The Edwardians   Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Timothy West, Judy Parfitt, Nigel Davenport and Ron Moody Acorn Media UK RRP: £29.99 AV9720 Certificate: PG Available 06 July 2009

Between the opening years of the twentieth century and the calamity that was World War II, England enjoyed a period of relative peace where the arts and politics flourished. This belle epoch was examined in a 1972 series which produced dramas detailing eight of these stories.

The Edwardians (1972) continued the BBC’s commitment to quality historical drama and is here presented as a four disc DVD set, each disc holding two episodes. Each episode has the option for English subtitles.

'Mr Rolls and Mr Royce' (Colour - 1 hr, 17 min, 44 sec), written by Ian Curteis and directed by Gerald Blake, is one of the only two colour episodes in the set and tells the story of the two men that would come together to create one of the greatest cars in the world. Michael Jayston plays Royce as an irascible and obsessive engineer, whose focus on the car is to the detriment of everything else, including his marriage. Robert Powell plays Rolls as an aristocratic diligent, who seems only interested in the car for its thrill value and takes their new machine out racing. It is telling that when the car finally trashed all opposition, Rolls just says “Well that’s cars” and goes off to join a balloon race. Powell is clearly having a good time playing up to Roll’s narcissistic nature, while Jayston turns in a good performance as the gruff Royce, who enjoys handing out the weekly wages with the mantra “you don’t deserve it”. It is the skill of both actors that the central characters do not descend into caricature.

'Horatio Bottomley' (B&W - 1 hr, 20 min, 28 sec) Written by Julian Bond and directed by Alan Clarke, has a much harder job as it tells the story of a famous orator, Member of Parliament and fraudster. The story charts Bottomley’s fluctuating fortunes, when the only thing standing between him and jail was his ability to entertain a jury with his wit, something that Oscar Wilde could have told him runs out in the end. Timothy West pulls in a convincing performance. At the start of the episode we know that he is up to no good, but his intelligence and sheer balls when dealing with his detractors endears him to the audience, but the alcohol flows and the wit dims until Bottomley, after a spell in jail, is reduced to stumbling through his memories for the amusement of music hall audiences.

'E. Nesbit' (B&W - 1 hr, 15 min, 09 sec) was written by Ken Taylor and directed by James Cellan Jones. This episode concentrates less on Nesbit’s (Judy Parfitt) career as a children’s author but rather on the strange ménage a trios she shared with her husband Hubert Bland (James Villiers) and Alice Houston (Jane Lapotaire). Dealing with the death of her children and the strains of her family life means that this is an all together darker piece. Seeing these unpleasant people imploding makes it difficult to sympathise with any of the major characters, as they manipulate each other, even when Nesbit’s son dies she rails against Alice wishing it were one of her children who had died.

'Conan Doyle' (B&W - 1 hr, 04 min, 22 sec) was written by Jeremy Paul and directed by Brian Farnham. The show tells the true life story of Doyle’s (Nigel Davenport) attempt to emulate his fictional creation, Sherlock Holmes by investigating the case of George Edalji, who had been accused and convicted of horse whipping. Through his diligence he was able to prove that George was innocent. Here is a case of reality imitating art and the show plays out very much like a Sherlock Holmes story.

'Baden Powell' (B&W - 1 hr, 02 min, 38 sec) was written by John Prebble and directed by Robert Knights. The story examines Powell's response to his personal experiences of war and his determination that the next generation should be more prepared. Ron Moody puts is a masterful performance as the haunted hero whose motivation comes under the scrutiny of journalist Angus Hamilton (Keith Barron). The story leaves any conclusions to the audience.

'The Reluctant Juggler' (B&W - 1 hr, 15 min, 25 sec) was written by Alan Platter and directed by Brian Farnham. The show is an ensemble piece which looks at the music hall wars (1907) when the artists and crew went on strike all over London. As well as introducing The Great Alfred, our guide through the conflict; the show takes the opportunity to introduce some of the biggest names of the time. The story examine social change rather than the individual story of a great Edwardian and contains reproduction of some of the stage acts. The show stars Jack Douglas as Alfred and Georgia Brown as Marie Lloyd.

'Daisy' (B&W - 1 hr, 16 min) was written by David Turner and directed by James Cellan Jones. The episode tells the story of Francis Evelyn "Daisy" Greville, the Countess of Warwick (Virginia McKenna), who engaged in adulterous affairs to promote her husband’s standing in society. Now I don’t know if it’s because of changes in social moirés, but it is difficult to feel sympathy for a woman who willingly uses her charms for material whilst hiding behind the idea that this is a socialist ideal. The cast put in some good performance, but it is difficult to care about what happens to them. The show is oddly shot, with a lot of it presented as if it were a stage play.

'Lloyd George' (Colour - 1 hr, 18 min, 10 sec) was written by Keith Dewhurst and directed by John Davies. This is by far the best episode on the set if only to see the scenes between Anthony Hopkins (Lloyd George) and his long suffering wife Annette Crosbie (Margaret). The story jumps between his political life and his home life, where Margaret has to endure his numerous affairs. It would have been preferable to have concentrated on one or the other, the formula worked well in John Adams (2008), but then they had a lot more time to play with.

The shows have not been restored and though they are eminently watchable there is evidence of dirt on the often soft negative. Overall, though, they tell some compelling stories of Edwardian England, using some of the best British actors of their time. The shows are presented in their original format with a mostly clear audio track. The only extras on the discs are some cast biographies, a small amount of historical text and a picture gallery, which demonstrates what the shows originally looked like in colour.

6

Charles Packer