Foster, Giles

Jane Austen Collection (Sense & Sensibility / Emma / Persuasion / Mansfield Park / Pride & Prejudice / Northanger Abbey)

The socially restricted lives of 18th-century women hardly seems like a subject that would inspire dozens of 20th (and 21st) century adaptations--but the brilliant novels of Jane Austen are flush with sparkling dialogue, razor-sharp wit, marvelously realized characters that range from adorably sympathetic to grotesquely comic, and--above all--ingeniously intricate plots, which arrive at a seemingly inevitable happy conclusion yet keep you seized with suspense every inch of the way. The Jane Austen Collection pulls together six BBC miniseries from 1971 through 1987, one for each of Austen's much-beloved books.

Unsurprisingly, the gems of the lot are also the best of the novels: Pride and Prejudice and Emma. Pride and Prejudice, expertly translated to the screen by novelist Fay Weldon, skillfully chronicles the ups and downs of the sensible but quick to judge Elizabeth Bennet (the adorable Elizabeth Garvie) and the snooty Mr. Darcy (played with an imperious scowl by David Rintoul). Any adaptation of Emma rests firmly on its central character, and Doran Godwin wonderfully captures Emma Woodhouse's resilience, determination, and exasperating self-satisfaction. Definitely the funniest of Austen's novels, Emma's satirical humor is perfectly balanced with romantic yearning, and this 1972 version succeeds delightfully.

Persuasion, though more melancholy in tone, has a wonderfully sympathetic heroine in Anne Elliot (played by the graceful Ann Fairbanks), who once turned away the man she loved but is given the chance, seven years later, to set things right. Sense and Sensibility suffers from comparison to the star firepower and cinematic sweep of the 1995 movie with Emma Thompson (a must-see for any Austen fan), but the dueling characters of gracious Elinore and headstrong Marianne, two sisters struggling with fallen fortunes, make for enjoyable viewing in this 1981 adaptation. Mansfield Park has perhaps the dullest hero and heroine of any Austen novel, yet the story zips along, powered by some of Austen's most outrageous supporting characters, here brought to deliciously comic life by Anna Massey and Angela Pleasence. Northanger Abbey satirizes gothic romances and the overheated imaginations that loved them; but though the tone is more broad and melodramatic than most of Austen, this 1987 adaptation suits the novel and rounds out this very satisfying boxed set. --Bret Fetzer

A collection of made-for-TV movies based on the novels of Jane Austen.
Genre: Television: British Mystery/Dr
Rating: NR
Release Date: 24-AUG-2004
Media Type: DVD

The George Eliot Collection (Middlemarch / Daniel Deronda / Silas Marner / Adam Bede / The Mill on the Floss)

The George Eliot Collection is a set of five BBC programs based on the works of the 19th century novelist: Middlemarch, Daniel Deronda, Silas Marner, Adam Bede, and The Mill on the Floss.

The 1994 production of Middlemarch juxtaposes morals and money, grand ambitions with petty jealousies, and pursuits of the mind with bodily needs. A handsome young doctor named Lydgate (Douglas Hodge, Vanity Fair) comes to the provincial town of Middlemarch to start a new hospital; a headstrong young woman named Dorothea (Juliet Aubrey, The Mayor of Casterbridge) yearns to contribute to the greater good of the world. These idealists enter into marriages that derail all their intentions and lead them into lives they never imagined. The network of characters in this six-episode program, ranging up and down the societal ladder, create an intricate and utterly engrossing narrative as well as a magnificent recreation of life on the cusp of the Industrial Revolution. The cast, from the largest to the smallest roles, is impeccable. When a scene turns to a character you've only glimpsed before, the precision of the writing (by miniseries master Andrew Davies, Pride and Prejudice) and the vivid performances suck you into the life of this person who seemed like mere background scenery only moments before. The cumulative impact of Eliot's story will leave you gasping at its brilliant balance of romance and reality. Performers include creepy Patrick Malahide (The Singing Detective) and sexy Rufus Sewell (Dark City) among the familiar faces of dozens of inspired character actors. Don't let the literary pedigree of Middlemarch scare you off--the plot is as juicy as a soap opera, with a psychological fullness that makes every dramatic turn all the more gripping.

