First viewed : November / December 1982
This is another programme where I only dipped in the once, I think towards the end of the series.
This lauded seven-part costume drama was an adaptation of the first two books in Anthony Trollope's Chronicles of Barsetshire which satirised contemporary politics through the sheanigans surrounding ecclesiastical appointments in a quaint cathedral town in the Home Counties. The series had a very strong cast including Donald Pleasance playing against type as the kind, unwordly vicar, Nigel Hawthorne, Susan Hampshire and Geraldine McEwan. However, it was a relative newcomer who stole the show with Alan Rickman superb as the obsequious social climber Obadiah Slope.
With all the plaudits the series received, including multiple BAFTA nominations , it seems strange that the Beeb let the other four novels in the series lie and never followed it up.
There was no great TV career ahead for Rickman either who returned to the stage for the next six years before his re-emergence as a major film star with Die Hard.
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