It has been over 30 years since I first saw the Granada
miniseries Brideshead Revisited, and ever since then I have considered it the
finest drama ever produced for television. I still do. The writing (much of it
lifted directly from Evelyn Waugh’s novel), the acting, the photography, the
direction, the music were all, as the British would say, top-shelf, and I have
never questioned my original assessment of it as the best. There have been flashes of brilliance in other
dramatic series, but, taken as a whole, nothing compares with Brideshead. But I have just seen a six-part miniseries
that comes very close. And the chances
are that you’ve never heard of it.
The series is called Cloudstreet, and the DVD is available,
although it has yet to be seen on American TV.
The production is from Australia and is based on a much-acclaimed (in
Australia) novel by Tim Winton. It has
nothing in common with Brideshead except the quality of the story and the
wizardry of the casting and direction and acting. It probably will not satisfy all tastes, but
it certainly satisfied mine.
The story involves two families in Western Australia in the
40s and 50s. They are the Lambs and the
Pickles, both hit by the depression and by tragedy. Sam Pickles has lost the fingers of one hand
in an accident, and the Lambs’ youngest son has nearly drowned and is as a
result retarded. Sam Pickles inherits a
large but ramshackle house near Perth and looks for a family of tenants to
share in the upkeep. Enter the Lambs.
The spine of the story is the relationship of the two families as the
years pass. But it is most assuredly not
a soap opera. “It is a story about
life,” says the book’s author, simply.
Promising as the story is, it is the artistry of the
director (Matthew Saville) that produces the magic that we see unfold in the
DVD. That plus the casting. The acting is absolutely flawless, and it is all
the more striking to an American viewer because the Australian cast is
unfamiliar. There is not a weak link in
the bunch.
How can Australia, which has fewer people than Texas,
produce such a beautifully crafted television drama? Years ago, the country gave us A Town Like
Alice, an excellent series based on a Nevil Shute novel, but that was 1981 (the
same year that gave us Brideshead).
Maybe there were other great dramas from Down Under, and I just haven’t
been paying attention, but I doubt it. But I certainly will be watching from
now on, and I have marked Matthew Saville as a name to be reckoned with.
You are unlikely to see Cloudstreet on Masterpiece
Theater. The series has several sexually
explicit scenes and some four-letter words, and the Aussies would probably not
tolerate heavy-handing editing. Too bad;
such quality television deserves a large audience.
