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The success of The Forsyte Saga (BBC, 1967) cast a long shadow over the
production of literary serials at the BBC, never more so than in the case of The
Pallisers (BBC, 1974), its adaptation of Anthony Trollope's series of so-called
'political' novels (the protagonist eventually becomes Prime Minister). Dubbed
in some quarters 'Son of Forsyte', this Victorian drama is also made up of 26
episodes spread out across decades, focuses on generations of a single
aristocratic family, employs the same script editor (Lennox Phillips), and
features Susan Hampshire and Martin Jarvis in the cast.
Trollope's penchant for eccentric, highly unusual names gets a full workout
in this serial, which includes such characters as Lady Mabel Grex, Sir Orlando
Drought and the Marchioness of Auld Reekie and revolves around the arranged
marriage between Lady Glencora (Hampshire) and the improbably monikered
Plantagenet Palliser (Philip Latham). However, it's rakish characters like Burgo
Fitzgerald (Barry Justice) and Ferdinand Lopez (Stuart Wilson) that really
linger in the memory.
Simon Raven brings a droll sense of humour to the scripts, which are full of
comic banter, admirably delivered by a huge cast including such up-and-coming
performers as Derek Jacobi, Penelope Keith, Anthony Andrews and Jeremy Irons.
Production on the series stretched out over 13 months but, despite the appeal
to the memory of Forsyte, it had nothing like its impact, although this was
partly down to sheer bad luck. The series was transmitted at the height of a
winter of dreadful industrial relations, marked by the three-day week and
frequent power shortages, which both contributed to scheduling difficulties. The
final insult came when, due to strikes at the BBC, the concluding two episodes
couldn't be completed in time and were screened five months late, largely
eroding audience loyalty.
The Pallisers admittedly peaks long before its conclusion, with the
dramatisation of 'Phineas Redux', which served as the basis of episodes 15 to
19. In it Plantagenet and Glencora become Duke and Duchess Omnium, while the
dramatic plot mixes politics, murder mystery and a memorable court-room climax.
However, viewers who stayed the course were rewarded with a handsomely mounted,
frequently witty production populated by a vast gallery of richly drawn comic
creations, such as the political agent Mr Scruby (Gordon Gostelow), the snobbish
Adolphus 'Dolly' Longstaffe (Donald Pickering) and the interfering Countess
Midlothian (Fabia Drake), while Roland Culver as the calmly cynical Duke of
Omnium is magnificent.
Sergio Angelini
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1. Plantagenet's passion (4:29)
