Patrick Hamilton was a depressing genius, and the subject of poverty and meagre jobs for those who are educated, and can get nowhere is applicable for today in many countries. His novels depict the dispossessed very accurately, either emotionally, financially or mentally. In this television series it was brave of the BBC to put this long book to the small screen. Since then the BBC has lost interest in adapting classic novels of the last century, or even the books of the 19th C. As for this adaptation of a trilogy of novels I found it painful to watch, and the three main protagonists, two women and a man were acted well. Bryan Dick as the young waiter in a pub I found especially good, and Sally Hawkins as a barmaid in the same pub very moving in her unrequited love for him. He is infatuated with a worthless prostitute who seduces him out of his savings and gives him nothing in return except ' love scam ' promises. All this is in no way an historical situation. Sadly I found the depiction of London in the 1930's not as good as it could have been. The direction formulaic, and the settings too studio bound and the pub unrealistically unpopulated. If anyone who has read the book the final image in the book was missing, and this I feel was a loss as it hammers home the extreme solitude these three character's inhabit. I would rather return to the trilogy of novels than this adaptation, although it was much, much better than the pitiful film adaptation of 1963 under the title of ' Bitter Harvest. '
