Revisiting Brideshead

Back in the early 1980s (here we go...), the phrase "binge watching" had not yet emerged.  Instead, PBS broadcast the 11-episode "Brideshead Revisited" film on successive Sunday nights, over the course of 11 weeks.

A group of us were captured from the beginning, and looked forward to the next installment, as the characters slowly aged and the story arcs shifted.  Somehow, it didn't seem that difficult to remember where "last week" ended, but we were younger (and patient).

What a cast: Olivier, Gielgud, Jeremy Irons himself, the pitch-perfect Simon Jones (college buddy of Douglas Adams and the original Arthur Dent in the marvelous Hitchhiker radio series), and the delightful Phoebe Nichols (Cordelia), who I still notice these days in films, now playing aging matrons.

Over the years, I have watched the full series three or four times, and read the novel at least twice.  Once, I got the package of multiple DVDs from the library, but that is no longer necessary.

The entire film is there, for free, on the Roku Channel.  But, now it's a far different experience.

I am a bit under-the-lousy-weather today, and started rewatching yesterday afternoon, on my teeny cell phone.  Today, I've been in bed for the past 8 hours, and (on tablet) am already up to the fateful episode 6 ("Julia").

I don't know if I will go the distance today, but I will take more Vitamin C and go a bit further, for sure.

I've often thought that it would be an interesting PBS promotional stunt to repeat the multi-week scenario with the original Brideshead, as they did with Downton Abbey.  I fear that this marvelous production has fallen thru the Memory Hole, and has become One More cultural thing whose memory will die as we Boomers finish our own episode 11.

The point of this, is that, whether you fondly remember the 1981 film or never heard of it, it's there to stream, and you should do that.  Binge if you must, but, if you have the self-control, experience it as we originally did, with a break between episodes.

https://therokuchannel.roku.com/details/acfe8e01d8a631d97bed9ce248c8c084/brideshead-revisited-remastered-in-4k-s1-e11-brideshead-revisited#!

Then, read the book.