Brideshead Revisited (1981)
Wow, what a show that was. An 11 part adaptation of the book of the same name. First and last parts are 1.5 hours, all the middle episodes are about 50 mins each.
This show got 20million viewers at its peak in the UK and was one of those series that got notoriety around the world, the thing that put Jeremy Irons on the map all those years ago.
One of those Country House series like Downton Abbey crossed with Charles Dickens and Jane Austin. The music is superb, the locations are wonderful and the reel of actors is jaw dropping, including, but not limited to, Laurence Olivier himself, John Gielgud, Diana Quick & so many more.
The first 6 or 7 episodes are some of the best television its possible to make, but the series does drop a gear for the last few episodes. Currently 8.5/10 on IMDB. Which is amazing because not a lot actually happens each episode, it's mostly romantic aesthetics and
feelz. So not necessarily one for the life-inexperienced folk.
What's even weirder is that the first 6 or 7 episodes are mostly about a homosexual romance, and it's only when this aspect tapers off that the show starts to lose a bit of its focus. Mainly because the romance is done so absolutely perfectly by both Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews.
And before anyone starts wailing about it being some kind of PC pandering SJW thing, it wasn't even made by the BBC and the book it's working from was published in 1945! when the topic wasn't even discussed in any form of light company. As such, there are no sex scenes and we are even free to imagine they never even had sex if we want and imagine instead just a very close bromance. "of course they did"… "but we don't
know that" kind of argument.
What happens from episode 7 onwards is that the plot suddenly changes from this gay/bromance love story into a dissertation on the Roman Catholic religion. While still being great tele, it just doesn't ooze the feelz like that first half's does.
That first half also has the best locations as well as we spin around from Oxford, to the country house, to Venice, to Paris and to North Africa, London, South America, while the last few episodes just concentrate on the country house.
I don't usually watch homo-fiction on tele because it usually defaults to uber-camp and stereotypes and while there is a character like that in this, even that one side character is absolutely superb. I had no idea it would even have so much gay in it when I started watching, I thought it was just going to be a country house thing with your usual cads and trainee debutants, so I was doubly surprised how much more than that it was.
8/10
Fun fact: The guy who plays 'Bridey', Andrew's brother, is the guy who played Arthur Dent in the radio and TV series of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, so I kept imagining him as Arthur Dent for his first few appearances. Had I watched them in a different order I suspect I would have imagined Arthur Dent as being Bridey as Simon Jones is so perfectly Bridey