The Glittering Prizes

Totally engrossing series. Excellent cast, with a young Tom Conti particularly outstanding. Many mini-series have since come and gone, but very few match it in quality or in hauntingly evoking an era. A masterpiece.

One would think that the BBC and ITV would be out to milk every last penny from the great TV programmes of the past. The Glittering Prizes ranked along with such greats as I Claudius, Fall of Eagles and Days of Hope. I doubt that the tapes have been lost or discarded. If the BBC could produce the old blotchy 50's recording of George Orwell's 1984 for its anniversary, they have got this one tucked away in their vaults.

The plot reminded me of the Up series, where a group of children are visited every 7 years to examine how they are faring in life. The Glittering Prizes was a work of fiction, but obviously based on real life characters who attended Cambridge in the 1950's and went on to careers, some successful, some not. I will never forget the scene with Tom Conti in his cheap rooms, with "Oh Mein Papa" playing on the radio, or the young boy when asked what kind of car the family had, replied that they had feet. The evocation of the 50's and 60's brought back so many memories. The script was sparkling, the acting superb and the concept predated all the ensemble films and reality shows.

TV has really gone downhill since programmes like this were made. We may have more channels, but the result in mediocrity. Best of all, they were able to get the message across without resorting to gutter language. Like others, I would like to see this on DVD.

This series was the kind of thing that made TV worth it a quarter century ago. Written by the English novelist Frederick Raphael from his book, it was more than a little autobiographic, and carried the flavour of the 50s and 60s, while avoiding many of the clichés this period evokes.

The TV series was Intelligent, wry, literate, subtle, with brilliant acting.

In post-war England, it followed a group of students at Cambridge, with their hopes, affairs, confrontations with life, and, later, disillusionments and achievements. It's impossible to explain how truly intelligent the writing is; this has to be experienced.

We NEED it on DVD!

One of the best British mini-series ever. I've been trying to buy this series on VHS or DVD for the longest time. It's not available. I'm hoping someone from the BBC will read this and get the ball rolling. The Glittering Prizes is not to be missed. Tom Conti is terrific, but then again, so is the entire cast. It's a wonderful ensemble piece. The screenplay was written by the incredibly witty Frederic Raphael, who adapted it from his novel. Raphael is known for "Darling" and a few other British films from the 60s and 70s. He also wrote most of "Eyes Wide Shut" before Kubrick re-wrote sections of it. The most recent film I've seen written by Raphael is "Coast To Coast" directed by Paul Mazursky and starring Judy Davis and Richard Dreyfuss. "Coast To Coast" was not released in theaters, only on cable. It's available on DVD and is very funny. The Glittering Prizes deserves its chance on DVD, too.

This series, which ran on PBS in the '70s, was written by award-winning screenwriter and novelist Frederic Raphael. It follows a group of Cambridge students from the 50's through to the 70's. Several of them are thinly-disguised versions of their real-life counterparts. For example, Tom Conti plays Adam Morris, an aspiring Jewish novelist (presumably Raphael himself) and Mark Wing-Davey (of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy) plays Mike Clode (obviously David Frost.) A wonderful analysis of life in England from the post-war period through to the Swinging '70s. Shamefully, this series has never been released on video.