# A Dance to the Music of Time (TV series)

A Dance to the Music of Time is a British four-part television drama series based on the book series of the same name by Anthony Powell. The series was also written by Anthony Powell with Hugh Whitemore as co-writer. The series was produced by Table Top Productions and directed by Christopher Morahan and Alvin Rakoff. It was first broadcast on Channel 4 on 9 October 1997 over four consecutive weeks.

## Synopsis

Several young men go through public school and university together, and maintain contact as they make their way in the world through the 1920s, the upheavals of the 1930s, the Second World War, and the post-war years of change in society. Many of the people they meet fall by the wayside, and their own fates are varied. The series attempts to chart the change in upper-middle-class society through their stories, and the realities of how the English social system worked.

## Cast

* Gillian Barge as Mrs. Erdleigh
* Nicholas Jones as Bob Duport
* Simon Russell Beale as Widmerpool
* Robin Bailey as Uncle Alfred
* Jonathan Cake as Peter Templer
* James Fleet as Moreland
* Richard Pasco as Sir Magnus Donners
* James Purefoy as Nicholas Jenkins
* Paul Rhys as Charles Stringham
* Annabel Mullion as Mona
* Claire Skinner as Jean
* Adrian Scarborough as JG Quiggin
* Grant Thatcher as Mark Members
* Sarah Badel as Lady Molly
* Alan Bennett as Sillery
* Emma Fielding as Isobel
* Oliver Ford Davies as Le Bas
* Edward Fox as Uncle Giles
* Anastasia Hille as Matilda
* Nigel Lindsay as Odo Stevens
* Miranda Richardson as Pamela Flitton
* Zoë Wanamaker as Audrey Maclintick
* Michael Williams as Ted Jeavons
* Geraldine Alexander as Susan
* Carmen Du Sautoy as Miss Weedon
* Nicholas Rowe as David Pennistone
* Barbara Durkin as Betty
* Andrew Havill as Sunny Farebrother
* Osmund Bullock as Erridge
* Caroline Harker as Priscilla
* Tony Osoba as Colonel Flores
* Bryan Pringle as Smith
* Eileen Atkins as Brightman
* Sean Baker as X Trapnel
* Paul Brooke as Maclintick
* James D'Arcy as Nicholas Jenkins when a student
* James Callis as Gwinnett
* Kevin Colson as Louis Glober
* Joanna David as older Isobel
* John Gielgud as St. John Clarke
* Patrick Godfrey as General Conyers
* Luke de Lacey as Stringham when a student
* Lucy Fleming as Jean
* Frank Middlemass as Edgar Deacon
* Christopher Lang as Chips Lovell
* Robert Lang as Leonard Short
* Emily Mortimer as Polly Duport
* Julian Wadham as General Liddament
* Sonia Ritter as Ada
* John Standing as older Nicholas Jenkins
* Nicola Walker as Gypsy Jones
* Kevin Harris as the son of Nicholas and Isobel Jenkins

## Episodes

| No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original release date | U.K. viewers (millions) |
| 1 | "The Twenties" | Christopher Morahan | Anthony Powell and Hugh Whitemore | 9 October 1997 (1997-10-09) | N/A |
| 2 | "The Thirties" | Christopher Morahan | Anthony Powell and Hugh Whitemore | 16 October 1997 (1997-10-16) | N/A |
| 3 | "The War" | Alvin Rakoff | Anthony Powell and Hugh Whitemore | 23 October 1997 (1997-10-23) | N/A |
| 4 | "Post War" | Christopher Morahan | Anthony Powell and Hugh Whitemore | 30 October 1997 (1997-10-30) | N/A |

## Critical reception

The Thomas Sutcliffe of The Independent described the first episode in the series by saying "It's questionable whether any literary work can survive a compression as intense as that undergone by A Dance to the Music of Time" and went on to mention "For obvious reasons barely even a homeopathic trace of Powell's patrician ruminations remain - what has survived are the incidents upon which he strung his grand reflections."

### Accolades

| Year | Award | Category | Recipient(s) | Result |
| 1998 | British Academy Television Awards | Best Actor | Simon Russell Beale | Won |
| 1998 | British Academy Television Awards | Best Actress | Miranda Richardson | Nominated |
| 1998 | Royal Television Society Awards | Actor: Male | Simon Russell Beale | Won |
| 1998 | Royal Television Society Awards | Actor: Female | Miranda Richardson | Nominated |