The Good Companions - The Complete Series [ITV] - [Network] - [DVD]

This very welcome release gives fans of J B Priestley's 1929 novel "The Good Companions" the first chance for thirty years to see Yorkshire Television's nine part adaptation for television which was made in 1980 and broadcast in 1981. As with almost all TV dramas dating from those times which are now coming out on DVD we have to concede that the definition of the image is by contemporary standards rather fuzzy and dull but to complain about that is really about as helpful as complaining about rain in Manchester - it goes with the territory,

This series differs from many classic book adaptations in that it is in effect a TV musical. The drama is interspersed with songs. They were written specially for this series by the composer David Fanshawe. Mr Fanshawe, who sadly died last year, is probably best known for his insatiable curiosity about the musical cultures of far flung places in the world and for incorporating them into a truly eclectic inclusive style of composition. Here his songs are derived from what to this listener at least seems a profound knowledge and understanding of the style of musical comedy songs in the first half of the 20th century. Some of the songs are a little anachronistic in that they are not in the style of musical comedy songs of the 1920s. There are a few which seem to draw fromstyles of the 1940s and 1950s. It seems to me that you could not dramatise the Good Companions without including musical performance on stage and the decision to extend the musical contribution to the dramatic action itself as happens here (a la Dennis Potter) seems a justified one. I will concede that not all the songs come up to the required standard but some do.

The story is about three innocents abroad. A middle aged Yorkshire working class carpenter Jess Oakroyd, an upper middle class spinster lady in her thirties Elizabeth Trant and a young Cambridge graduate Inigo Jollifant. They all escape from the suffocating restrictions of their respective lives and taken to the road where after some adventures they meet up with a broken down concert party of theatricals and the Good Companions are born. They travel the length and breadth of England in the 1920s during the post First World War depression . The story is one of escapism into a world of insubstantial and at heart trivial fun but it is none the less enjoyable fun for that. Along the way all our three main characters see that life has far more to offer than they had ever imagined and are changed and made ready to be happy and fulfilled by their time with the Concert Party. Their time with the GCs is not an end in itself but a vivaciously (largely) joy filled interlude in which they grow into the people they were always meant to be.

This is a funny story peopled by richly comical characters. It is worth adding that I do not think the characters could have been better realised than they have been by the cast of this production. For me Jess, Elizabeth, Inigo and Susie have lived in my imagination since 1981 as they are depicted here and seeing them again after thirty years during which time I have reread the book at least three times has just confirmed me in my view of how right the director, scriptwriter (the wonderful Alan Plater - also sadly recently deceased) the cast and crew got it as they created this fine piece of period musical drama. For me this is a wonderful realisation of a wonderfully entertaining novel.

As M J Nelson has pointed out there are reservations that one has to have about this series but I think MJN is being a little harsh in according it just three stars. Yes there are weak songs but there are some strong ones too and for me the good strongly outweighs the bad and lifts this three DVD set up to a four star rating.

There is a short "the making of" documentary attached to DVD 1 and as M J Nelson says and to be fair the distributor openly concedes, it is of atrocious technical quality but it contains Alan Plater interviewing J B Priestley and that is worth just closing your eyes and listening to if the grainy image on screen offends.

At £14.99 (as at time of writing) this is value for money. I have loved the novel since I first read it as a teenager and I am truly glad to be re-acquainted with my old theatrical friends once more.

The 1980 Yorkshire Television version of The Good Companions has a number of merits but one major drawback. With a running time of seven and half hours it is by far the most extensive film or television treatment of J B Priestley's celebrated novel about a concert party and the several disparate principal characters who join it 'on the road'. Predictably, Alan Plater's adaptation is a skilful one. And give or take some less than polished singing the cast is excellent, with Judy Cornwell (Miss Trant), John Stratton (Jess Oakroyd), Jeremy Nicholas (Inigo Jollifant) and Jan Francis (Susie Dean)quite possibly the best ever performers in their respective roles. Production values are quite lavish and the big song and dance routines, in particular, are well staged. Leslie Sands' beautifully modulated narration is a quiet pleasure, spoken as it is by one of Priestley's greatest champions. The drawback - and it is a big one -is the musical numbers themselves, of which there are many, too many in fact. Moreover they occur in the action so often as to sometimes induce a feeling of tedium. David Fanshawe's music and Alan Plater's lyrics are mostly little better than servicable and collectively the songs are far inferior to those in the Andre Previn-Johnny Mercer musical version of 1974. There is an intended bonus in the form of a documentary 'On The Road - The Making of The Good Companions', which features a conversation between J B Priestley and Alan Plater, as well as extracts from the two film versions. This is interesting, even valuable, but the technical quality is generally poor as a result of the transcription being made from a single off-air recording.

An absolute delight. I did find the songs a bit hard to get used to and would have generally preferred the series without them, but the characters, acting and settings were delightful.