I still have a soft spot for this movie, after all these years. The young actors playing the four main characters were so touching, and the music was so haunting I can still hear it in my head. Of course, it was scored by Loreena McKennitt, so it had a very haunting quality that she captures so well. R. H. Thompson was one of my favourite performers, in the role of the grieving widower who is falling for the young woman to whom his late wife convinced him to open their home. I found especially interesting the attention to the society of the time and place. People were moved by charity to help the orphans from overseas, but once closer to home, the gossip and tolerance of cruelty were less than charitable.
I taped this movie from TV years ago - it was on a *Beta* tape, not VHS!! (All you young'uns out there go look up "Beta") so anyhow that tape is long since useless. The NFB in Canada did release it on video, I borrowed it (again, years ago) from the public library in Winnipeg. But unless Masterpiece Theatre decides to market its back catalogue ( which I doubt will happen) we are likely out of luck. Incidentally, I watched it when it aired on MT, and it had been edited for time (it aired in Canada, and likely the UK, before that). The Canadian version was longer, but I can't remember what was cut for the MT version.
I taped this movie from TV years ago - it was on a *Beta* tape, not VHS!! (All you young'uns out there go look up "Beta") so anyhow that tape is long since useless. The NFB in Canada did release it on video, I borrowed it (again, years ago) from the public library in Winnipeg. But unless Masterpiece Theatre decides to market its back catalogue ( which I doubt will happen) we are likely out of luck. Incidentally, I watched it when it aired on MT, and it had been edited for time (it aired in Canada, and likely the UK, before that). The Canadian version was longer, but I can't remember what was cut for the MT version.