An elderly historian is forced to confront a decades-old academic fraud that has defined his life and career.
The distinguished but emotionally detached historian Gerald Middleton (Richard Johnson) lives a life of quiet disappointment. A phone call concerning the long-dead director of the 1912 Melpham archaeological dig, the discovery which made Gerald’s name, forces a painful re-examination of his past. Through a series of flashbacks, his younger self (Douglas Hodge) is shown falling for Dollie (Tara Fitzgerald), the spirited fiancée of his best friend. Gerald ultimately marries the intensely puritanical Inge (Briony Glassco), who becomes his estranged wife in old age (Elizabeth Spriggs). As the truth behind a famous pagan tomb unravels, Gerald must finally confront a lifetime of personal and professional compromises.
Andrew Davies’s adaptation of Angus Wilson’s satirical novel is a triumphant work of television. The production skillfully manages a complex dual timeline; it contrasts the protagonist’s youthful passions and compromises with the regrets of his later years. The serial is much more than a simple period drama. It is a sharp critique of academic vanity and the emotional constipation of the English upper-middle class. A formidable cast gives weight to the interwoven personal and professional deceptions, resulting in a dense, intelligent, and emotionally resonant drama that stood as a high watermark for ITV’s literary output in the period.
Broadcast: ITV – Thames, 3 Episodes, 12 May – 26 May 1992
Adapted by: Andrew Davies, from the novel by Angus Wilson
Director: Diarmuid Lawrence
Producer: Andrew Brown
Music: Colin Towns
Main Cast: Richard Johnson (Gerald Middleton), Douglas Hodge (Young Gerald), Tara Fitzgerald (Young Dollie), Dorothy Tutin (Old Dollie), Elizabeth Spriggs (Inge Middleton), Briony Glassco (Young Inge), Daniel Craig (Gilbert Stokesay), Paul Firth (Vin Salad)
