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This is the epic four part series based on the bestselling novels of Anthony Powell adapted by Hugh Whitemore, featuring a BAFTA winning performance by Simon Russell Beale, alongside James Purefoy, Miranda Richardson, Zoe Wanamaker, John Standing, Alan Bennett. Eileen Atkins and Sir John Gielgud. Nick Jenkins is one of a group of young men who have been raised to think they are destined to rule the world, when in fact the world may turn out to belong to someone called Widmerpool. A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME is a wryly comic portrait of upper-class and bohemian England spanning almost a century, from the early 20s to modern times. Friendship, adultery, ambition and failure are set against the backdrop of London's social, political and artistic life. Foolish love, broken dreams, marriages of convenience, affairs of the heart, knives in the back. This drama of life, like life itself, is rich in unexpected twists and turns.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
77 of 78 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
This is Powell made wonderful on screen!
"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!
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Having read the books, I wondered how on earth they would manage to do them justice on the television. I have to say, I thought the acting was absolutely first-rate, without a shadow of a doubt: I can't think of any weak characters, and some of them were simply outstanding: Charles Stringham descending into alcoholism and reborn, but completely destroyed in the process; Widmerpool, played, I think, by the same actor all the way through the series, and always more or less ridiculous; Pamela Widmerpool, played by Miranda Richardson, having some marvelous lines as she turns one male head after another; and then gentle Nick Jenkins, who appears to be the only sane person in the whole mad world.
There's lots in the books that couldn't possibly find their way onto the TV, but it was splendid to see so much of it brought to life. I found it a very enjoyable 6 or 7 hours viewing. Highly recommended for any Powell aficionado, or anyone looking for something a bit out of the way.
There's lots in the books that couldn't possibly find their way onto the TV, but it was splendid to see so much of it brought to life. I found it a very enjoyable 6 or 7 hours viewing. Highly recommended for any Powell aficionado, or anyone looking for something a bit out of the way.
32 of 33 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
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.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Even the resourceful Widmerpool cannot save this film !
Once more I disagree with the many favourable reviews of this film. There is no doubt Simon Russell Beale
deserved his award. Read more
deserved his award. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Richard Mirfin
Overstuffed, But Full of Plums
"A Dance to the Music of Time," (1997) is a four-part British Broadcasting Company television serial based on 20th century English author Anthony Powell's 12-volume literary series... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Stephanie DePue
Relive the dance of the 30th- 60s - written by Anthony Powell and...
I love social history and this film/book maps the changes in fortune of a group of boys from a privileged boarding school going out into a world about to be changed forever by... Read more
Published 3 months ago by P. Howard
Excellent
I had been told this was good and was not disappointed except for the surprise when there was the change of actor for the last part. Read more
Published 4 months ago by David Kennedy
A classic piece of television
I watched this version of Anthony Powell's most famous work on Channel 4 in 1997. This DVD is every bit as good as I remeber. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Robert Barlow
Very good drama
To cram 12 novels into about seven hours of TV can't be done, as it gives each novel just over half an hour. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Junius
Rose coloured glasses?
We were rather disappointed with this DVD - not the fault of Amazon - it just didn't live up to our memory of the series we'd seen on TV all those years ago. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Pack Leader
Dance to the Music of Time
I found this DVD of the series both enjoyable and also an essential starting base for the ascent of the novels! Read more
Published 17 months ago by David Hellawell
Well Worth the Time to Dance
It is always difficult to adapt a book for television, particularly when you have 12 books to distil into just under 8 hours. Read more
Published 19 months ago by D. Henry-Pollard
If you've read the books, prepare to be disappointed
I think it was Terry Eagleton (or was it Perry Anderson?) who, in a forum on Marxism and culture, happened to mention his favorite postwar novel in English: Powell's Dance to the... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Bruce M. Melendy
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