40th Anniversary Brideshead Revisited PBS Broadcast

I read the book and couldn’t wait to head off to college with my teddy bear.

30 Years Later, Revisiting ‘Brideshead

NYT

By Thomas Vinciguerra Dec. 30, 2011

REVIEWING Evelyn Waugh’s “Brideshead Revisited” in 1946, Edmund Wilson found himself “cruelly disappointed.” After a promising start, he wrote, Waugh abandoned his usual comic motif for a “mere romantic fantasy,” shot through with “shameless and rampant” snobbery and characters both “implausible and tiresome.”

Legions of public television viewers ultimately didn’t care.

PBS may have enjoyed record ratings and 11 Emmy nominations with “Downton Abbey,” the between-the-wars period mini-series returning for a second season next Sunday. But 30 years ago this month another period mini-series, the 11-episode production of “Brideshead Revisited,” constituted the biggest British invasion since the Beatles. It made stars of Jeremy Irons, who played the moody, disillusioned painter Charles Ryder, and Anthony Andrews as the outwardly insouciant but desperately dissolute aristocrat Sebastian Flyte. It popularized such English fashions as Oxford bags and terms like “spiffing” (meaning “excellent”).

And it proved that people will watch 659 very slow minutes of a costume drama if it is sumptuous enough.

The American debut of “Brideshead,” about three months after its premiere in Britain, was a major event. A critic for The Washington Post declared it “the best series ever seen on American television.”

The series’s lush evocation of a bygone era of English high living was infectious. In New York, Bloomingdale’s unveiled display windows of “Brideshead”-inspired fashions. Young men emulated Sebastian by toting teddy bears they named Aloysius. A New Yorker cartoon depicted a woman introducing a dowdy middle-aged companion: “This is my cousin Sebastian. But, of course, not the Sebastian.”

“I still get letters from people saying, ‘We’re having a “Brideshead” party tonight and dressing up,’ ” Mr. Andrews said in a telephone interview. “It’s strangely comforting.”

/quote

None of the remakes can hold a candle to original Brideshead Revisited, puts that Downton Abbey in the shade.

More..

Who can forget Anthony Blanche?

Miss Ghurl was out and proud when it was both illegal and dangerous. She didn't give two fucks, and had a wonderful time.

This rebroadcast should be a HUGE hit, since the "Dark Academia" crowd that's the subject of another thread will eat it up.

Talk about having a moment!

R5 Was he the PSH of his day?

I’m missing something, when and where is it going to be on?

If he did but realize it, Anthony Blanche was one of the best friends Charles Ryder had.

Though CR dismisses him as "his pansy friend", AB constantly holds Charles Ryder up to a mirror, telling him things he didn't want to hear, and warning him off others.

R8

May not be same as what you're seeking, but IIRC entire original BR is on YT.

Charles Ryder went from gorgeous youth to a pompous self righteous prig.

He's too smug to realize despite bedding the eldest daughter, and seemingly all that he's desired from start (Brideshead estate) isn't going as planned.

Mr. Ryder gloating over Brideshead (the heir) situation to Julia, and her reaction should have been his first clue.

Charles and Sebastian sunbathing nude...

Beautiful series that did justice to a beautiful book.

Miss A. Blanch was a proto-DLer.

Champagne 🥂 days & homo nights

Complete BR series on YT....

IIRC original Brideshead Revisited is (or was) on Amazon for streaming as well.

Four words I rememember from Bridey: Beastly, Ghastly, Lethal, Gruesome. Two lines that are great: "Thank you, sir. There is no Mrs Lunt." "I say, can I have another helping of those scrumptious meringues?" And who could forget, "Charles, IS THIS TRUE?"

Were there any real gays among the cast?

Anthony Blanche was gay in real life.

Is he dead?

Britbox has a recently remastered version of the original series. I watched it last year, and it was perfection.

No, he's still alive. But he was gay when he made the miniseries (and I presume still is).

Oh, I'm glad to hear he's still with us.

