Trollope and a good meal

Lately, we have been watching the BBC miniseries, The Barchester Chronicles over dinner. Full of gratitude to our friend John F. for the recommendation, we are enjoying every moment.

Our previous dinner-hour miniseries was Horatio Hornblower - The Complete Adventures every bit as pleasurable in its own very different way.

Here's some information about the Trollope drama. First a review by Bret Fetzer from moviepages.com, then excerpts from a Donald Pleasance fan site:

The first two episodes of this BBC miniseries only hint at the delights to come. A lawsuit aimed at church reform in the town of Barchester forces a decent middle-aged clergyman (the august Donald Pleasence, best known in the U.S. for the Halloween movies) into a moral crisis and a conflict with his son-in-law, a pompous archdeacon (Nigel Hawthorne, The Madness of King George). The gracefully written and acted narrative shows glimpses of dry wit--but in episode 3, the arrival of a new bishop (Clive Swift, Keeping Up Appearances), his imperious wife (Geraldine McEwan, The Magdalene Sisters), and his devious chaplain (Alan Rickman, Truly Madly Deeply, the Harry Potter movies) launches The Barchester Chronicles into a satirical power struggle all the more mesmerizing because of the smallness of the territory. The scheming of the citizens and clergy of this British town is both Byzantine and wonderfully comic as the tempestuous personalities claw and dig at each other.

Rickman, in one of his first film or television roles, turns in a tour de force of oily ambition. McEwan's ferocious machinations are downright terrifying, while the sputtering Hawthorne (The Madness of King George) seems constantly in danger of bursting a vein. At the center of it all is Pleasence. Making goodness compelling has always been difficult, since wickedness is always more dramatic; but Pleasence brings a deep and stirring passion to his role that proves as engaging as all the back-biting that surrounds him. And these are just the more familiar faces; a host of lesser-known actors give equally superb performances. The final episode (of seven) will have you on pins and needles. The Barchester Chronicles, adapted from two novels by Anthony Trollope, is one of those marvels of British television, a skillful production that proves intelligent fare can be hugely entertaining. --Bret Fetzer

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THE BARCHESTER CHRONICLES

1982 Television Comedy/Drama Mini-Series

THE BARCHESTER CHRONICLES was aired over seven nights on the program MASTERPIECE THEATRE on PBS in the United States from October 28--December 9, 1984.

CAST AND CREW:

DONALD PLEASENCE (Reverend Septimus Harding)
GERALDINE McEWAN (Mrs. Proudie)
NIGEL HAWTHORNE (Dr. Grantly)
SUSAN HAMPSHIRE (La Signora Madeline Versey Neroni)
ALAN RICKMAN (Reverend Obadiah Slope)
CLIVE SWIFT (Dr. Proudie)
JANET MAW (Eleanor Harding)
DAVID GWILLIM (John Bold)
ANGELA PLEASENCE (Mrs. Grantly)
JOSEPH O'CONOR (Bunce)

Directed by DAVID GILES
Written by ALAN PLATER
(Based on the novels THE WARDEN and BARCHESTER TOWERS by ANTHONY TROLLOPE)
Produced by JONATHAN POWELL

PORTRAITS AND STILLS:

DONALD PLEASENCE AS REVEREND SEPTIMUS HARDING

PLEASENCE AND JANET MAW

REVIEWS:

ERIC ESTRIN (Los Angeles Magazine)

CATHLEEN SCHINE (Vogue)

STAR LINKS:

A TRIBUTE TO SIR NIGEL HAWTHORNE

GERALDINE McEWAN: A CAREER IN THEATRE, FILM AND TELEVISION

RICKMAN IN THE ROUND

THE RICKMANISTA REVIEW

AUTHOR LINK:

ANTHONY TROLLOPE: AN OVERVIEW

MINI-SERIES LINKS:

INTERNET MOVIE DATABASE