"The Pallisers", what we Americans call a mini-series, is an easy way to swallow Trollope. For the U.S. especially, it's interesting for appearances by later-famous Actors like Derek Jacobi, Anthony Andrews, Oscar-winner Jeremy Irons, Kate Nichols (who went on to the RSC's semi-live "Nicholas Nickleby") and Lynne Frederick, a beautiful young actress who became the final Mrs. Peter Sellers.
A veritable whos-who of British acting circa 1974, it would be unfair to keep naming particular players. The most important role, of course, is Susan Hampshire's. She sees the series through from beginning to end. An excellent actress who comes across as likeable as well as attractive on television, Hampshire admirably carries the miniseries through twenty-six episodes. Her partner in this marathon is Phillip Latham, who unfortunately falls into the trap of how an actor plays a dull character without being dull himself. Latham starts out dull and stays there.
The people who cobbled this series together did one extraordinarily clever thing, bringing in Barrington Erle (who does not appear in all the Palliser books) and Dolly Longstaffe (who appears in the final Palliser novel but is more prominent elsewhere in Trollope) as a running "Greek Chorus." Apparently close friends in the televised "Pallisers" Longstaffe (played archly by Donald Pickering as a club gadfly and collector of gossip a la Sherlock Holmes' Langdale Pike) and Erle (a man closer to the politicos, played with his usual aplomb by Moray Watson) keep us informed, via their conversations, on the twists and turns of plot, to help keep the viewer abreast of events. For instance, in one episode they enter their club with a conversation tantamount to announcing, "Well, here it is, four years later . . .!"
The first few episodes, where Glencora (Hampshire) is tormented by her love for Burgo Fitzgerald despite her marriage to Plantagenet (Latham) is for me the least interesting part of the show and may be a turn-off to viewers without a Barabara-Cartlandesque streak in their character. The other main plotline in the early episodes, the triangle between Alice Vavasor, her debt-ridden cousin George who buys his way into Parliament and the aptly named Mr. Gray is enlivened only by Gordon Gostelow's seedy and disreputable political manager, Mr. Scruby.
"The Pallisers" finally comes to life when it introduces the characters comprising the "Eustace Diamonds" episodes. Sarah Badel is perfectly cast as the not-altogether-trustworthy Lizzy Eustace. The other characters brought in during this spell of the program (Martin Jarvis as Lizzie's mostly-upright cousin Frank; Terence Alexander as the shady Lord George; June Whitfield and Wallace and Grommit's Peter Sallis as the Bontines; Derek Jacobi as the timorous Lord Fawn and Penelope Keith as the sister who rules Fawn's life) all work to raise these episodes to the most enjoyable. I'd like to have seen more of these stained characters cut loose from the "Palliser" framework.
Sandwiching the "Eustace Diamonds" episodes are the exploits of Phineas Finn (Donal McCann) and his many loves (including Anna Massey and Mel Martin). Playing fast-and-loose with several women (including one waiting for him back home in Ireland) one feels Finn got what he deserved.
The second Phineas Finn series is enlivened by the subplot of the love between ne'er-do-well Gerald Maule (Jeremy Clyde of "Chad and Jeremy") and Adelaide Palliser (comedienne Jo Kendall from radio's "I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again" and "The Burkiss Way"). This is another sequence snipped altogether too short.
While my favorite episodes are the ones with Lizzie Eustace and her coterie, also good is the "Ferdinand Lopez" series, with Stuart Wilson as Lopez and Sheila Ruskin as the lady-love for whom he ruins himself.
The last several episodes will probably be most interesting to most Americans, featuring the more familiar faces of Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews, as well as Lynne Frederic, Kate Nichols and Michael Cochrane.
Trollope addicts may cavil at truncations and the elimination of characters like Lucy Morris or Lucinda Roanoke. Overall the series not so much "televised Trollope" as a clever--and monumental--re-imagining of the massive "Palliser" novels with something for everyone's taste. While I wish I could see more of the antics of Lizzie Eustace, her cousin Frank and Lord George or the chicanery of Ferdinand Lopez and could do with less of George Vavasor and Phineas Finn, these parts of the whole may delight other viewers.
Remember "The Pallisers" is twenty-six episodes long! Played one episode a week, that takes up half a year. Even at that length, they did a superb job of distilling the "Palliser" essence from Trollope, who when writing a novel had little stopping sense, and who was always happy to throw more characters into his over-crowded stews.
