Product: Brideshead Revisited [VHS] (1982)
Rating: 5.0
Simply splendid
This is a wonderfully done production, and it is almost wholly faithful to the splendid novel. The only point I would make is that in episode 2, during the conversation around the dinner table at Brideshead Castle, Charles is not given his line about why a work of art was once seen as good as will be again, but is not now. It makes Charles look silly at that point, or it does to me, and that is not the author's intention, though he once wrote to Diana Mosley that Charles is stupid. Interesting that Hooper's remark about Hitler is omitted - on seeing inmates of an asylum, he remarks, 'Hitler would put that lot in a gas chamber. Reckon we could learn a thing from him'.But these are quibbles from a pedant. This drama is well acted in all the parts, the music is stunning, and anyone tempted to see the 2008 film will note the vast gulf between the two productions; similar to that which ultimately appears between Charles and Julia.One of the best love stories of all time; though not always romantic or sexual love, as important as these are to the story and to life. There is also the love of friends, of God, of family and a whole way of life.This is one of the best things TV has ever made and it is something so beautiful you owe it to yourself to see it at least once (a year).