Having watched all fifty two episodes within nine days, for me HADLEIGH is one of the best television shows ever made.
The series begins with James Hadleigh selling his family newspaper The Westdale Gazette, to a powerful press magnate. Then he gets engaged to a young newspaper reporter called Susan Jackson. She is the first of four women who play a dominant role in Hadleigh's life.
I enjoyed watching the first season of this series, so it motivated me to watch the rest of it.
Although it is now very dated, the episodes are well written and well acted.
Gerald Harper is excellent as James Hadleigh. He has got all the right attributes that go with his character. He is suave, charming and a ladies man.
Ambrosine Phillpots who plays his aunt Lady Helen, gives an amusing performance as a loveable, but charming old snob. Yet somehow you can't help liking her.
The rest of the cast are also good, there characters don't spend there time doing nothing, unlike other regular characters in other television dramas.
Gillian Wray, Jane Merrow, Hilary Dwyer and Myra Frances are the four women in his life.
Jenny Twigge plays his goddaughter, while Alastair Hunter plays his butler Maxwell, who is later replaced by Sutton played by Peter Dennis.
The best episode is Open Verdict. It was written by actor Leslie Sands, but it is dominated by Anne Stallybrass' excellent performance as a working mother who loses her young daughter to a killer disease.
Worth watching all four seasons.
