlier ). The last episode sees a prolonged struggle between Brideshead and Cordelia and their father who they want to reconcile with God before his death. The outcome moves Julia to renounce her relationship with Charles as a religious sacrifice which he accepts because he too is moving towards Catholicism. At that point the action returns to 1943 and a bittersweet epilogue.
As well as the main characters there's an exceptionally rich supporting cast. Dad's Army's John le Mesurier in one of his last roles plays Father Mowbray who has the thankless task of trying to explain Catholicism to Julia's rich but terminally stupid American fiance Rex.
Mona Washbourne plays Sebastian's beloved Nanny . Theatre director Nikolas Grace made an impact with his rather fruity performance as Sebastian's gay friend Anthony Blanche who dissects Charles's relationship with the Marchmains with brutal honesty.
Irons and Andrews were both 31 when filming started so they don't really look the part in the Oxford scenes but it's hard to imagine anyone else in the roles. Irons of course went on to become an A-list Hollywood star ; it didn't quite happen for Andrews although his performance drew more awards at the time. Gielgud is splendid as the infuriating Ryder Snr and Olivier later regretted that he hadn't taken that part instead. My favourite performance though is Simon Jones who somehow manages to make Brideshead , a cold, repressed prig, rather endearing. Frequent US repeats of the series have allowed him too to have a Hollywood film career , often in wildly incongruous roles ( cf The Devil's Own ) .
The series did come under attack later in the decade from left wing critics for supposedly promoting "Victorian values" in art and helping to create "the heritage industry". I do think that, had he still been alive , Waugh, would have sided with the likes of Gilmour and Pym, looking on aghast at the ascendancy of the decidedly Hooperite Margaret Thatcher and her cronies.
I only dipped into it the first time round, not really getting it. I think you have to be in from the start to understand it. I watched it right through when it was repeated in the summer of 1983. Having spent most of the last couple of years mourning a lost friendship ( which was in its dying throes when the series was first broadcast ) it now struck a powerful chord. The harsh truth Charles Ryder eventually realises with Blanche's help, that the Marchmains meant far more to him than he did to them, continues to resonate with me , reinforced since by my favourite novel The Secret History whose narrator Richard Papen has a similar longing to be with the beautiful people.
Plowright eventually met his own Hooper ( or "ignorant upstart caterer" in John Cleese's words ) in Gerry Robinson and resigned rather than implement the new boss's profits before quality policy in 1992. He was found a role as deputy-director of Channel 4 for five years but there's little evidence to show he had much influence there and did some lecturing at Salford University before his retirement. He died in 2006.
No comments:
Post a Comment