A Dance to the Music of Time [1997] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

"A Dance to the Music of Time" is widely regarded as a well-crafted sequence of 12 novels. On this video there is Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter: the journey of colleagues, friends and acquaintances through the rapidly changing 20th Century. This is no quaint, shallow portrayal of 'four friends have mixed lives and then get back together and reminisce' or any such formulaic narrative.

Like Poussin's painting, the story follows figures which entwine, cut loose, and meet again. The characters are all very well-drawn and excellently portrayed in this wonderful Channel 4 production. Mostly, the same actors play their characters from the beginning of the 20th Century to 1960s. However, a couple do not, and although this may seem strange at first, the characterisation shines through. Simon Russell Beale plays the incomparable Widmerpool throughout the production: he is utterly amazing.

In short, this video shows a highly enjoyable, amusing, wry and touching story whether or not you have read (some or all of) the novels. Powell's prose can be delicious and detailed and very little of that quality is lost in the lavish, but not too polished, production. A great cast (including James Purefoy, Jonathan Cake, Paul Rhys, James Fox and Zoe Wanamaker) [apologies for any spelling mistakes] involved with a largely engaging story. Powell's grasp of the 1950s/60s might be less than usual, but nevertheless one cannot help but be drawn into the entire story.

If you've read the novels - you won't be disappointed!


Almost a masterpiece   April 25, 2004
Gavin Wilson
30 out of 32 found this review helpful

This is a fantastic production, much overlooked in the past few years. There is only one problem with it, for people unfamiliar with the books:the actors change. Thus the part of Jenkins, the narrator, is played bythree actors as he moves through Eton, WWII and old age. It isparticularly confusing in the first episode, where you've barely had timeto get acquainted with the schoolboy characters before they are into their20s and suddenly played by another actor. If you hadn't been playingclose attention to the names, this switch can make it difficult to matchthe first-phase actor with the second-phase actor.
To my mind, it is largely because we have very few actor switches in FilmsTwo and Three that those two are the most excellent of an altogetheroutstanding series.
But there is one character who is played by the same actor throughout --all the way from film one to film four -- and that is the magnificentSimon Russell-Beale. He should have been showered with BAFTAs for hisacting here. Widmerpool is such an awful character, yet many of us haveknow similar people in our lives. He really deserves the utterly selfishPamela, played by the scene-stealing Miranda Richardson, who marries himdespite everything.


Superb!   October 3, 2003
Tom Ralston (Jackson,, NJ USA)
18 out of 20 found this review helpful

This is a magnificent production with an excellent cast. The acting is very fine and the pacing rivetting. I had not read the novels on which this is based but certainly shall. My wife and I rated this the equal of Brideshead Revisited and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.
Four evenings of top notch entertainment!


A gallop through the Dance   January 30, 2004
17 out of 18 found this review helpful

Any attempt to do more than summarise the characters and multi-layered plots in the twelve books that make up A Dance to the Music of Time is bound to fail, but this Channel 4 production is an extremely honourable failure. The four films are glued together by the performance of Simon Russell Beale playing the monstrous Widmerpool, and the atmosphere shifts successfully from the stifling atmosphere of Eton, through the gaity of the twenties, the austerities of the wartime years, and the bleakness and exhaustion of the post-war years.

If you know and love the novel sequence there are times at which you feel the film makers have taken some liberties, sliding over too quickly, or even omitting favourite passages, but this is a necessity to keep the running time to an acceptable 415 minutes.

Apart from Beale's magnificent portrayal of Kenneth Widmerpool, enjoy Edward Fox's wonderfully seedy portrayal of Uncle Giles, and Alan Bennett's Sillery. I'm afraid I've forgotten the name of the actor who plays the tragic Charles Stringham, but he nails the character to a perfection.


Gets better with each viewing   February 2, 2004
9 out of 12 found this review helpful

I have tried to get in to the books, but without success. This TV version is an ideal introduction. You have to pay attention because they cram in a lot of characters over a long time span. Simon Russell Beale as anti-hero is superb.