The Barchester Chronicles (Donald Pleasence, Janet Maw, Alan Rickman, Nigel Hawthorne)

(Amazon UK link)

Some friends recommended the BBC drama series 'The Barchester Chronicles' highly. It was based on the Barchester novels by Anthony Trollope, but I could never quite get into his writing. So I was rather dubious. But our friends lent us the DVDs, and we decided to watch them over a couple of weeks.

The BBC is almost always good at period drama, and this is no exception. It's slightly galling to admit that a screen adaptation of the six Barchester Chronicles by Anthony Trollope was a great deal more appealing than the books - but there it is. I can only say that about a handful of films or TV series based on books. 

Once we had started watching, we felt that it was very well done indeed. The story - complex in print, easier in movie form - is of intrigue and jealousies amongst the clergyman of a fictional city. And there's a bit of love interest along the way. We did a double-take at seeing the late Nigel Hawthorne playing a somewhat smarmy clergyman. He is so well-known as 'Humphrey' in 'Yes, Minister' that it was hard to see him as anyone else!

The main character is the excellent and almost-too-good-to-be-true Mr Harding (nicely done by Donald Pleasence). But in the latter episodes we all agreed that the villainous Mr Slope rather stole the show, played brilliantly by Alan Rickman. We wondered if this was the inspiration that gave him, later on, the part of Snape in the Harry Potter movies.

Unsurprisingly, some of the episodes were a little long-winded in places and rather slow-moving. But basically we thought 'The Barchester Chronicles' was very enjoyable indeed. Recommended if you like this kind of period drama series. 

Review copyright Sue's DVD Reviews