Brideshead Revisited
The lavish adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited was fashioned by Granada Television and first aired on the British channel, ITV, in 1981. Comprising 11 episodes of some 50 minutes each, it chronicles the relationship of a young man with the aristocratic, English Marchmain family between the World Wars. The adaptation proved popular on both sides of the Atlantic; it appeared in the United States under the auspices of PBS in 1982 to great acclaim. Praised for its production values and aura of quality, the series is credited with ushering in a number of heritage England screen representations that appeared during the 1980s. These heritage representations include The Jewel in the Crown and A Room with a View. Like Brideshead, they are distinguished by a nostalgic tone, elegant costumes, and stately locations depicted via lush photography. Brideshead and other heritage representations were challenged by cultural critics in the 1990s as being conservative and retrograde.
Further Reading:
Brundson, Charlotte. "Problems with Quality." Screen. Vol. 31, No.1, 1990, 67-90.
Golub, Spencer. "Spies in the House of Quality: The American Reception of Brideshead Revisited." In Novel Images: Literature in Performance, edited by Peter Reynolds. London, Routledge, 1993.
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