[quote]None of the remakes can hold a candle to original Brideshead Revisited

That's because Derek Granger took Waugh's book verbatim, added a few bits/lines of dialogue and turned it into the screenplay. Then Charles Sturridge simply blocked/filmed Granger's screenplay. All that was left for the actors to do was deliver Waugh's/Granger's lines. Simply perfection.

I don't know how many times I've watched the original TV version. I imagine the "remakes" pale in comparison.

It's Dark Academia lite!

The cast got together at Castle Howard in 2016. (Click through for a nice portrait of Jeremy Irons, Anthony Andrews, Diana Quick, Jane Asher, Phoebe Nicholls, Nickolas Grace, Simon Jones, John Grillo, as well as Derek Gran­ger and Michael Lindsay-Hogg. Sadly, no Claire Bloom.)

^ and Charles Sturridge.

Where's Mr. Samgrass? He was one of my favorite characters; I've met so many people who basically *are* him.

Granted I’ve only watched the movie fully, but my take away - an interesting look at how popular culture minimized and disregarded gays before they had AIDS solidly in their toolbox. And how desperate we were for representation.

I was a closeted teenager when this first aired on PBS. I loved it and wanted to have a romantic friendship like that, only I never met the right boy.

[quote] I loved it and wanted to have a romantic friendship like that

I know of these romantic friendships of the English and the Germans. They're not Latin. I think they're very good, if they don't go on to long.

I loved Jane Asher as the insincere, cold Lady Celia Ryder: "Whenever I see anything lovely nowadays--a building or a piece of scenery--I think to myself, 'That's by Charles.'"

I like the series but hated the book and dislike Waugh, who was a talented writer but a sexual turncoat in addition to being quite hideously racist.

Evidently he said that he didn't think there would ever be an American who could understand Brideshead Revisited. He was enraged at its popularity in the States.

He was a Class A cunt.

I was disappointed Charles and Sebastian weren’t shown making out even once.

You have stated your boundaries, R32.

But your anonymity precludes you from impressing us with your contributions to world society, literature and culture.

Let me guess that it's a mere thimble's worth compared to Evelyn Waugh's magnanimity.

I get so bored with the show once Sebaastion disappears.

R33, I don't kiss.

[quote] Derek Granger took Waugh's book verbatim, added a few bits/lines of dialogue and turned it into the screenplay.

R23 You have omitted mention of Sir John Mortimer who tactfully shaped Waugh's text.

Spanish language version "Brideshead Revista".

R35 - I don't know, I like the Julia episodes. I think Diana Quick is just so striking in all those beautiful clothes. I only get bored at the very end with the Catholic question at Lord Marchmain's death.

If you don't mind commercials, the series is also streaming on Pluto (where you can also see the 1970s miniseries Anna Karenina)

[quote] Anna Karenina

I want to see the 1960 version with Claire Bloom and Sean Connery.

It needs to be redone with a few trans characters being introduced.

OK, I'm confused, too. OP's title implies a rebroadcast of BH in the near future, but I can't seem to find out anything abut this. If this is actually happening, when and where??

Oh dear. I meant "BR" not "BH". Sorry, my fingers type cold.

I was unaware I needed to post my resume, R34, to have an opinion about Evelyn Cunting Waugh.

For whatever reason, I had R34 blocked, but let me just say that "Evelyn Waugh" and "magnanimity" don't belong in the same sentence.

As someone who was raised Catholic, Waugh’s “twitch upon the thread” vision of the inescapable One True Faith really never rang true for me - and it’s funny in the decades since he wrote Brideshead how many once staunchly Catholic countries and cultures have completely shrugged it off.

R47 They are Lapsed Catholics.

They were born as Catholics and they will die as Lapsed Catholics.

Brideshead Revisited like Upstairs, Downstairs was written and acted by people with a living memory of the age in which their dramas were set, and that makes all the difference.

R48, but they won’t die convinced of Catholicism, which is what all the characters in Brideshead Revisited ultimately come to believe. It’s the sort of thing only a fruitcake late-in-life convert would come up with.

