Episode complete credited cast: | |||
Margaret Leighton | ... | Mrs. Cheveley | |
Keith Michell | ... | Sir Robert Chiltern | |
Jeremy Brett | ... | Vicount Goring | |
Dinah Sheridan | ... | Lady Chiltern | |
Susan Hampshire | ... | Mabel Chiltern | |
Charles Carson | ... | The Earl of Caversham, KG | |
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Michel Faure | ... | Vicomte de Nanjac |
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Raymond Graham | ... | Mason, butler to Sir Robert |
Erik Chitty | ... | Phipps, Lord Goring's servant | |
Zena Dare | ... | Lady Markby | |
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Magda Miller | ... | Countess of Basildon |
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Penelope Lee | ... | Mrs. Marchmont |
Sir Robert Chiltern is a successful Government minister, well-off and with a loving wife. All this is threatened when Mrs Cheveley appears in London with damning evidence of a past misdeed. Sir Robert turns for help to his friend Lord Goring, an apparently idle philanderer and the despair of his father. Goring knows the lady of old, and, for him, takes the whole thing pretty seriously. Written by Jeremy Perkins {J-26}
With a stunning cast (Margaret Leighton, Keith Michell, Dinah Sheridan, Susan Hampshire, Jeremy Brett) this adaptation of Oscar Wilde's play is witty, clever, and extremely engaging. Without playing too strongly for comedy (which can work with this play), it manages to bring out the sharpness of the lines and the strength of the characters, particularly those of Lord Goring and Mrs Cheveley.
This play is Wilde at his best and TV at its most excellent. You forget you are watching something made up and root for the characters, caring what happens to them. Perhaps the best of the TV and film versions of this story.