Brideshead Revisited (revisited)

[Lost Oliver]

Just a thread to extoll the virtues of this perfect piece of TV. I last watched it 15 years ago and it left a real mark on me. 15 years later and the wounds have been opened once more. Can't remember a series, or novel, that's cut me up like this. Unsure why. I'm not usually a period person, but this is incredible. The descriptions and exchanges are just a joy to listen to. Anyway, some questions:

Why did Sebastian drink?
What became of Anthony Blanche?
Why did Julia leave?

I've just finished it tonight and just feel like sighing myself to bed, hence this post. Needed to get my ennui out somehow, and it's come out in the form of a cry for help.

"Perhaps all our loves are merely hints and symbols; vagabond-language scrawled on gate-posts and paving-stones along the weary road that others have tramped before us; perhaps you and I are types and this sadness which sometimes falls between us springs from disappointment in our search, each straining through and beyond the other, snatching a glimpse now and then of the shadow which turns the corner always a pace or two ahead of us."

[jamiefairlie]

Absolutely magnificent. I've been somewhat obsessed with it for many decades.

[Lost Oliver]

Did Waugh write anything as good as this? I read Scoop years ago and loved that, just can't imagine him topping this. And is the series word for word?

[Norton Canes]

According to the Wiki there were forty-two weeks of filming and seven months of post-production. For a television series, that's absurd.

[imitationleather]

It is a truly amazing series.

Very difficult to convince people to watch it, though. I probably wouldn't have given it a go if my mum hadn't been such a fan when I was a kid. Everything about it on the surface screams "Definitely not my cup of tea", but how wrong that first impression is eh.

[jamiefairlie]

It is a truly amazing series.

Very difficult to convince people to watch it, though. I probably wouldn't have given it a go if my mum hadn't been such a fan when I was a kid. Everything about it on the surface screams "Definitely not my cup of tea", but how wrong that first impression is eh.

Me too. Ignored it at the time but my wife got it on video in the late 90s and I got hooked in bit by bit

[Inspector Norse]

Why did Sebastian drink?

To get away from the pressure and tension of his family, to show off himself and his money and later, just because that's what he did, I think.

What became of Anthony Blanche?

I think the guy the character was based on was a poet and journalist who ended up killing himself after the war.

[Icehaven]

Absolutely amazing, loved it for many years,  I remember seeing repeats in the late 80s and having no idea what was going on but still liking it for some reason (probably the theme tune) and I've had the DVDs for ages and watched it through several times since then. It's one of the few examples of there being easily as much if not more to the TV adaptation than there was to the novel, you could probably read the book twice in the time it takes to watch the series.

[imitationleather]

Me too. Ignored it at the time but my wife got it on video in the late 90s and I got hooked in bit by bit

When I suggested to my missus that we should watch it she looked at me like I'd just fallen out of a dog's arse

[Inspector Norse]

I first saw it when it was repeated on TV in the late '90s and we watched it as a family. My siblings and I - my brother was probably too young but my sister watched it too as I remember - had already had some induction to poncey costume stuff because the BBC used to do a lot of it then and my parents were book nerds, so.
It made a big impression, mainly the early Oxford parts: you really felt the quaint magic and appeal while also seeing behind the facade. I lost interest towards the end after Sebastian departed, him having really been the life and soul of the party. Strange that Anthony Andrews never really did much else of note.
Watched it again towards the end of the '00s after a friend of my partner recommended it to her and lent her the DVD. As an adult I understood all the Catholic guilt stuff more but there was definitely an unevenness towards the end and the series' strengths really did lie in the world and characters it created, how it captured both sides, the lavish, intoxicating lifestyle and the entitlement and hollowness of it all. Did a better job of that than the book, which Waugh regretted as having been too nostalgic.

[Lost Oliver]

To get away from the pressure and tension of his family, to show off himself and his money and later, just because that's what he did, I think.

I think the guy the character was based on was a poet and journalist who ended up killing himself after the war.

Christ, that's sad.

[Icehaven]

I went to Castle Howard about 10 years ago, and it might be different now but then, well, let's just say I wished I'd stayed outside. The exterior of the house and the fountain and mausoleum are all correct but inside the house was not only wrong (tbf because it wasn't filmed there) but was being refurbed at the time so it was a building site with a few half-arsed display boards with Brideshead/general 1920s stuff on. Sitting on the edge of the fountain was fucking ace though.

