The Barchester Chronicles

The BBC is currently transmitting its 2nd radio version of The Warden and Barchester Towers, having made an excellent one about 10 years ago. The current radio production only emphasises how good this TV production is.

This adaptation of Anthony Trollope's great story was made 27 years ago and this is late in the day to add a comment about it, but I had never seen this particular production and I am delighted with it and feel compelled to comment.I have tried over and over again to plow through the Barchester novels, but I usually fail after about Book 4.

There's just nothing better than a BBC drama set in England in the 1800's. The ensemble cast plays each character archetype to perfection.

Anthony Trollope's position as a leading British novelist is established today in a way that would seem odd to our grandparent's generation of 1900 - 1930. He seemed so quaint and old hat, having little of the fire and exuberance of Dickens, the passions of the Bronte sisters, the intellectual realism of George Eliot, or the mystical tragedy of Thomas Hardy.

That any miniseries as exquisite as this, dating from 1982, would be long unavailable in the U.S.

Ecclesiastical politics when your high............

The Barchester Chronicles (1982) was directed by David Giles. Anthony Trollope was a genius.

This series is based on two of Anthony Trollope's books. The first two episodes cover the events in 'The Warden' and the remaining five 'Barchester Towers'.

I have been waiting more than a decade for this version to be released in the US, and finally my wait is over. When it first aired on Masterpiece Theater, I was transfixed by the story, the acting, and the sets.