Daniel Deronda, Eliot's accomplished but underrated last novel, is effectively, often stirringly, adapted for this 2002 BBC production, which was scripted by old pro Andrew Davies (Middlemarch) and directed with wit and subtlety by Tom Hooper (Cold Feet). Set in the 1870s, Eliot's story concerns two strong-willed young people whose self-determination is under attack by legal constraints on their rights to an inheritance. The noble Daniel (Hugh Dancy) is of dubious birth; the fiery Gwendolen (Romola Garai) can't possess her late father's estate because she's a woman. They are sympathetic to one another, but not lovers: Gwendolen is obliged to marry into wealth and becomes an unhappy bride of the scoundrel Grandcourt (Hugh Bonneville), while Daniel must sort out his feelings about the much-maligned "Jewess," the beautiful Mirah. Despite Garai's somewhat questionable casting, this lengthy drama--evenly divided between the two leads--never lags in insight or passion.

The title character of Silas Marner, a member of a strict religious community, is wrongly accused of theft and has no choice but to move to a faraway village. For 15 years he lives alone, hoarding the money he makes from his weaving and gaining a reputation as a recluse, a miser, and perhaps even a witch. Marner's life changes dramatically one Christmas season, when his gold is stolen and a mysterious woman dies in the woods outside his cottage. She leaves behind a child that Marner, to the surprise of the other villagers, takes into his home to raise as his daughter. The arrival of the infant, whom he names Eppie after his mother, transforms Marner. His bitterness evaporates; he no longer cares about his lost money; and he commits himself completely to his adopted child, who grows up into a loving and beautiful daughter. But Marner's happiness may be threatened, because Eppie is really the daughter of the local squire, who was secretly married to the woman whose body Marner discovered. Remarried, but childless, the squire decides he wants to claim Eppie as his own. Ben Kingsley gives a subtle and moving performance as the simple weaver, and a strong cast gives him ample support in this 1985 BBC adaptation of George Eliot's novel. Silas Marner is not particularly complex--it's certainly a more modest undertaking than Middlemarch--but this sentimental Victorian tale, filled with historical detail, potential tragedy, heartless villains, and the redeeming power of childhood, makes for a very satisfying film.

Adam Bede is the very definition of a brash young man. George Eliot's young English country hero is headstrong and arrogant, and sees the world in black and white--not unlike his 18th-century countrymen, living and (barely) breathing by the strict moral code of the day. In this excellent 1991 BBC adaptation, Adam is played by the appealing Iain Glen, who shows he's as comfortable in a sweeping period drama as he is in popcorn fare like Lara Croft: Tomb Raider or the Resident Evil films. Adam is torn by love and commitment, and once he sets his sights on the fetching farmgirl Hetty (Patsy Kensit), he's convinced Hetty's love for his rich acquaintance Arthur is a sham, and uses force to get Arthur to break off their relationship. But what Adam has set in motion, the world will be reeling from for a very long time: in the wake of his impetuous act lie despair, heartbreak, a secret pregnancy, thoughts of suicide, a nd death. And still, the moral order must be upheld. Glen shows Adam slowly but truly growing up, realizing the consequences of his actions. (It doesn't hurt that he ends up with the lovely Dinah, played by the fabulous Susannah Harker of House of Cards and the 1995 Pride and Prejudice--why on earth has this talented young woman not become a huge star?) Viewing the characters' transgressions through 21st century eyes can make some of the plot lines feel remote--nearly unbelievable--but the all-too-human struggles of people trying to do the right thing will always ring true.

