Brideshead Revisited

The adaptation is so good that one can read Waugh's novel while watching and practically not miss a word. The lush prose of the novel is there, as well as perfect visual imagery of the settings, absolutely essential to the integrity of the piece.

The book and the mini-series always broke my heart. I first read the book and viewed the series as a teenager and it affected me much more then "Catcher in the Rye".

It is probably one of the finest adaptations of a novel put to film. You watch as the reckless innocent fun of youth is slowly taken away and replaced by sad old cynicism.

It captures the feeling of the stolen season of peace between the world wars and the cool observant eye of Waugh who before hand always wrote detached speedy amoral stories. This seemed so...different.

The acting is so on the spot. Carefully restrained and woeful as we watch our favorite characters grow.

Simply enchanting. Waugh's excellent use of English in recounting the story of the doomed Marchmain family is brought to life without losing one iota of its charm and power. I doubt that anyone will be able to imagine anyone other than Anthony Andrews as Sebastian or Nikolas Grace as Anthony Blanche; Jeremy Irons gives a well-rounded performance, Diana Quick is suitably gorgeous and a host of great English actors (Gielgud, Olivier et al) lend support to a fantastic script and excellent direction. See this.

A dream cast with a magnificent script (John Mortimer) brings to life Evelyn Waugh's elegiac upon the between-wars years. Golden years and golden people are lost, and the sense of loss is captured in the changes inflicted on the buildings, and in Geoffrey Burgon's heart-wrenching score. Brideshead captures the clash of humanistic values with those of old-time Catholicism, while tracing the decline of an aristocratic (somewhat precious) family, in a series that is part comedy, part romance, part tragedy. It is an enriching experience that no-one should miss.

The reviewers who have given positive feedback for this series have done quite well and I have little to add. Sadly, there was one review that seemed to miss the point, and I would like to address this:

"We can suppose that Lord Marchmain pretended to convert to comfort his family. There is no such excuse for Charles, who has seen the damage that Catholicism did to the whole family."

Wrong. It was the shirking of religious principle that tore apart the family. Lord Marchmain left Catholicism and thought he had license to leave his wife, so he abandoned his children to a confused, fatherless upbringing. Had he remained true to his sacramental vow to stay, "for better or for worse," by his wife's side, the family would never have been so dysfunctional.

As for the vague homo-eroticism in the first few episodes, many young men at Oxford back in the day did go through such phases and often they were in fact merely PHASES. Evelyn Waugh himself apparently did.