Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful testament, 19 Jun 2001
This adaptation of Vera Brittain's book was broadcast twenty years ago. I only vaguely remembered the series, although I've read the book many times, so I was excited to discover it was available on video at last. Vera Brittain was about to go up to Oxford when the First World War started. She left college for nursing, and her brother, fiance and two close friends joined the army. I wasn't disappointed by this faithful adaptation of their story. The casting is excellent, with Cheryl Campbell and Rupert Frazer particularly good as Vera and her brother Edward. The addition of some of the poetry of the war was very poignant. If this story was fiction, you would say it was unbelievable as Vera's losses are almost too terrible. The fact that her story is true, and was so representative of her generation is what makes Testament of youth such a moving experience.
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A very entertaining period drama with a human element, 31 Jul 2004
The main reason why I took to this 1979 BBC Drama Series was its emontional power. Cheryl Campbell is excellent, and flawless as Vera Brittain, and hardly puts a foot wrong. Watching this series again has made me realise how much of an impact it has made. It makes you feel that you're sharing the journey of life with her. You know what she's going through, what she's feeling, and in most of the scenes, you're relating to her, especially the death scenes, and the ghosts of those around her who went to war, and died plays an important role in the proceedings. This programme is also relevant to the Iraq war, and to those who have lost loved ones in subsequent wars that followed after the First World War. This programme should also serve as a warning to Tony Blair, and George W Bush. One of the best scenes is in episode four which Vera tells one of the sisters that the King had robbed her of loved ones for the good of the country, and if the King had told her this, she would throw something at him, and justifiably so. Testament Of youth perfectly captures the period, and Geoffrey Burgon's score is utterly superb. Moria Armstrong directs with a flair as only she can. Episode 5 is the best of the episodes with Vera's direct attack on the warmongering establishment with excellent detail only to ridiculed by the rest of the debating club, among them, authoress Winifred Holtby, played by Joanna MaCallum. Fans of this series should check out Michael Moore's, "Fahrenheit 9/11".
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11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
It holds up well., 18 Sep 2003
This made a tremendous impression on me when I first saw it in the 1970s. Inevitably it was something of a disappointment to see it again, as television techniques have moved on so much, and it now seems a little dated.
However, there are many good things about this adaptation. The characterisation of Vera makes you see what an absolute pain she must have been to live with. Rupert Frazer captures the sensitivity of her brother Edward, and there is quite a close resemblance to the actual Edward. (I don't think that this is important, but it did strike me). Peter Woodward, in the thankless role of Roland Leighton, also has some resemblance to the person he plays.
There are some moments which are at the same time moving and curiously inept, such as when Vera has a "flashback;" we are shown stills, and there is music and a voice-over (Gary Watson reads various war poems).
I do wonder why, when Mr. and Mrs. Brittain speak with such provincial accents (authentic Derbyshire, I don't doubt), Vera and Edward speak perfect BBC. The treatment of Vera's husband, the mysterious "G.", is very strange. It is exactly as it is in the book, and he is such a shadowy figure that it's hard to see why she marries him. (He writes her sententious letters which win her heart). The most curious thing is that you see one actor playing "G." while another speaks his lines. And did Winifred Holtby really have such a peculiar posh-Yorkshire accent? But these are minor points.
Some one said rather unkindly that Vera Brittain seemed to think that she was the only woman in England who had lost several people close to her in the war, and it's true that she did appear to behave as though this were so. The dramatisation makes this clear.
On the whole, this is well worth seeing.
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by Susan Hill
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