Based on her own childhood, George Eliot's The Mill on the Floss gets the deluxe treatment in this eight-part BBC miniseries. Set in 19th century Lincolnshire, the story centers on Maggie Tulliver (Georgia Slowe). Headstrong and undisciplined, she loves her brother Tom (Jonathan Scott-Taylor), but he has his doubts about her. Frankly, he finds his sister exasperating. An uptight, ambitious young man, Tom can't understand why she won't act like a proper young lady. While he's off at boarding school, for instance, she forgets to feed his rabbits and they die. Well-mannered cousin Lucy Deane (Moira Durbridge) is a mutual friend and peacemaker between the two. Over the years, Phillip Wakem (Anton Lesser), another neighbor, will also enter their orbit. Alas, Mr. Tulliver (Ray Smith) and Lawyer Wakem (Philip Locke) are sworn enemies. More studious than her brother (now played by Christopher Blake), teenaged Maggie (Pippa Guard) is drawn to the bright, if hunchbacked Phillip, but her ardor doesn't run as deep as his. Either way, Tom doesn't approve--nor, as it turns out, does Mr. Wakem. Further, as the fortunes of the latter rise, the Tullivers fall so far they lose their mill. But all is not lost. Tom will keep the family afloat when he finds employment with Lucy's father, Uncle Deane (John Stratton), around the same time Lucy's suitor, Stephen Guest (John Moulder-Brown), switches his focus to Maggie. Just when it seems relations couldn't get more tangled, the mill itself provides a neat, if tragic solution. Previously brought to the BBC in 1965 with Jane Asher, this fine, if somewhat stagy 1978 production was followed by a 1997 telefilm with Emily Watson.

The next collection in the successful BBC Classics line comes to life with an assortment of all-star casts in five of George Eliot's beautifully astute literary works all lovingly portrayed in critically acclaimed productions from the BBC. This 5-disc set includes Adam Bede Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe The Mill on the Floss Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda.Running Time: 994 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 794051289926 Manufacturer No: E2899

Silas Marner, The Weaver of Raveloe

Silas Marner, a member of a strict religious community, is wrongly accused of theft and has no choice but to move to a faraway village. For 15 years he lives alone, hoarding the money he makes from his weaving and gaining a reputation as a recluse, a miser, and perhaps even a witch. Marner's life changes dramatically one Christmas season, when his gold is stolen and a mysterious woman dies in the woods outside his cottage. She leaves behind a child that Marner, to the surprise of the other villagers, takes into his home to raise as his daughter. The arrival of the infant, whom he names Eppie after his mother, transforms Marner. His bitterness evaporates; he no longer cares about his lost money; and he commits himself completely to his adopted child, who grows up into a loving and beautiful daughter. But Marner's happiness may be threatened, because Eppie is really the daughter of the local squire, who was secretly married to the woman whose body Marner discovered. Remarried, but childless, the squire decides he wants to claim Eppie as his own.

Ben Kingsley gives a subtle and moving performance as the simple weaver, and a strong cast gives him ample support in this 1985 BBC adaptation of George Eliot's novel. Silas Marner is not particularly complex--it's certainly a more modest undertaking than Eliot's most famous novel, Middlemarch--but this sentimental Victorian tale, filled with historical detail, potential tragedy, heartless villains, and the redeeming power of childhood, makes for a very satisfying film. --Simon Leake

Silas Marner was a man who had everything - until he lost it all. Falsely accused of theft and driven out of his town Silas starts life anew. One day upon arriving home he discovers a foundling child asleep on the hearth. Could this young girl be the redemption to love and happiness that Silas has been looking for?Running Time: 90 min.System Requirements:Run Time: 90 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 794051288325 Manufacturer No: E2883

