Some may see Downton Abbey as the biggest costume drama spectacle to ever come from ITV. In terms of original drama, they may be right. But hidden in the depths of its archives is the highly underrated yet exceptional adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited.
Aired originally in 1981, it was a greatly anticipated weekly adventure of romance and family scandal told most ingeniously through the star-studded ensemble cast fronted by Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews.
At first glance, it seems your typical period drama series; however the story twists and issues that unravel through the ten hours of repression, unrequited love and concealed family secrets make this a timeless classic.
The plot follows a world war army captain, Charles Ryder, reliving his romantic attachment to the place his army base has settled, as well as the aristocratic Flyte family owners. Sebastian meets Charles at Oxford University and takes him on a fast whirlwind of champagne lunches and Teddy bear picnics, before accidentally introducing him and dropping him right into the middle of his family’s inner circle at Brideshead.
There, he becomes dangerously involved with the Flytes’ siblings and their religious mother, and we discover his conflicting feelings for his dear friend Sebastian and his attractive sister Julia.
For both its main adaptations, Brideshead Revisited was filmed at Castle Howard of Malton, North Yorkshire, which before going to York University I had admired as the imposing yet mysterious Brideshead. After visiting it I can completely see why Evelyn Waugh would based such a story at Brideshead, and comparisons of appearances and great likeness are even made between the Howard’s close friend and artist Felix Kelly and Brideshead’s Charles Ryder.
Brideshead Revisited is a thought provoking and wildly engaging piece of television, which is an imaginative interpretation of Waugh’s early work.