The Mayor of Casterbridge

A classic ancient BBC production: promising actors with a sparsely populated script, indecipherable accents, atrocious sound quality, and Extremely Long Takes Wherein Nothing Really Happens.

Potentially deeply emotional scenes are read through instead of explored. It's as if the text of the script is so sacred the actors daren't internalize it for fear of desecrating it.

Confusing jumps in time compound the badness. In addition, by trimming some exposition, we're not quite sure what transpires between some characters, or if we do know What, we're never sure Why.

This is an excellent soporific. It also works well if you need to exercise your thumb on the fast-forward button. It's difficult to miss an important piece of dialogue or even a scene. If "torpid" is what you're looking for, this is the mini-series for you.

This brilliant adaption of a typically grim hardy novel was filmed in Corfe Castle, Dorset, but is set in Dorchester (aka Casterbridge). Given that it is 45 years old and it stands up well. Technically. Bates is of course the star. Sadly, Farfrae and Lucetta are poorly caste (the newer version being much better) but it is good to see the story told as written (mostly) and no one afraid to take a long time about it. It shows a man recovering from an early failure of character, who then does well. But then he lets himself down again and starts to fail. He makes a recovery of sorts, only to let himself (and others) down again. In short. This is a story about karma and how we control our own fortune. For those of us who are able to concentrate for an extended period of time it is well worth agonising over his life.

'Casterbridge' is Dorchester, not Oxford. You can still stand in the street in Dorchester where Michael Henchard's wife stood, opposite the hotel where he was holding court as the mayor.

Two lines stand out from this memorable movie, lines for which I suppose Thomas Hardy must take most of the credit.

Henchard's first words on meeting his wife after twenty years: 'I don't drink.'

And his wife's explanation, when speaking of the man who had bid five guineas for her and her baby at the fairground auction: 'I couldn't leave him, Michael. Not after he'd paid all that money for me.'

(Both quotes from memory, but I think they are accurate.)

This is an excellent British TV production of Thomas Hardy's classic novel. I watched it after I saw the updated version on A&E starring Ciaran Hinds (which is good too). This version is about 3 times as long and more true to the novel. Excellent acting and on location filming make this a winner. It's in a live play style. Its about a drunken husband who sells his wife and daughter to a sailor at a rural fair because he can't support them. Years later, this decision comes back to haunt him. Good morality story of how a bad decision can ruin people for life.

10 is not a high enough rating for this masterpiece. Even as we see the gorgeous and extremely talented Alan Bates as the mayor, making mistake after mistake, acting like a fool, struggling with his conscience, and sometimes making things right only to screw up again, we are moved by him. We have pity for a man who cannot get out of his own way, who is his own worst enemy.

The acting is superb, the scenery/sets beautiful and fitting of the time and place. Often meanings are conveyed through looks, expressions, and not an excess of words. The score by Carl Davis is appropriate and adds to the feel of the series, enhancing the whole thing.

What luck that this is on DVD, complete with biographies on Sir Alan Bates and Thomas Hardy, among other things. Don't miss this gem.