R49, exactly how old do you think I am?

Loved it then, but bought the DVD years ago and couldn't get past the fun, young, university years--I guess the later bits ring all too true. I did go back and read the book, which is excellent. I often think of Sebastian's slow demise while under the care of the monks.

It sparked a lifelong fascination with Catholicism--all that deep feeling and beauty and glamour, fully absent in my nonreligious, white-trash adjacent upbringing.

"There is no Mrs Lunt" was added to the screenplay. It doesn't appear in the book.

R19

I saw what you did there...

It is a testament of good acting along with excellent support crew (make-up, lighting, camera angles, etc..) that Charles, Sebastian, Cordelia and even Julia all appear to grow older throughout the series.

The hard and lean Charles Ryder we see at beginning and end of Brideshead Revisited is not same as young college student then turned artist.

[quote]You have omitted mention of Sir John Mortimer who tactfully shaped Waugh's text.

R37 Considering that Granger used the book verbatim, wasn't much text for Mortimer to "shape". Unless you mean by "shape", tossing in those few lines that weren't in the book, such as mentioned in R53.

Everyone was hoping (and or believes) something was happening between Charles and Sebastian. It just didn't, and never would. Though one believes Charles Ryder would help out if there was a rush (and it involved Sebastian), otherwise the man was firmly heterosexual.

Charles's love for Sebastian was no different than the crushes many young Englishmen have; I mean what else is there when one grows up surrounded by other boys/men? The beastly business of shipping young boys off to public school is beginning of introducing them into a world largely populated by males. Men of a certain class grow up and marry of course, but their lives (then) still were often in totally separate spheres from women including their own wives. Men had their work, clubs, and other areas they could retreat into.

Lord Marchmain's mistress sees at once there isn't any vice between Sebastian and Charles. However she is keenly aware if things go on too long something could happen, though likely it would be Sebastian.

Now Kurt and Sebastian was a whole other ball of wax. How Charles Ryder could report back to Brideshead that he was sure no vice was taking place in that relationship with a straight face I don't know.

[quote]How Charles Ryder could report back to Brideshead that he was sure no vice was taking place in that relationship with a straight face I don't know.

In the book, Bridey is more concerned about Sebastian being exploited than fucking another man.

Bridey: Do you consider that there is anything vicious in my brother's connection with this German?

Charles: No. I'm sure not. It's simply a case of two waifs coming together.

Anthony Blanche would have been going around London same time (and age IIRC) as young Quentin Crisp.

QC was routinely spat at (or upon), in few cases his face slapped, and suffered all other sorts of insults, degradation, and abuse for going around wearing slap, nail polish and otherwise visibly effeminate.

Anthony Blanche has his close calls with stiffer element at Oxford, but otherwise seems to move about society unmolested. We can perhaps presume then that AC's social class offered him some protection.

Would love if there had been a sequel to BR, say set in 1950's well after the war to catch up on what happens with Charles, Sebastian, Julia, Bridie, Anthony and others.

Changes in society unleashed after WWI picked up steam after WWII, Labour Party coming into power and all.

Poor Charles, he was so falling under Sebastian's spell that he couldn't understand what Anthony Blanche was trying to warn him off about.

No, AB never met any of Sebastian's family, can you imagine the great pious Teresa Flyte, Marchioness of Marchmain who worshiped her masculine (and all now dead) brothers having anything to do with "men like that" socially?

Never the less like all gossipy queens AB had his sources, and they were invariably spot on.

[quote] QC was routinely spat at

According to his Crisp's memoirs but Crisp had a seedy London existence whereas Blanche was wealthy and educated.

QC's parents were remarkably tolerant (maybe supportive?) of their son despite of it all. They used connections to find their son jobs and that sort of thing. Had QC toned things down a bit there wouldn't have been a need to live in squalid or seedy conditions. But like many trans or very effeminate gays then and now QC was caught up in living life on his own terms. When one insists on doing that sort thing, one has to accept the rough with the smooth.