Adam Bede

Adam Bede is the very definition of a brash young man. George Eliot's young English country hero is headstrong and arrogant, and sees the world in black and white--not unlike his 18th-century countrymen, living and (barely) breathing by the strict moral code of the day. In this excellent 1991 BBC adaptation, Adam is played by the appealing Iain Glen, who shows he's as comfortable in a sweeping period drama as he is in popcorn fare like Lara Croft: Tomb Raider or the Resident Evil films. Adam is torn by love and commitment, and once he sets his sights on the fetching farmgirl Hetty (Patsy Kensit), he's convinced Hetty's love for his rich acquaintance Arthur is a sham, and uses force to get Arthur to break off their relationship. But what Adam has set in motion, the world will be reeling from for a very long time: in the wake of his impetuous act lie despair, heartbreak, a secret pregnancy, thoughts of suicide, a nd death. And still, the moral order must be upheld. Glen shows Adam slowly but truly growing up, realizing the consequences of his actions. (It doesn't hurt that he ends up with the lovely Dinah, played by the fabulous Susannah Harker of House of Cards and the 1995 Pride and Prejudice--why on earth has this talented young woman not become a huge star?) Viewing the characters' transgressions through 21st century eyes can make some of the plot lines feel remote--nearly unbelievable--but the all-too-human struggles of people trying to do the right thing will always ring true. --A.T. Hurley

Beneath the tranquil surface of George Eliot's tale passions run deep and the bitter gall of betrayal is all too prevalent. Adam Bede is a hard-working carpenter with his heart set on marrying his sweetheart the pretty dairymaid Hetty Sorrel. Unfortunately Hetty's affections are captured by the local squire Arthur Donnithorne.Running Time: 102 min.System Requirements:Run Time: 102 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 794051288127 Manufacturer No: E2881

Northanger Abbey (BBC, 1986)

Jane Austen goes Gothic in this darkly dramatic rendering of her Northanger Abbey, a novel that wasn't published until after her early and sudden death. Austen pokes fun at her peers in this story, in which her heroine, Catherine Morland (Katharine Schlesinger), is hopelessly addicted to macabre romance novels that wreak havoc on her imagination. She comes from a large, but loving family, and she's taken, as a companion, to the decadent society of Bath. There, she meets the duplicitous Thorpe siblings, Isabella (Cassie Stuart) and John (Jonathan Coy), and the kindly Tilney sister and brother, Eleanor (Ingrid Lacey) and Henry (Peter Firth). The Tilneys also have an elder brother, the snobbish soldier Frederick (Greg Hicks), and an oddly eerie father, General Tilney (Robert Hardy). Needless to say, all this provides plenty of fodder for fantasies and Catherine comes up with many, even imagining all sorts of evils on a visit to the Tilney family home, Northanger Abbey. The soundtrack is more than a little melodramatic, but it's best to think of it as a humorous touch rather than a serious, punctuating one. --N.F. Mendoza

A tale of intrigue adventure and romance this enchanting dramatisation captures the spirit and wit of Austen's classic novel. The setting is eighteenth- century Bath a society of decadence and deceit into which Catherine Morland arrives bursting with freshness integrity and a passion for macabre Gothic novels. In a time when materialism not love governs marriage Catherine's head is full of fantasy and fiction of maidens being abducted to sinister castles and heroes riding to the rescue on white horses. When romantic Henry Tilney invites her to his ancestral home Northanger Abbey a dark mystery starts to unfold that makes her blood run cold. Are her fantasies coming true? What does the brooding General Tilney want from her and will the truth destroy her chance for love...?Running Time: 90 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 794051227324

Coming Home

"I've only been to Nancherrow once. I thought it was very beautiful, but somehow not part of the real world," says the headmistress of St. Ursula's to young Judith. Judith Dunbar, the heroine of Rosamunde Pilcher's Coming Home, starts her journey at this boarding school when her mother and sister leave to join her father in Singapore. It is here that she first gets to know her soon-to-be lifelong friend, Loveday Carey-Lewis. Through Loveday, Judith is welcomed into the Carey-Lewis family and invited to the majestic estate of Nancherrow.

Coming Home truly shows a fairy-tale England. The beautiful coastal scenery and the flawless posh accents of all the characters make this almost unbelievable. Everyone is so kind, so repentant at the first hint of any mistake, and so happy--even the tragedies have their silver lining. Joanna Lumley and Peter O'Toole's roles as the happy Carey-Lewises hardly tax their acting ability, although they portray this frightfully British upper-class couple exactingly.

