The Roads to Freedom

I saw this series after reading the first book and found the whole series to be a wonderful viewing experience.

The theme song is excellent and I have wanted to find a recording for years.

If you are luck enough to see any episodes or hear the theme song then take the opportunity.

If anyone knows of video or CD recordings of the series or title song then I would be most interested. Paul Downing (paul.downing@ecsoft.co.uk)

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.

The BBC's adaptation of Sartre's trilogy was a work of art (not a label I would often attach to a TV series). It was repeated in 1976/77, which is when I saw it . A long time ago, but hardly ancient history in TV terms - for example, I saw that 'Elizabeth R', which was first broadcast around the same time as The Roads to Freedom, is currently getting a re-run on one of the digital channels.

So where are the tapes? What has the BBC done with them? Why has the best TV drama ever made not been seen for nearly 30 years? I think we should be told.

If anyone, anywhere, managed to tape the series, they should make a fortune, as there are so many people I know who are desperate to see it again, having been powerfully affected by it in their youth.

Would it have dated if shown again now? I don't think so. Quality lasts. And think of the subject matter - commitment versus freedom, abortion, homosexuality, politics, sex, nightlife, the passions and preoccupations of individuals overshadowed by a looming war. How dated is that?

If anyone knows anything about what happened to the tapes of this series, or would be interested in joining me in forcing the BBC to give us some sensible answers, please email me.

Memory plays tricks! The title of the song is in fact "La route est dure" - based on a song of the French Resistance (So ignore my previous nonsense). I came across a copy on 7" vinyl. The performance by Georgia Brown is every bit as vivid as I had remembered, raw and impassioned, and way ahead of it's time as TV theme music.

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.