Brideshead Revisited 

Two young men meet at Oxford. Charles Ryder, though of no family or money, becomes friends with Sebastian Flyte when Sebastian throws up in his college room through an open window. He then ... See full summary »

Stars:

Jeremy Irons, Diana Quick, Roger Milner

Top Rated TV #157 | Won 2 Golden Globes. Another 10 wins & 19 nominations.

Cast

Series cast summary:
Jeremy Irons	...	Charles Ryder 11 episodes, 1981
Diana Quick	...	Julia Flyte / ... 11 episodes, 1981
Roger Milner	...	Wilcox 10 episodes, 1981
Phoebe Nicholls	...	Cordelia Flyte 9 episodes, 1981
Simon Jones	...	Lord Brideshead 'Bridey' 8 episodes, 1981
Anthony Andrews	...	Sebastian Flyte 6 episodes, 1981
Charles Keating	...	Rex Mottram 6 episodes, 1981
Claire Bloom	...	Lady Marchmain 5 episodes, 1981
John Gielgud	...	Edward Ryder 5 episodes, 1981

Storyline

Two young men meet at Oxford. Charles Ryder, though of no family or money, becomes friends with Sebastian Flyte when Sebastian throws up in his college room through an open window. He then invites Charles to lunch after his teddy bear Aloysius "refuses to talk to him" unless he is forgiven. Charles becomes involved with Sebastian's family, Catholic peers of the realm in Protestant England. The story is told in flashback as Charles, now an officer in the British Army, is moved with his company to an English country house that he discovers to be Brideshead, Sebastian's family home where Charles has a series of memories of his youth and young manhood, his loves, life, and a journey of faith and anguish.

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Plot Keywords:

homosexual subtext | college | atheist | wealth | voice over narration | 

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 January 1982 (USA)

Also Known As:

Brideshead Revisited

Filming Locations:

Bridgewater House, Cleveland Row, Green Park, London, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

£10,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Granada Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

659 min (11 parts)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In episode four, "Sebastian Against the World", Lady Marchmain reads aloud the G.K. Chesterton "Father Brown" story "The Queer Feet", in which Father Brown says of a criminal "I caught him, with an unseen hook and an invisible line which is long enough to let him wander to the ends of the world, and still to bring him back with a twitch upon the thread." The episode titles (and the chapter titles of the book) "The Unseen Hook" and "A Twitch Upon a Thread" are a reference to this, as a metaphor for the way in which the characters are able to wander the world according to their free will until they are ready and receptive to God's grace, at which point He acts in their lives and brings about a conversion.

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Alternate Versions

The voiceover in the early Venice sequences was added for the American version after producer Derek Granger saw the initial British broadcast and felt there was not a strong enough sense of the religious feelings evoked while viewing the paintings.

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Connections

Featured in Zomergasten: Episode #20.2 (2007)

User Reviews

The best mini-series since Shogun.

This is the finest series I've ever seen on television. The fact that is based upon an excellent novel is only part of the equation. The locations, the music, the acting - everything comes together so beautifully in this project. Who else, besides Evelyn Waugh, writes lines like: "I was taken by the double illusion of familiarity and strangeness." or "A thin bat-squeak of sensuality..." or " I found myself close to heaven in those days."

I must single out Sir John Gielgud. Every time he is on screen, he is hilarious. What a treasure.

Watching this series is a bit like getting lost in reading "Lord of The Rings." You like the 'place' that they take you so much, you don't want it to end. If cable ever offered a Brideshead Revisited channel, I'd be among the first to subscribe.