Clayhanger - The Complete Series [DVD] [1976]

It is great to see this classic series finally available on DVD. It was made and transmitted back in 1976. And hasnt been repeated or seen since. (to my knowledge)
The series is based on the Arnold Bennett novels, Clayhanger, Hilda Lessways, These Twain and Roll Call. This series is a very long 26 episode epic. At the time it was created by itv as a sort of answer to the Forsythe Saga. The setting is the "Five Towns" Bennett`s vision of the Potteries of the Midlands area. The area around todays Stoke on Trent. The main centre is Bursley. Here the Clayhanger family is headed by the industrious Darius Clayhanger, a self made printer who wants his son, Edwin, to follow in his footsteps. Edwin has his own ideas. And sees himselt as an architect instead. Also in Edwin`s life is Hilda Lessways, who marries her boss, newspaper propriertor George Cannon, only to find the marriage bigamous. Edwin and Hilda eventually wed but nothing goes smoothly for them either. We see their lives together as the decades pass and we witness the age of industrial, social and religious change. The story also moves to Brighton where Cannon runs a boarding house and Dartmoor where he is imprisoned following his bigamy.
This series was a improvement on an earlier adaptation by the BBC back in 1959 where Judi Dench had played Hilda. But on that occasion the BBC had only looked at two of the books. (Clayhanger and Hilda Lessways) This 1976 itv version was more complete.
The series is in colour and the picture and sound are excellent. And the restoration and transfer have been good.
This drama does not have the big budget that a modern series might have, and doesnt have special effects either, but it is very good.
The series is about provincial life with two generations of a victorian family.
It stars William Relton, Harry Andrews and Peter McEnery, and Janet Suzman. Also look out for Dennis Quilley and Clive Swift and Denholm Elliot.

The memory can play tricks. I have waited for years for the release of "Clayhanger" and had just about given up hoping it would ever be released. When I finally slotted the first disc into the player I wondered how it would appear after all these years (all 34 of them!)and worried my memory may have misled me. However I was instantly transported back to 1976 : no video in those days and I would always make sure I was home to watch the next episode. Admittedly it wasn't just for the plot - the more the series progressed, the more I was attracted by Peter McEnery's brooding Edwin. I rediscovered the ATV souvenir brochure the other day and read that he developed the character by dealing with his hair first (making it stick up to make him look more vulnerable when he was playing the younger man and then eschewing grey dye for a balding wig as he aged) - it certainly worked.
Watching it today I wonder why I wasn't more sympathetic to Hilda's plight at the time. Even then I was firmly of the view that I was as good as any man and it would never have occurred to me that it might have been my role in life to just be someone's wife. Hilda's frustration as she tries to accept that she should be subservient as she doesn't earn and then her inability to repress her rebellious streak is actually much more understandable than my younger self realised.
There are so many rich moments - Harry Andrews' Darius' descent from dominance to dependence after Mr. Shushions' funeral (I guess he had a series of small stokes - what would today be called "multi-infarct dementia") and the moment when he reaches out to Edwin who leaves his hand on the table for just a moment before pulling it away as if he'd touched a hot flame. The father who had spent his entire time teaching his son how to be tough and self-reliant discovers too late that he's unable to share any emotion with him: He of course hadn't heard that same son's heartfelt mutter that "It's passion not preaching that I want"(or words to that effect) a little earlier. Clive Swift's Albert Benbow was truly bombastic; Denholm Elliot as the delightfully named Tertius Ingpen had a nicely judged eccentricity and really every member of the cast gave a solid performance. Louise Purnell's Janet - the accomplished sensible girl who would have given the staid Edwin what he needed - contrasted excellently with Janet Suzman's passionate but less restrained Hilda who appealed to the passionate and creative man lurking within - the classic conflict between head and heart but where the heart wins there is likely to be turmoil.......
Thelma Whitley's Maggie is nicely judged and look for a cameo from June Brown in episode 24.
Sometimes the accents were a bit all over the place but those old enough to remember "Owd Grandad Piggot" on BBC Radio Stoke at much the same time will appreciate that if they had gone for a thick potteries accent it would have been impenetrable to pretty well everyone - even many of us living a stone's throw from the Potteries. I also agree with the reviewer who was a little put off by Janet Suzman's clipped delivery in the early episodes but think this must have been a device of the director as it only seems to occur in the moments when she is clearly supposed to be insecure and disappears in the later episodes.
As I have tried to ration the episodes so I didn't reach the end too soon I have been transported back to late adolescence and no, thank goodness, I wasn't disappointed. Now, if anyone with any clout out there is reading this, what chance of resurrecting the BBC's excellent "The Voyage of Charles Darwin" next?

When I first saw this series made by ATV television in the 1970's of Arnold Bennett's Clayhanger I was facinated by the story, the supurb cast and the amazing attention to the detail of the era. Everything was portrayed perfectly, one can get a complete sense of how things really were at that time in the pottery towns of the English Midlands. One can almost feel the coldness of a room or the warmth of sunlight as it filters through a window. For folks who like things to move along at a rapid pace -then Clayhanger is not for them. For those of us who like real life (or at least how real life was in the 1870's) this is an amazing piece of television history. For many years I have wondered what becamne of the series (the acting is supurb by the way) and I discovered that it was archived by ATV and labled as: 'No Access for General Public' Thank goodness someone has finally been able to release this 26 part prestigous piece of television history for us to enjoy.