To Serve Them All My Days

This was my favorite of the BBC serials that played on "Masterpiece Theatre," and 25 years later I find it just as charming and touching as I remembered. It's one of many variants (others are "Shogun, "All Creatures Great and Small," etc.) of the idyll some of us yearn for and, never finding, regard as irresistibly poignant: the story of a person who finds his perfect place in the world. In watching it again I discovered I practically didn't have to; I'd seen it so many times, and absorbed myself in it so thoroughly, that it had become part of my mental furniture. John Duttine was an unusual, compelling actor who gave what I think were splendid performances in this, the "Day of the Triffids" serial, and an episode of a BBC ghost series, and then seemed more or less to have vanished, to the viewers' loss.

The one big thing which strikes me now about this series is the bounciness of the supporting cast. There can never have been any more exuberant actors than Frank Middlemass, Belinda Lang, etc.; even Alan MacNaughtan, whose character is written as world-weary and cynical, comes across as lively and cheerful. Into the midst of this exuberant crowd enters a disillusioned war veteran--Duttine, an intense, introspective, melancholic performer--and the effect is as if he were brought out of himself by being caught up in a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta (and indeed, at one point the school stages "The Mikado"). Though the story is filled with anxiety and sorrow, the whole thing seems somehow like a party, and as such a sort of litmus test for one's capacity to enjoy life. Those who have it will have a grand time; those who don't won't understand why, and will probably leave early. For my part, I loved it, and feel grateful to have been invited.

To Serve Them All My Days, really is a powerfully moving series and, like most film and television surrounding wars, speaks powerfully about its subject while keeping it firmly embedded in a tale appealing to those on either side of the fence.

The first episodes, depicting the young, limping shellshocked soldier David Powlett-Jones arriving at Bamfylde, and slowly making his way, growing stronger and forging bonds while earning respect with the students are powerful and moving.

If the later episodes involving romance, marriage and political machinations of the school system become a tad "soap operatic" - the same can be said of the best series today (The Sopranos, Dead Like Me, etc.) - and like those, the level of acting and commitment to the telling of the story at hand is impressive and never less than entertaining.

The cast is impressive, with affecting performances: John Duttine captures every bit of nervousness and one cannot help but route for his Powlett-Jones. Frank Middlemass and Patricia Lawrence as Algy and Ellie Herries are strong, sympathetic and make a formidable team. The brilliant Alan McNaughtan is amazing as Howarth keeping things from ever turning maudlin or saccharine and injects a beautifully jaundiced eye into the proceedings.

You can't go wrong with this set.

John Duttine makes a thoroughly engaging hero, from the first time we see him with the shakes to the last as the dynamic and compassionate head master he has become. Frank Middlemass and Alan MacNaughton are superb, the first as the head master who hires and guides Powlett-Jones, and the second as the ascerbic but rather lonely teacher who befriends him. I do think that the last woman in Powlett-Jones' life is so utterly upper-crust as to be a bit off-putting. And as wonderful a school as Bamfylde is, it's worth remembering that it has been all the public schools like Bamfylde that have helped make Britain one the most rigidly class conscious countries it continues to be. But even recognizing that the Delderfield book and this production very much extoll the establishment's view of itself, it still is a very satisfying piece of work. Just keep a grain of salt handy. If you like things British, this is a literate, well-told tale,

Wonderfully moving miniseries that comes awfully close to the classic GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS in many ways, but this one has a life and spirit all its own.

John Duttine stars as a Welsh veteran of the First World War who has been invalided out of service with a bad leg and shell shock. He arrives at a remote boys' school for a job as a teacher. He has no experience and no degree, but the headmaster (a towering performance by Frank Middlemass) knows instantly that the young man has the makings of a good teacher.

The series follows his years at the school, his marriage, his disappointments, and the many boys who pass through his life. The English settings are beautiful and the school is perfect.

One of the joys of this series is the acting. Duttine and Middlesmass are perfect as Powlett-Jones and Herries. They are joined by Alan MacNaughtan as Howerth, the older English teacher who's always ready with a sardonic jab and a glass of gin, and Belinda Lang as life-loving Beth. There's a nice turn by Neil Stacy as Carter, the very picture of pomposity, Patricia Lawrence as the ever-wise Mrs. Herries, and Tim Wylton as Griff.

Belinda Lang, Frank Middlemass, and Tim Wylton starred together in another terrific series, THE BRETTS in the late 1980s. Middlemass and Wylton also appeared on Judi Dench's long-running series AS TIME GOES BY.

Wonderful series may be kind of hard to find now. Not sure if it's ever been released on DVD.

Even before the television adaptation, "To Serve Them All My Days" was one of my favourite books - like Robert Goddard's "In Pale Batallions", it's one of those books that I keep coming back to time after time. Having been to a public school myself for four years, I can identify with many of the traditions and rituals, and the rather pathetic life both of the boarders and the staff: what was true in the 1920s at Bamfylde was largely still true in the 1970s at my school.

With a few minor exceptions, the television version does great justice to the book. John Duttine is exactly as I imagined David Powlett-Jones: diffident and shell-shocked to begin with, but gradually growing in confidence to become eventually a well-respected and much-loved teacher and headmaster. I cannot imagine anyone else except Frank Middlemass as Algy Herries - his fruity voice and bumbling manner are perfect. Charles Kay's portrayal of the soul-less, embittered killjoy Alcock is utterly menacing. And Alan MacNaughtan manages to capture the irascible and yet ultimately very pathetic nature of Howarth, the teacher who has devoted his whole life to the school.

The three women - Beth, Julia and Christine - in David's life are very different from one another. Belinda Lang is heart-meltingly gorgeous as Beth, the elfin, nineteen-year-old "catalyst in a beret" who quite literally sets her cap at David while he is on holiday in Colwyn Bay. After the tragic death of her and the twins, David has a brief affair with Julia Darbyshire (Kim Braden) who is winsome and yet strangely matter-of-fact: definitely mistress material rather than a wife in the making! Sadly, Susan Jameson's portrayal of David's third love, Christine, lacks a certain something - I am left wondering what (apart from her politics) David could find remotely attractive about her.

There are a few differences between the book and the TV adaptation. In the book, Grace, one of the twins, survives the car crash that kills her mother and sister. In the TV version, both sisters are killed. This is no great problem: I've always felt that the character of Grace was rather insipid and a bit too perfect. It would also have made for great difficulties in the filming, requiring a series of actresses to portray her as she gradually grows from a baby into a young woman.

My only regret about the TV adaptation is the ending. The final episode is rather rushed and many important scenes from the book are missing. The most notable is the poignant scene as Howarth is dying of cancer and begs David to let him die at the school rather than in hospital; in the TV version, Howarth simply dies in his sleep while watching a school cricket match. We don't see the scene where an old boy of the school recounts that many years before, after the death of his father, Howarth had offered to pay the boy's fees - a sizable portion of his own salary - because he did not want the boy's talents to go to waste. And we don't see the final scene where, during World War II, a young soldier comes to teach at the school after being invalided out the army, and David recognises all the parallels between this man's beginnings and that of himself twenty years before. He even uses the same phrases that Herries used to him. But none of this makes it to the TV adaptation, which is a great shame.