The melancholy of Simon Raven’s Pallisers serial drama

The Duke (Philip Lahtam) and Duchess (Susan Hampshire) in conflict in The Prime Minister (Pallisers 11:22) Friends and readers, Having once again watched the 26 episodes of Simon Raven’s 1974-75 BBC Pallisers with a few people on TrollopeandHisContemporaries@groups.io, I feel compelled to write just a little more on this sustained brilliant work of art. I […]

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Pallisers 12:26: Retrospective

Susan Hampshire as Lady Glen realizing no one will help her not marry Plantaganet Palliser and that on her own she cannot withstand the pressure to marry him (1:1) Dear friends and readers, This will be my last Palliser film blog for now. It’s a commentary on 12:26 (how the Duchess died and yet remained […]

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Pallisers 12:26: How the Duchess died and her story was righted in Mary’s apparent destiny

Standing next to the Duchess’s (Susan Hampshire) portrait, with a glimpse of the windows beyond which is the grave, Mary (Kate Nicholls asks her father why he wants to make her miserable for the rest of her life) Dear friends and readers, So I come to the end of a three-year journey. The first time […]

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Pallisers 12:25: The Duke and his son; parents and their adult children

Duchess (Susan Hampshire), having painfully made her way to her mirror, looks at old photos. Archetypal motif for women in later life, last seen by me in Bergman’s Saraband Dear Friends and readers, Two days ago I resumed my journey through the 26 part 1974 BBC Palliser series, with a summary, commentary and transcripts from […]

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Pallisers 12:25: The duchess, our heroine’s dying begins; why her daughter and Silverbridge’s fates mean so much to her

The Duke helping a very sick Duchess (Susan Hampshire) away from the Ruined Priory Dear Friends and readers, After a six month-hiatus, I return to the 1974 BBC Palliser series once again to conclude my study of this magnificent film cycle, 1:1-8:17 on the old blog, and 9:18-2:24 thus far on this. Three films cover […]

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The Pallisers redux

10:20, the deep congenial (loving) friendship of Lady Glencora and Madame Max (I originally meant to make this my avatar) Dear friends and readers, I’ve returned to my study of the Palliser films in more earnest than I have done since last November. My first goal is nearly fulfilled: to understand this series for real […]

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Pallisers 12:24: Almost there (for our heroes & heroines too); the next generation

Our heroines whose names at this point are: Glencora, Duchess of Omnium (Susan Hampshire) and Mrs Marie Finn (Barbara Murray) Dear Friends, I’ve put on this blog a summary of the episodes of this part (An Elegiac Culmination), prefaced by situating it in the whole series, and containing several transcripts of key scenes, quotations from […]

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Pallisers 12:24: An Elegiac Culmination: Life has not many things better than this …. and Sudeley Castle

In the afternoon, as we were driven rapidly along in the post chaise, he said to me, “Life has not many things better than this” (Boswell’s Life of Johnson, Thursday, 21 March 1776) Lady Mary (Kate Nicholls) drawing outside the Matching Priory ruins Dear Readers and Movie-Lovers, This is another of the great parts of […]

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Pallisers 11:23: The end of Lopez: mockery of marital sex, despair, suicide yet keeping faith as he understood it

“”There is no mercy, nor friendship anywhere” — Ferdinand Lopez (an abbreviated version of a line from Trollope’s The Prime Minister Duchess (Susan Hampshire) rushes into Marie Finn’s (Barbara Murray) arms On their last evening Lopez (Stuart Wilson) kneels before Emily (Sheila Rusking), puts his head on her lap, seeking comfort Dear Friends, Perhaps because […]

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Pallisers 11:22: The difficulties of marriage, three transcripts, with a little about Venice

The Duchess, Silverbridge, Tregear and Lady Mary in a gondola, seen from a distance Dear Friends, I’ve written about Pallisers 9:18 – 10:21 (including the Lady Rosina de Courcy) of the 1974 BBC Pallisers on this blog thus far. (For 1:1 – 8:17 see previous blog.) I’ve another one to add tonight: 11:22. The power […]

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