The Roads to Freedom

The BBC are to start repeating this classic series on BBC4 from Wednesday July.27 2022! So folks set your recorders can hardly believe this is happening! A truly wonderful tv series that after 50 years I can still remember vividly. I was 15 years old at time and had never seen anything like this before. It starts with Mathieu ( Michael Bryant) being told by his mistress Marcelle ( Rosemary Leach) that she is pregnant. He is not happy feeling loosing control of his life. The music, is haunting and unforgettable as is Georgia Brown and Daniel Massey as a sadistic homosexual. The wait is over ENJOY.

I watched every episode of this wonderful serial (13 weeks) as it was broadcast. It was one of the best dramatizations the BBC ever did, and although the book it was based on was a classic of French literature and political thought(likely to be dull and stuffy and utterly boring I would have guessed), the brilliance of the script, direction and acting brought it to life in a most enthralling manner. I wish they would show it again on one of the cable channels. Superb TV drama.

Like all the other commenters, I would love to see this - I found it gripping, one of the consistently best dramatisations I've seen on television, and as one person said, it followed the books very closely. Acting, atmosphere, pace, costumes and settings were all superb. I thought Michael Bryant in the lead role was particularly good - he had the right air of worried intelligence. Rosemary Leach, too was good - earthy and vulnerable, and Daniel Massey - tortured and irritable. I've heard the BBC deleted a lot of their old television tapes so unless a private individual has recorded it we're all doomed.

it's pretty strange reading these remarks, something of an 'I thought it was just me' moment.

I saw the series as a teenager, had never even heard of Sartre, but the series just captivated me.

I still sing the theme music to myself and remember little snippets of action and dialogue - the knife through the hand, the wrestling match between a man and his teenage lover.

anyhow, the BFI definitely have a copy in their archive goodness only knows how that helps

maybe we should try to lobby BBC4 or something

The Roads to Freedom was one of those few television series which had a profound effect upon me when I watched them as a teenager on my grandfather's television. I had never heard of Sartre and it was only later that I realised how closely the series followed the books. The atmosphere set was gripping, a nervous world with the threat of war and a world over which they had no control echoed in the lives of the characters. Michael Bryant was magnificent as Mathieu, but there was Ivich (I forget the name of the actress) too. Another writer has mentioned Daniel Massey. In particular, the death of Mathieu haunts me to this day.

This and "Man of Straw" with Derek Jacobi which I believe has been deleted by the BBC I believe to be two of the finest series the BBC has ever shown and I am greatly saddened that I will never see them again.

In response to another's comment - the theme song, "La route est Dur" I am sure was not unaccompanied but had at least a cello accompaniment and maybe an oboe too. I haven't heard it since the last episode of the series (alas, no video recorders in those days!) but would love to find a copy.

Update July 2007 A copy of Georgia Brown singing "La Route est Dur" is available here:

http://www.olimu.com/Readings/LaRouteEstDure.htm

Now we just need to find the lost tapes of the series itself!