As the story progresses through World War II, the saga of Judith Dunbar twists and turns. Not without its tragedy, her life is still enchanted by Nancherrow and its charmed residents, as familiar to her as her own family. Coming Home is not part of the real world, but rather an escape that somehow becomes the one place that feels like home. --Amanda Powter

Bertie and Elizabeth: The Reluctant Royals - The Story of King George VI & Queen Elizabeth

James Wilby (Gosford Park) and Juliet Aubrey (Middlemarch) portray the reluctant royals who became king and queen of England when Edward VIII gave up the throne for the woman he loved, on Bertie & Elizabeth. Albert, Duke of York, called Bertie, married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in 1923 after a storybook courtship. Expecting a life of genteel obscurity, they were thrust into the limelight in 1936 when Bertie's older brother, Edward VIII, abdicated to marry the twice-divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson. Shy, modest, and a habitual stutterer, Bertie was crowned King George VI just as his country faced the onslaught of World War II. With the help of his devoted Elizabeth, he rose magnificently to the challenge. Bertie & Elizabeth also stars Alan Bates (Love in a Cold Climate) as Bertie's father, King George V; Eileen Atkins (currently starring with Bates and Wilby in Gosford Park) as his mother, Queen Mary; Charles Edwards as Edward VIII; Amber Rose Sealey as Wallis Simpson; David Ryall as Winston Churchill; Robert Hardy (Lucky Jim) as President Franklin Roosevelt; and Corin Redgrave (Persuasion) as General Bernard Montgomery.

Oliver's Travels

British stage and screen legends Alan Bates (Gosford Park, Women in Love) and Sinéad Cusack (Stealing Beauty) star in an irresistible blend of romantic comedy and mystery. He is a professor obsessed with word games who is forced into early retirement; she is a policewoman suspended from the force for voicing suspicions about a superior officer. They team up to find a missing person and wind up discovering much more. Traveling through some of Britain's most glorious countryside from South Wales to the Orkney Islands, they uncover a web of nefarious activity, dodge an aerial attack, and exchange some of the wittiest banter since Hepburn and Tracy.

Written by Alan Plater (The Barchester Chronicles, The Last of the Blonde Bombshells) and also featuring Bill Paterson, Mollie Sugden, and Miles Anderson, this story proves once again that with mystery and love—getting there is more than half the fun.

Dutch Girls

DUTCH GIRLS is a raucous yet touching comedy about the antics of a group of 18-year-old prep school boys on a hockey trip to Amsterdam. Competition among the boys is keen to be chosen for the Strathdonald school hockey squad. Coach Mole is gratified at the sudden interest so many boys are showing in the team. He envisions resounding success on the hockey field with time to spare in the art galleries and museums of the colorful city. But as they hit town, sports and culture are the last things on these lads' minds. Colin Firth stars as Neil Truelove, a particularly shy and sensitive young player who's determined to have a fling with a Dutch girl. Co-stars Bill Paterson, Timothy Spall and James Wilby. Produced by Sue Birtwistle (Pride and Prejudice). Presented in Original Full Frame Format (1.33:1)

Foyle's War - A Lesson in Murder

By this third episode of Foyle's War, series creator Anthony Horowitz has his characters' fundamentals and British wartime milieu well in hand; he rewards himself by taking this remarkable program to a new high. A Lesson in Murder concerns a cluster of terrible deaths--a jailhouse suicide provoked by abusive police, the monstrous killing of a child, the murder of a judge--directly or indirectly tied to a military draft board tainted by scandal. As Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle (Michael Kitchen) investigates the linkages, his two prized assistants, driver Sam (Honeysuckle Weeks) and Detective Milner (Anthony Howell), become personally involved with a pair of naive wartime casualties. Hovering over everything is intensifying gloom over Germany's imminent declaration of war, a homefront crisis making heroes of some and scoundrels of others. Fortunately, steadfast Foyle is there to separate one from the other. --Tom Keogh