Anna Karenina 

Anna Karenina is the young wife of an older husband. She has an affair with the handsome Count Vronsky. By following her desires, Anna complicates her life.

Stars:

Nicola Pagett, Stuart Wilson, Eric Porter

Nominated for 2 Primetime Emmys. Another 3 nominations.

Cast

Complete series cast summary:
Nicola Pagett	...	Anna Karenina 10 episodes, 1977
Stuart Wilson	...	Vronsky 10 episodes, 1977
Eric Porter	...	Karenin 9 episodes, 1977
Robert Swann	...	Levin 9 episodes, 1977
Davyd Harries	...	Stiva 9 episodes, 1977
Caroline Langrishe	...	Kitty 9 episodes, 1977
Carole Nimmons	...	Dolly 8 episodes, 1977
Marilyn Le Conte	...	Annushka 8 episodes, 1977
Paul Spurrier	...	Seriozha 8 episodes, 1977
Sheila Gish	...	Princess Betsy 7 episodes, 1977
Patricia Lawrence	...	Princess Shcherbatsky 6 episodes, 1977
Geoffrey Toone	...	Prince Shcherbatsky 6 episodes, 1977
David Gwillim	...	Petritsky 6 episodes, 1977
Margot Van der Burgh	...	Lydia 5 episodes, 1977
April Walker	...	Paula 5 episodes, 1977

Storyline

Anna Karenina is the young wife of an older husband. She has an affair with the handsome Count Vronsky. By following her desires, Anna complicates her life.

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Plot Keywords:

tv mini series | based on novel | character name in title | 

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Genres:

Drama | History | Romance

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

5 February 1978 (USA)

Also Known As:

Ana Karenina

Company Credits

Production Co:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

500 min 572 min (DVD)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Version of Anna Karenina (1918)

User Reviews

inexcusably, infuriatingly bad

Whether this is better than other dramatizations of the book is irrelevant. If it's bad, it's bad--and this is bad. The fact that this version covers far more of the book--including Kostya Levin's story, which I think is more interesting than Anna's--just makes its atrocities even more unbearable.

What bothered me much more than its distortions of the book's characters and deviations from its plot is its dragging THE WHOLE BOOK down to the level of a soap opera. From the very first scene with Countess Vronskaya and Anna on the train, and in every single following scene, all the way through to the end, I felt like I was watching As The Word Turns--all 13,858 episodes. It made me sick.

To me, one of Tolstoy's most astonishing achievements in this book is that it NEVER--not for one scene or one paragraph or one word--falls into melodrama. Every character is alive and real, everything they do is believable and organic. Nothing is overblown or contrived.

This production is the exact opposite. EVERYTHING is overblown, EVERYTHING feels contrived and phony and stupid. It takes a very great book and turns it into cheap melodrama. What a disgrace.