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Let me endorse the other positive reviews of this program. The telling of the story is genuinely suspenseful, and just when other dramas of this ilk typically start to loose vigour or founder on their accumulated implausibilities, 'The Woman in White' steps up to a higher tempo and becomes even more intriguing. The cast are outstanding, all the way down, and the production values excellent. The only drawback is that the images in this DVD, of a program first aired in 1982, appear a bit soft and the colours a little muddy. During the first few minutes, I feared this would detract from my enjoyment, but I found the acting so strong and the story so well told that the technical shortcoming paled into insignificance. The series will repay repeated viewings because the plot is intricate, and you may not get all the connections on the first run through.

While this is very much of its time - a low budget 80s television adaptation - it is highly commendable. It has a long runtime so the novel is covered in full. Although it is stuffy and everything you expect of early British tv adaptations, the characters actually really come to life and it's one you remember long after having seen it. I think the 2018 version is a better production - it gets the tone and atmosphere of the novel really accurately that this one is missing because of the lack of production budget. But the characters are more memorable in this version and it is more charming because of its age. It is also available on YouTube. Both are very faithful and thorough adaptations. Skip the 1997 version . Too short and poor in most regards.

As an adaptation The Woman in White(1982) is very faithful to the book(which is a masterpiece)- not that that is essential when it comes to adapting source material- without too faithful or bogged down, it is also the only adaptation of the book that does that. As a dramatisation it is outstanding and one of the better period dramatisations of the 80s, with the slightly rushed final episode being its own detriment and even that is not enough to mar everything else that is so brilliant here. The script is thoughtful and tightly compressed, often sounding like the writing being lifted out straight from the pages of the book, it develops the characters very well too, Count Fosco is every bit the immoral man as he should be(while appearing to others as the opposite). The story takes its time to develop, but considering as it's a lengthy book and how far from easy to adapt it is that is beneficial. It is a good length, with all the themes and most situations intact and with all the emotional resonance, and is not too tedious at all despite the deliberate pacing. Visually it is an evocative adaptation with everything looking beautiful and in a way that you feel that you have been transported back in time to the time and place, a great atmosphere and fluid photography. It has been criticised on Amazon for being dated and poorly lit, that was not the case with me who thinks that it has held up well. The music is appropriate and lovely to hear, though sometimes the sound is on the hollow side. The direction makes the drama compelling and is sympathetic to the emotions that fill each scene. The acting is superb, especially from a strong-willed Diana Quick, Alan Badel's creepy and sinister(without forgetting the subtlety) Count Fosco and Ian Richardson's memorably languid and authoritative Mr Fairlie, every bit a nervous wreck. Jenny Seagrove is simply enchanting, Georgine Anderson has the right degree of iciness as Madame Fosco and Daniel Geroll is good too. Overall, outstanding and the best version of the book by some considerable margin. 10/10 Bethany Cox

I saw this 1978 BBC production when it was rebroadcast in the early 1980s on US television. (PBS, I think, or possibly A&E.) It has remained 'stuck' in my mind ever since.

From the understated elegance of the acting and production design to the fabulous adaptation of the original novel, this miniseries is and ought to be a classic. Walter Gerroll and Jenny Seagrove are incredible, and the gentleman who plays Count Fosco is as gently creepy as you could want-- but the one who really steals the show is Diana Quick. Strong and determined, she becomes more beautiful the better you get to know her. Seagrove has the 'looks,' but Quick has the character.

A wonderful series.

This version of The Woman In White is so good. I wish it was available on DVD. The casting is great, the pacing exciting, the mystery will truly hold your interest. If you get a chance to see this one take it. The part of Count Fosco is so well cast. He is truly sinister. The two women that are supposed to look alike really do, and the part of the sister is played to perfection. The invalid uncle is played exactly like he is written so obviously a hypochondriac who only cares about himself. The other characters are equally well acted.

There is no comparison between this version and the later 1997 version. I watched the 1997 version when it was first broadcast on Master Piece Theater, thinking that it was a repeated showing of this one, but was greatly disappointed when I found that not only was it not the version I loved, but that it was a very poor retelling of the story.

Its 28 years since I watched this excellent BBC serialisation, and its memory is still fresh in my mind, from Alan Badel's wonderfully sinister Count Fosco, Georgine Anderson's icy Madame Fosco to Ian Richardson as the languid valetudinarian Mr Fairlie.. and all the other excellent characterisations from the rest of the cast. My first reaction on viewing it was to regret not possessing a video recorder, my second was to purchase the book, which I still re-read with pleasure. Please, please BBC release this on DVD or, failing that, has anyone a VHS copy made at the time of screening? This otherwise rather stingy Scotsman (!) would happily part with his money to obtain a copy...that's how good I think it is.

PS Today, July 5, I have just discovered that a DVD of this series is now available on Amazon..I've already ordered my copy!!

