A Traição de Joanna May

I absolutely love She Devil and Patricia Hodge and bought this thinking I would be in for a treat. How disappointing. I just didn't feel drawn in to this strange world with its unrealistic characters.

The clones seemed ridiculous cardboard things and May himself seemed to be hamming up his performance. Patricia Hodge was convincing as Joanna but all the other characters, including the detective played by the absolutely wonderful Billie Whitelaw, were plain silly, like Carry On stereotypes.

I wondered, towards the end, whether it's supposed to be a comedy rather than a chilling drama. I shan't bother to keep it on my shelf with my other dvds as I shan't watch it ever again.

A wealthy, self-centered monster loses the woman he loves, but determines to re-create her. He has a number of clones developed, and sits back while they grow to maturity, unknown to each other, in a wide variety of circumstances. He then invites them all to a gathering and announces that he will be picking one of them as his bride. Of course, the women's reactions are not what he anticipates, and the ending is suitably surprising and ironic.

Like the good version of The Life and Loves of a She-Devil (not the Roseanne Barr version), this is an adaptation of a Fay Weldon novel and stars the lovely Patricia Hodge. What more could one ask for?

Wealthy and powerful nuclear energy mogul Carl May refuses to forgive his cheating wife Joanna, the pair feud, and he delights in telling her that when she thought she was having a termination, he actually had clones of her made.

I can't think of anyone I know who loves good TV, that isn't aware of The Lives and Loves of a She Devil, Day Weldon's masterpiece, however, nobody I spoke to remembered this one, and that's a shame, it's very good, not quite in the same league as She Devil, but very good drama nonetheless.

It's aged pretty well, the story still holds up, the sci fi element really adds something, and for British TV in 1992, sci fi was thin on the ground.

Wonderful opening credits, I love the likeness of Hodge.

I like that the three girls are a little different to one another, there are similarities, but each has their own strong personality.

Wonderful performances from Patricia Hodge and Brian Cox in particular, they share some terrific scenes. Hodge exudes feminity and elegance, she is terrific, perfectly cast.

8/10.