Evelyn Waugh slept with boys all the time at Oxford, including Hugh Lygon (the original for Sebastian Flyte in "Briodeshead Revisited"), Richard Pares, and (particularly) the beautiful blond Alistair Graham. but he seemed to see this as a passing phase, although his firts serious girlfriend and first wife looked like a boy and cut her hair like one: Evelyn Gardner, the daughter of Lord Burghclere. (Their friends referred to them as He-Evelyn and She-Eveklyn.) When he found out she was cheating on him they divorced and he had a breakdown,. When he came out of it he was a staunch Catholic and married Laura Herbert (from another aristocratic famiyl) and they had seven children.

He bullied gay men whom he saw as sissies almost his entire life, including Cecil Beaton starting back at preparatory school and then continuing in his novels which often satirized Beaton. But he adored two of the biggest sissies of all, Harold Acton and Brian Howard, whom he met at Oxford--they were jointly the models for both Anthony Blanche in "Brideshead" and Ambbose Silk in "Put Out More Flags."

Alistair Graham, who wouldn't have fancied a bit of that?

Bit more...

Will there be cake? Hopefully nothing with sultanas in it.

"Et in Arcadia, ego"

[quote] When he found out she was cheating on him they divorced and he had a breakdown,

And he placed his trauma and perceived-betrayal into this clever, poignant novel. I think it is perfect bridge between his early brittle society comedies and his later serious novels.

I think it's stronger story than 'Brideshead' which (as a few people here are saying) is broken-backed with an uninteresting plot resolution.

Dare we admit that Samgrass, the heterosexual, is the gayest character in BR?

Lush.

Mr. Samgrass was an oily git with nothing in his trousers except a nasty smell. Do not believe he was gay in practice nor theory, just one of those persons homo or hetro sexual that not only is a grasping social climber, but also will use any means possible to achieve that goal. If anything Mr. Samgrass likely is a voyeur sort of person, getting his pleasure from watching things more than actually participating.

[quote] Mr. Samgrass likely is a voyeur sort of person, getting his pleasure from watching things more than actually participating.

That sounds like a description of half of Datalounge. Celibacy if forced upon them.

You can stream Brideshead Revisited at Crackle (free).

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Anthony Blanche was partly based Brian Howard. With just a bit of Harold Acton thrown in for good measure.

Brian Howard was part of the "Bright Young Things" social set that came of age between the wars.

One of many things Brideshead Revisited captured so well was that these people all knew each other, much like young adults today tend to form social cliques. Brian Howard also knew Nancy Mitford, and he along with painter Stephen Tennant were likely who became Cedric Hampton in "Love In A Cold Climate"

Brian Howard ever the wit coined phrase "Anybody over the age of 30 seen in a bus has been a failure in life"

More....

I must have watched the series at least five times.

“If it could only be like this always - always summer, always alone, the fruit always ripe and Aloysius in a good temper.”

Harold Acton restored his family home in Florence, Italy Villa la Pietra. It has since been bequeathed to New York University and now is "NYU Florence".

OP didn't say BR was going to be rebroadcast. Only that this year marks 40th anniversary of series being shown on Public Broadcasting Stations in USA.

It's not being rebroadcast on PBS, but the BBC is doing a remake due next year. The Daily Mail claims Andrew Garfield will play Charles, Joe Alwyn is Sebastian and Rooney Mara is Julia, but Deadline says that casting news is premature.

It will be directed by Luca Guadagnino of Call Me By Your Name fame, so I would expect a very different take.

R80, so lots of cutaways to trees when having sex?

In his diaries Anthony Powell called Evelyn Waugh "fitfully homosexual" when at Oxford.

OP implies in his title there’s to be a rebroadcast.

What am I, chopped liver?

Who exactly were the Bright Young Things, I assume their numbers were very limited as they seem snobby, at least as implied by that Nancy Mitford limited series. Is there a full list of them?

From Wiki...

Or....

