In this Mark Twain adaptation, the fortunes of a penniless American in London are transformed by a bizarre gentleman’s wager.
Henry Adams (Stuart Damon), an American adrift and destitute in London, becomes the unwitting pawn in a social experiment concocted by two eccentric millionaires. He is presented with a single bank note for one million pounds, which he is forbidden from cashing for thirty days. Adams soon finds that the mere possession of the note acts as a key to society, granting him unlimited credit at the finest establishments. With the assistance of his newly acquired butler (John Bryans), he must navigate the rarefied world of the English upper class, all while concealing the fact that he is technically penniless.
This four-part serial is a handsome example of the BBC’s commitment to literary adaptation in the late 1960s. The script by John Hawkesworth, a writer who would become a key architect of prestige period drama, treats Mark Twain’s satirical tale with a light and assured touch. The production is further distinguished by a score from Tristram Cary, a composer more commonly associated with avant-garde electronic music and science fiction, whose work provides a subtly unusual texture to the Edwardian settings. As a comedy of manners built around a classic mistaken-identity plot, the serial rests on the shoulders of its lead, Stuart Damon, who projects the precise combination of charm and panic the role requires.
Broadcast: BBC One, 4 Episodes, Sundays, 29 September – 20 October 1968
Adapted by: John Hawkesworth
From the novel by: Mark Twain
Music: Tristram Cary
Producer: Campbell Logan
Director: Rex Tucker
Main Cast: Stuart Damon (Henry Adams), John Bryans (Butler), Bonnie Hurren (Portia), David Bird (Ambassador), Anton Diffring (Alex)
