The Glittering Prizes

This series was the kind of thing that made TV worth it a quarter century ago. Written by the English novelist Frederick Raphael from his book, it was more than a little autobiographic, and carried the flavour of the 50s and 60s, while avoiding many of the clichés this period evokes.

The TV series was Intelligent, wry, literate, subtle, with brilliant acting.

In post-war England, it followed a group of students at Cambridge, with their hopes, affairs, confrontations with life, and, later, disillusionments and achievements. It's impossible to explain how truly intelligent the writing is; this has to be experienced.

We NEED it on DVD!

It's a pity that this extraordinary piece of ensemble acting is currently unvavailable. It's a bittersweet piece, akin to Peter's Friends or The Big Chill, but more realistic (it's a set of scenes from lives, not a single short-term reunion). The acting is superb. Whoever has the rights: make this series available!

Totally engrossing series. Excellent cast, with a young Tom Conti particularly outstanding. Many mini-series have since come and gone, but very few match it in quality or in hauntingly evoking an era. A masterpiece.

The script's the star of this sprawling six-part series from Frederic Raphael: probing, caustic and matchlessly witty, particularly in the two most successful episodes, the Brideshead-esque 'An Early Life' and the frankly outlandish 'A Past Life', which features Eric Porter as a fascist sympathiser. The acting is variable (Tom Conti's bravura central performance is the obvious standout), the worldview sometimes unsavoury and the penultimate episode has passages that really drag, but it's a work touched with a rare brilliance and the dialogue is simply spectacular. I picked it up after hearing Nigel Havers (who has a small but memorable role) say it was the best script he'd ever read.

One of the best British mini-series ever. I've been trying to buy this series on VHS or DVD for the longest time. It's not available. I'm hoping someone from the BBC will read this and get the ball rolling. The Glittering Prizes is not to be missed. Tom Conti is terrific, but then again, so is the entire cast. It's a wonderful ensemble piece. The screenplay was written by the incredibly witty Frederic Raphael, who adapted it from his novel. Raphael is known for "Darling" and a few other British films from the 60s and 70s. He also wrote most of "Eyes Wide Shut" before Kubrick re-wrote sections of it. The most recent film I've seen written by Raphael is "Coast To Coast" directed by Paul Mazursky and starring Judy Davis and Richard Dreyfuss. "Coast To Coast" was not released in theaters, only on cable. It's available on DVD and is very funny. The Glittering Prizes deserves its chance on DVD, too.