I was a Bright Young Thing once! Why am I not a DL icon?

So, basically the BYT replaced the Bloomsbury Group and were considerably more frivolous? One thing I don’t understand is there was no Prohibition in the UK, but they partied throughout that time as if it was, and it wasn’t just Americans coming over to partake of what they didn’t have at home. Why was that Prohibition energy so rampant in the UK?

I prefer Maurice.

R63 - Evelyn Gardner, the daughter of Lord Burghclere and Laura Herbert, granddaughter of the Earl of Carnarvon were cousins.

What's the big deal about a re-broadcast, when you can see the series in all sorts of ways whenever you want?

R92 I was expecting a full restored print and perhaps a nice retrospective documentary feature to accompany it all introduced by Laura Linney in her dulcet tones. I feel cheated.

R93 - On the streaming Service BritBox, there is a remastered print of Brideshead Revisited. I am currently watching it for the second time.

Like watching troppo bella paint dry.

FYI - Brideshead remasterd for US BritBox.

I've always been confounded by the character of Mr. Samgrass. For all his appearances and the shadow that he casts in the series, I've never really understood "who" he is, how he came to be associated with Lady Marchmain, and why she believed in his ability to keep Sebastian in line. Surely she had other options.

Rich people always have these hangers-on in their orbit who make themselves useful. Usually they're not as ingratiating and slimy as Mr. Samgrass.

Two supercilious Nancy Boys swanning around breathtaking locations while interminably blathering on and never ever fucking. Typically British.

The person above who remarked on the excellent work by the actors (and makeup team) in aging the characters is absolutely right. Phoebe Nicholls as Cordelia stands out. She goes from a jolly-hockey-sticks type of little sister to a somewhat weathered (in both person and character) spinster, still full of character and humor but resigned to life's good and bad. Her speech toward the end of the series about Sebastian's future and likely death was excellently done.

[quote]Her speech toward the end of the series about Sebastian's future and likely death was excellently done.

I was just watching that scene:

That was wonderful. Thanks.

[quote] I assume their numbers were very limited as they seem snobby, at least as implied by that Nancy Mitford limited series

R85 You sound as though you're itching to cancel them.

[quote] I was a Bright Young Thing

R88 No Edith you were never a frivolous partygoer. You were a serious child and a serious artist.

So, basically the BYT replaced the Bloomsbury Group

No, these labels are as amorphous and evanescent as Social Justice Warriors, Flappers, and Dollar Princesses

R97 Don't fret over it.

Samgrass was based on a real person in Waugh's life.

You will get MUCH mire pleasure reading Waugh's actual words.

R97

Mr. Samgrass as someone said above was an oily git, and bit of a climber himself. He took horrible advantage of the friendship Lady Marchmain offered (like so many others) and hospitality of the family and their homes.

Lady Marchmain tore into Charles Ryder for betraying her, the Flyte family and their hospitality before turffing him out after Charles gave Sebastian money for booze. Mr. Samgrass proved equally treacherous , but Lady Marchmain didn't know it yet.

[quote] Samgrass proved equally treacherous

He was a servant doing as he was told. Britain in those days had NO welfare for the unemployed.

Waugh started off working as a schoolmaster in a horrendous school.

He had to supplement his income by doing travel journalism—

[quote] Labels: A Mediterranean Journal 1930; Remote People 1931; Ninety-two Days: The Account of a Tropical Journey Through British Guiana and Part of Brazil 1934; Waugh in Abyssinia 1936; Robbery Under Law 1939; When the Going Was Good 1946; The Holy Places 1952; A Tourist in Africa 1960.

R108

Taking Lady Marchmain's money to "guard" Sebastian, then allowing him to go astray on the Continent (and get up to everything Lady Marchmain wanted to prevent), was hardly in Mr. Samgrass's job description.