For years I have been longing to get hold of a video or DVD of this, and I share the disappointment that the BBC haven't re-released it. I agree that Alan Badel as Count Fosco was brilliant, but I also remember feeling with Walter Hartright in his astonishment at the beauty of Laura the first time he saw her, while Marian was superb as well. The casting was just right. I bought the book after watching the first episode and read it along with the series, totally absorbed by both book and TV version.

Please, please, please, BBC - let us see it again! It is one of the best things you have done that you haven't made available for watching again.

Why, oh why, has the BBC not released this version on DVD? Judging by reviews I have seen of other versions of the Wilkie Collins classic, they are pretty poor.

This version provided unmissable viewing on Wednesday evenings back in 1982, with Alan Badel as the ominous Fosco, plus the delectable Jenny Seagrove, and a frightening woman with a hairy upper lip.

This version was also memorable for the innovative camera work and visual effects -- all non-computerised.

I hope this version has not been subject to the same BBC videotape re-use programme that has lost other classics for good, such as Michael Wood's IN SEARCH OF THE DARK AGES.

Because I agree with most of the reviewers' comments already submitted, I have very little to say except that Wilkie Collins' book is beautifully constructed, well written and very re- readable. It is a tremendous challenge to adapt to a 3-4 hour format, but Ray Jenkins has met the task with minimal damage to the characterizations and intricate plot lines. Kudos to him, and to the producer & director, as well as actors. And appropriately moody music.

I did find Daniel Gerroll insipid at first as Walter, but he grows on you, and by about the third time I viewed this 1978/82 version (first broadcast in '78, rebroadcast in '82), I began to appreciate his performance very much. Seagrove, the marvelous Anna Wing (Mrs. Clements (and Pauline Jameson (Mrs. Catherick) are also excellent.

Yes, it's available as a Region 2 DVD, and because I bought a Region 2 player for $30, well worth it, to play "The Green Man," which is also on Region 2 only, I can play this one, too, but not all my classic-loving American/Canadian neighbors can, without making the player purchase or complicated adjustments to their Region 1 player.

The UK continues to create superior adaptations of classics, keeping its rich literary traditions alive in so doing, although later remakes of most classics are generally inferior to the ones created in the '70s and '80s, if you're interested in seeing a film remotely in line with what the authors intended..

I remember watching this series twice and being utterly entranced each time that I saw it.

The series was beautifully made with great acting and a real feeling of pace and suspense. The version made in the 90s falls far short of it. The character of Fosco was just wrong and the book was left way behind in favour of a sexed-up script. The 1982 version is much more accurate and feels less modern. It stays very close to the original story. I just wish the BBC would release this on DVD - or at least show it again and give people a chance to record it.

I recommend this version! If it ever makes it onto video tape or DVD get yourself a copy you will not be disappointed! 10/10.

It's interesting to compare this version with the later briefer one of 1997, since they are so different. The 1997 rendering is more concentrated and more efficient as a dramatization, focusing on the dramatic highlights of Marion confronting the expected patient at the asylum and finding someone else, and of the church fire scene, which is the dramatic finale of the book as well; but this so much longer version of 1982 is definitely better made. It sticks to the book, is more realistic, it preserves the wonderful Victorian literary style, making the language almost as enjoyable as Shakespeare, and above all, the actors are all so much more convincing, with Alan Badel unforgettable as the absolutely splendid villain Count Fosco is. Diana Quick makes an equally real and true Marian, and Daniel Gerroll is the perfect Walter Hartright.

There are many supreme moments in this dramatization, usually offered by the book, like Walter's surprising presence at the grave, how Anne Catherick is always accompanied by music which almost throughout for the rest is silent, except when Laura is softly playing, all the secondary characters like the church warden, Gilmore, the housemaid, while perhaps the most impressive presence of all, like in the book, is the stunning performance by Mrs Catherick in only the fifth and final episode (Pauline Jameson). John Shrapnel as the gross human failure of Sir Percival Glyde, a monster of a brute, is also perfect in his monstrosity, while Alan Badel as Count Fosco will remain the character you'll always remember with relish. Alan Badel was always phenomenally personal in his performances and always dominated the whole scene, and here more so than ever. This could be his very best performance.

On the whole, I must agree with most other reviewers, that this is the definite film version of perhaps the greatest thriller classic ever written.

Reading the Woman in White was a defining moment in my life, it is without doubt one of the best books ever written, and the book I have enjoyed more than any other. About half way through reading it I discovered it had been made into a TV series and was yet to be broadcast, it sticks to the book so well and the characters are all brought to life, especially Marion and Mr Fairlie. Unfortunately some of Wilkie's humour did not translate, in particular Walter's description of Marion upon first meeting her, which in the book made me laugh out loud, it does not in the series. But never the less, the series is excellent and deserves to be seen by an audience so long denied access to it, and now at long last the DVD for this series is available. Well done BBC, you got something right at last!!