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.

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.

Please pardon the substandard Americanism, but "who'd a thunk" that the insanely imaginative bete noire of British television writing, Dennis Potter, could have written such a disciplined, book-faithful, beautifully-paced script as this. He pays full and respectful homage to the great Thomas Hardy's masterpiece.

No repetition of the accolades of prior reviewers is needed here. They're spot on.

What I would like to see, if I had control of casting of both the 1978 and 2003 versions, is a redistribution of the cast. For this exercise, I need a time warp.

Understanding, for example, that Polly Walker, who plays Lucetta in 2003, was only 12 years old in 1978, I would have preferred her (as she was in 2003) to Anna Massey as Lucetta in 1978. Walker has some beauty and magnetism and is believable as a man- hungry "fallen woman." Massey was undeniably an excellent actress, but as a vamp she simply can't cut it. To think Farfrae or Henchard could be attracted to her sensually is laughable. The suspension of disbelief here is too much for me to make. (By the way, her miscasting as Laura in the Pallisers is equally disturbing, as there is NO spark between her and Donal McCann in that series.)

Then I'd grab Juliet Aubrey out of the 2003 version and cast her in place of Anne Stallybrass - Aubrey portrays Susan more sensitively, more skilfully.

Janet Maw is superb as Elizabeth-Jane, so I'd leave her there, and not import Jodhi May into 1978 - May is too stilted as E-J. Both Purefoy and Galloway are very good as Farfrae, but Goodman is so very good in the minor role of Jopp that I would pull him out of 2003 to replace Lacey,

And last, I leave it to you as to Hinds or Bates as Henchard. They both turn in the most remarkable performances of their careers in Mayor of C. And that's why it's such a pleasure to watch both versions. despite the dreadful editing of Hardy in 2003.

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.

A thoughtful TV production, running over six hours, and a fine adaptation of Thomas Hardy's novel, arguably his best Wessex tale. Casterbridge stands for the real-life Oxford, a town where dreams can happen and a man such as Michael Henchard can rise as high as man can climb, and fall as far as man can sink. He is a tragic hero, a towering tour-de-force of good and evil, fearlessness and folly, and is beautifully played by Alan Bates in this version.

In support, Anne Stallybrass and Anna Massey shine the most, with Jack Galloway going some way to give life to the dour and ambitious Scot Farfrae, but stopping short of illuminating his complexities as set out in the book.

The music and the settings of this adaptation are excellent, and the atmosphere of a farm town, not yet touched by anything beyond industrialisation, is richly drawn. Slow-paced, but satisfying, this drama's reputation has grown steadily, and it is well deserved.

Interestingly, the adaptor of Hardy's book is none other than TV's infant terrible, Dennis Potter, and it is interesting to compare 'The Mayor of Casterbridge' with the likes of 'Pennies from Heaven' or 'The Singing Detective'.