The most delightful part of "The Pallisers" is seeing so many well-honed British actors of all ages playing so well together for a program whose episodes, played back-to-back, will take up nearly an entire 24-hour day.
A veritable whos-who of British acting circa 1974, it would be unfair to keep naming particular players. The most important role, of course, is Susan Hampshire's. She sees the series through from beginning to end. An excellent actress who comes across as likeable as well as attractive on television, Hampshire admirably carries the miniseries through twenty-six episodes. Her partner in this marathon is Phillip Latham, who unfortunately falls into the trap of how an actor plays a dull character without being dull himself. Latham starts out dull and stays there.
The people who cobbled this series together did one extraordinarily clever thing, bringing in Barrington Erle (who does not appear in all the Palliser books) and Dolly Longstaffe (who appears in the final Palliser novel but is more prominent elsewhere in Trollope) as a running "Greek Chorus." Apparently close friends in the televised "Pallisers" Longstaffe (played archly by Donald Pickering as a club gadfly and collector of gossip a la Sherlock Holmes' Langdale Pike) and Erle (a man closer to the politicos, played with his usual aplomb by Moray Watson) keep us informed, via their conversations, on the twists and turns of plot, to help keep the viewer abreast of events. For instance, in one episode they enter their club with a conversation tantamount to announcing, "Well, here it is, four years later . . .!"
The first few episodes, where Glencora (Hampshire) is tormented by her love for Burgo Fitzgerald despite her marriage to Plantagenet (Latham) is for me the least interesting part of the show and may be a turn-off to viewers without a Barabara-Cartlandesque streak in their character. The other main plotline in the early episodes, the triangle between Alice Vavasor, her debt-ridden cousin George who buys his way into Parliament and the aptly named Mr. Gray is enlivened only by Gordon Gostelow's seedy and disreputable political manager, Mr. Scruby.
"The Pallisers" finally comes to life when it introduces the characters comprising the "Eustace Diamonds" episodes. Sarah Badel is perfectly cast as the not-altogether-trustworthy Lizzy Eustace. The other characters brought in during this spell of the program (Martin Jarvis as Lizzie's mostly-upright cousin Frank; Terence Alexander as the shady Lord George; June Whitfield and Wallace and Grommit's Peter Sallis as the Bontines; Derek Jacobi as the timorous Lord Fawn and Penelope Keith as the sister who rules Fawn's life) all work to raise these episodes to the most enjoyable. I'd like to have seen more of these stained characters cut loose from the "Palliser" framework.
Sandwiching the "Eustace Diamonds" episodes are the exploits of Phineas Finn (Donal McCann) and his many loves (including Anna Massey and Mel Martin). Playing fast-and-loose with several women (including one waiting for him back home in Ireland) one feels Finn got what he deserved.
The second Phineas Finn series is enlivened by the subplot of the love between ne'er-do-well Gerald Maule (Jeremy Clyde of "Chad and Jeremy") and Adelaide Palliser (comedienne Jo Kendall from radio's "I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again" and "The Burkiss Way"). This is another sequence snipped altogether too short.
While my favorite episodes are the ones with Lizzie Eustace and her coterie, also good is the "Ferdinand Lopez" series, with Stuart Wilson as Lopez and Sheila Ruskin as the lady-love for whom he ruins himself.
The last several episodes will probably be most interesting to most Americans, featuring the more familiar faces of Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews, as well as Lynne Frederic, Kate Nichols and Michael Cochrane.
Trollope addicts may cavil at truncations and the elimination of characters like Lucy Morris or Lucinda Roanoke. Overall the series not so much "televised Trollope" as a clever--and monumental--re-imagining of the massive "Palliser" novels with something for everyone's taste. While I wish I could see more of the antics of Lizzie Eustace, her cousin Frank and Lord George or the chicanery of Ferdinand Lopez and could do with less of George Vavasor and Phineas Finn, these parts of the whole may delight other viewers.
Remember "The Pallisers" is twenty-six episodes long! Played one episode a week, that takes up half a year. Even at that length, they did a superb job of distilling the "Palliser" essence from Trollope, who when writing a novel had little stopping sense, and who was always happy to throw more characters into his over-crowded stews.
The most delightful part of "The Pallisers" is seeing so many well-honed British actors of all ages playing so well together for a program whose episodes, played back-to-back, will take up nearly an entire 24-hour day.