[Virgo76]

I'm always impressed by Nickolas Grace's performance as Anthony Blanche in the TV version. He seems to be doing about three different speech impediments at once!
The only other time I've heard this done was when David Jason voiced Count Duckula on Dangermouse (sadly he dropped that on the inferior Count Duckula cartoon).
Back to Brideshead:
Love the way both the book and film begin. "I've been here before..."
Lovely music. One episode has a whole elaborate funeral procession during one short closing titles sequence. Impressive!
Guelgud hilarious as the bonkers dad. Seems to be just sitting alone all day!
Amazing to think this was on ITV! Hard to imagine today.
More time has now passed since the TV series than the time between the book being published and the series going out.

[daf]

Did Waugh write anything as good as this? I read Scoop years ago and loved that, just can't imagine him topping this. And is the series word for word?

Vile Bodies (1930) - for more "silly arses".

The Loved One (1948) -  about the American funeral industry.

[dissolute ocelot]

I've long been curious about this although never read or seen it. Despite his politics, I've a fondness for Evelyn Waugh: A Handful of Dust is a very weird novel, a vivid comedy about infidelity that turns into something else entirely, and his early comic novels are often really grotesque and fun despite some "antiquated attitudes" (Nathaniel West was more on-point politically but significantly less funny). I'd hope Brideshead has something weird and dark to balance the nostalgia and romanticism.

[jamiefairlie]

I've long been curious about this although never read or seen it. Despite his politics, I've a fondness for Evelyn Waugh: A Handful of Dust is a very weird novel, a vivid comedy about infidelity that turns into something else entirely, and his early comic novels are often really grotesque and fun despite some "antiquated attitudes" (Nathaniel West was more on-point politically but significantly less funny). I'd hope Brideshead has something weird and dark to balance the nostalgia and romanticism.

Oh it's plenty dark, there's a low ominous bass note of inevitable doom running through the whole thing.

[rectorofstiffkey]

Did anyone else see the 2008 film?  I hated it, perhaps I was just being harsh because I loved the series so much though.

[jamiefairlie]

Did anyone else see the 2008 film?  I hated it, perhaps I was just being harsh because I loved the series so much though.

It was a travesty. They completely missed the point.

[famethrowa]

Oh it's plenty dark, there's a low ominous bass note of inevitable doom running through the whole thing.

Absolutely, you know it's all falling apart, the empire, the family, the old world. Love it and the foggy melancholy is still with me so many years later. Can't there be a happy ending and Charles become lord of the manor? No there can't, because of God.

[Virgo76]

Did anyone else see the 2008 film?  I hated it, perhaps I was just being harsh because I loved the series so much though.

I did. I wouldn't say I hated it but it definitely wasn't a patch on the TV version. It seemed unnecessary.

[jamiefairlie]

It's funny thinking that when I first saw it, the WW2 Charles seemed really old but in reality would only have been in his 40s and his student days would only have been 20 years before, hardly anything to my now aged eyes. In fact it would only have been a few years since he and Julia had split. Not decades like how it felt.

[Lost Oliver]

Oh it's plenty dark, there's a low ominous bass note of inevitable doom running through the whole thing.

Sums it up perfectly, and it's probably why I love it. I'm drawn to melacholy, romanticism and doom.

[Lost Oliver]

Did anyone else see the 2008 film?  I hated it, perhaps I was just being harsh because I loved the series so much though.

Haven't yet, and probably never will. I'm utterly curious though, and would love to know how they managed to fit it all into 2 hours.

[Lost Oliver]

Vile Bodies (1930) - for more "silly arses".

The Loved One (1948) -  about the American funeral industry.

Thanks, will buy the latter.

[mjwilson]

Can't believe I'm being recommended a show on ITV Hub

[imitationleather]

Haven't yet, and probably never will. I'm utterly curious though, and would love to know how they managed to fit it all into 2 hours.

I've not seen it either, but wasn't the character of Sebastian completely cut out?

[jamiefairlie]

Haven't yet, and probably never will. I'm utterly curious though, and would love to know how they managed to fit it all into 2 hours.

They didn't.

[jamiefairlie]

I wish they'd rescan it all from the original film stock and release on 4K. It's one of the few shows that would benefit, given how sumptuous it is visually.

[jamiefairlie]

Sums it up perfectly, and it's probably why I love it. I'm drawn to melacholy, romanticism and doom.

Yeah romanticism in its full meaning. It's a metaphor for life really, golden young adulthood through traumas, into exhausted, disillusioned, greyed-out middle age.

[rectorofstiffkey]

Haven't yet, and probably never will. I'm utterly curious though, and would love to know how they managed to fit it all into 2 hours.

They left a lot out.  Including the subtlety.