All Passion Spent (British TV Mini-Series)
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C- Episodes: B
Dame Wendy Hiller is Lady Slane, a recent widow sick of
the pretensions of her higher social class in post-Victorian Era England in All
Passion Spent, a 1986 British TV Mini-series about her belated awakening
and the regrets that come with it. Of
course, she has great memories about her husband and life, but they suddenly
cannot compete against her sudden new clarity about her oppression in a higher
social-economic class.
Running about three hours, the story from Vita
Sackville-West’s novel, starts to do what she feels is best for her. Too bad her children could care less. That leaves her with old friends and a
search for her individual self that even has profound moments and Hiller is the
perfect choice to convey all the joy, loss and pain beyond the solid teleplay
(by Peter Buckman) that is so good it’s reality is palpable. She has the skill to project several kinds
of dignity and it is hard to stop watching once she first appears. The series also stars Harry Andrews, Maurice
Denham, Phyllis Calvert and Graham Crowden.
The 1.33 X 1 image was shot on professional analog PAL
video and looks good for its age, with good color for the format and pretty good
detail remaining after being translated into MPEG video for this DVD. The Dolby Digital 2.0 sound is stereo
boosted monophonic sound and sounds pretty good as a result. Good score by Nigel Hess. Extras include cast filmographies and text
bio of the author.
- Nicholas Sheffo
