I’ve completed a series of episode-by-episode reviews of the marvelous television miniseries Brideshead Revisited. I’ve decided to make it easier to access these posts as part of a group by making this page as an index. I’ve also added a short synopsis of each episode so that you can find what you’re looking for quickly.… Read More Brideshead Revisited (1981)
Dir. Charles Sturridge. Starring Jeremy Irons, Laurence Olivier, Diana Quick (My thoughts on the preceding episode are here.) Daniel Day-Lewis is, by virtually any standard short of the box office, the greatest film actor we’ve ever had. Nine times out of ten I think so. And then, that one time out of ten, I think… Read More Brideshead Revisited S1E11, “Brideshead Revisited”
Dir. Charles Sturridge. Starring Jeremy Irons, Diana Quick, Phoebe Nicholls (My thoughts on the preceding episode are here.) It takes the greater part of the first episode, all of the second, and all but the last thirty seconds of the third to build us up to a state of great joy in Charles and Sebastian’s… Read More Brideshead Revisited S1E10, “A Twitch Upon the Thread”
Dir. Michael Lindsay-Hogg. Starring Jeremy Irons, Diana Quick, Jane Asher (My thoughts on the preceding episode are here.) “Oh, yes” Charles says. “He was the forerunner.” The beginning of this episode charts, as every other episode must, really, the ongoing changes and worsening of the Flytes. Yet it seems that everyone is very much the… Read More Brideshead Revisited S1E9, “Orphans of the Storm”
Dir. Charles Sturridge. Starring Jeremy Irons, Jane Asher, Phoebe Nicholls (My thoughts on the preceding episode are here.) Like anyone who has just been broken up with – perhaps “divorced” might be an even better word – Charles veers from haughty calm to disconsolate sadness. Charles is back from Morocco in this episode (only, about… Read More Brideshead Revisited S1E8, “Brideshead Deserted”
Dir. Charles Sturridge. Starring Jeremy Irons, Anthony Andrews, Jonathan Coy (My thoughts on the preceding episode are here.) Anthony Blanche can’t hide his revulsion when he thinks of Kurt (Coy), the German ex-soldier who is something between Sebastian’s ward and his pet. Anthony, who has acclimated to ’20s London in a way that he never… Read More Brideshead Revisited S1E7, “The Unseen Hook”
Dir. Charles Sturridge. Starring Diana Quick, Charles Keating, Jeremy Irons (My thoughts on the preceding episode are here.) “Julia” signifies a shift in focus for Brideshead Revisited, equal parts palate cleanser and the seeds of a reboot. Less than ten minutes into episode, Charles intones, “It is time to speak of Julia” in a way… Read More Brideshead Revisited S1E6, “Julia”
Dir. Charles Sturridge. Starring Jeremy Irons, Anthony Andrews, Charles Keating (My thoughts on the preceding episode are here.) I saw him already as being threatened, though I did not know how black was the threat. His constant despairing prayer was to be left alone, and since he counted among the intruders his own conscience, of… Read More Brideshead Revisited S1E3, “The Bleak Light of Day”
Dir. Charles Sturridge. Starring Jeremy Irons, Anthony Andrews, Laurence Olivier (My thoughts on the preceding episode are here.) There’s no doubt that of the eleven Brideshead episodes, this is the worst one with a bullet, and yet without it the first half of the miniseries would collapse. Over the course of this episode, Sebastian’s family and their… Read More Brideshead Revisited S1E2, “Home and Abroad”
Dir. Charles Sturridge. Starring Jeremy Irons, Anthony Andrews, John Gielgud Brideshead Revisited meanders a little while before getting started. Its first episode is an hour and forty minute jaunt which begins with Charles Ryder (Irons), officer in the British Army, alone and pensive. I’ve always felt loneliest when people have to tell me that I am, in… Read More Brideshead Revisited S1E1, “Et in Arcadia Ego”
Seeing Things Secondhand 