Samgrass compounded this treachery by meeting up with Sebastian, returning to England, then going on about how successful a trip the two men had. Spoon feeding Lady Marchmain loads of codswallop that at first reinforced Sebastian's mother belief that her methods of dealing with situation were having success. Worse it allowed Samgrass to be held up as some paragon of virtue and industry. Julia Flyte finally fed up to back teeth put an end to things by telling her mother what no one else who knew would.

Samgrass was mendacious.

All of the characters in this morality tale are mendacious.

I have just started watching. The butler is not giving off gay vibes, but his lines are bitchy.

R89

It wasn't so much "prohibition" energy, but that period of time during between the war years known as "the Jazz age"....

Despite booze supposedly banned in USA (it wasn't totally, people with money and or connections could get their hands on booze), that substance was part of the "Roaring Twenties" all across North America and Europe.

Brideshead Revisited begins in 1923 (with Charles and Sebastian at college), and rolls through that decade onto events leading up to 1939, the run up to WWII that bought Jazz Age, Weimar Republic and pretty much fun times across Europe crashing down.

Carrying on from previous post...

Jazz Age as it played out across Europe and elsewhere was a time of immense social change. The old order which was already on its last legs before WWI broke out, was set on fire in post WWI/years between the war.

Women gained all sorts of new freedoms, deference to class and authority was shifting or waning. But most of all people wanted to have a good time. This is fairly common in periods after major wars, but 1920's proved to be great.

Party Charles Ryder attends where he meets up with his long lost college friend, Antony Blanche is an example. There's free flowing booze, perhaps drugs, interracial dating (heterosexual and homosexual), some random man walking about nude, tons of free flowing champagne.

My favorite bit was some older white Englishman trying to pick up a young American black man (member of band that was playing), by saying "I have booze at my house...." Well M'lord wasn't trying to get that young black buck back to his house just to sample a bottle of1857 Perrier-Jouët Belle Epoque Rosé Brut

Is the word "bride's head" symbolic in some way?

[quote] Charles Ryder

That's almost an anagram for Charles Drury.

R114

If you mean like "maiden head"; no it isn't...

Nothing in Waugh is superficial.

Charles 'rides' while Sebastian 'flies'.

Most beautiful series of all time. Impossible to imagine a show like this being so successful now.

The Teddy Bear hasn't aged a bit in 40 years.

I wonder who has that teddy bear now

It's an extraordinarily good novel and the ITV adaptation was extraordinarily good.

R120 - Who hasn't had it in Hollywood?

This series changed my life. I was working a low paying, dead end office job at 22, 9 - 5 grind, commute. I felt dead. It inspired me to go back to school and finish my BA. My life turned out to be way more than I ever dreamed or expected because of doing so.

^ wow, that's really nice to hear

I think Evelyn Waugh would be gratified

I finally read the book and am working my way through the series.

Has anyone ever had a "charcoal biscuit" or baked them? Charles eats them with iced coffee while cramming for his finals in the first episode. I'm curious and might make some if I can find a recipe

Jeremy Irons went on to do quite well for himself. It was also the first time I had heard the name Cordelia and loved it.

I watched this again during lockdown. I had liked the book when I read it in my 20s, and I loved this miniseries when it first aired.

Watching again, I thought it was intelligent but creaky and rather drawn out, and the whole thing struck me as reactionary. I had also remembered it as a lush, beautiful production, but the quality of the photography seemed inferior to the kind of production design, costume design and cinematography we get now with HD images from the likes of “The Crown” and “Downton Abbey,” which were much more lavish productions.

I didn’t hate it but I was disappointed, it doesn’t hold up. A more recent redo was unmemorable but I can see why they thought the original could be improved.

It really didn't need to be 11 episodes. It's not a very long book. They pretty much filmed EVERY THING in the book thus it drags a lot, especially in the middle and end.

I'm going to rewatch Saltburn as a coda

As Time Marches On, I just watched Phoebe Nicholls recently playing Claire Foy's mother.

I’d be very leery of r126.

R81, you have to remember when it was filmed. Charles and Sebastian's relationship involved, as Charles puts it, "naughtiness high in the catalogue of grave sins."

The theme music still brings back memories...