Lost Empires (British TV mini-series)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: B-     Extras: D     Episodes: B

 

 

We hear so much about the British stage and all the great actors and performers who came from it, but rarely do we see anything about that stage and why it was so great.  Lost Empires (1986) is a fine British mini-series that manages to bring this era to life in a way rarely seen.  Its timing upon original broadcast was particularly interesting since New Wave music and the British Pop New Romantic movement was influenced by this era in part.

 

Colin Firth is Richard Hernsdale, who lives through this era, when he accepts an offer to be part of the stage after his mother’s death by his uncle (John Castle II).  Whether this is partly because of his mother’s death or not, Richard goes from meeting woman to woman as he goes from performance to performance.  He does not seem exactly lost, but taking the theater trip offers a different angle than the military he will eventually be involved in.

 

Unlike many British mini-series, the many love interests of Richard do not become melodramatic and this is not as stuffy as the usual British mini-series.  Add the consistent writing, decent directing and right casting, and you have a show that endures well.  Though not in the entire series, it was a coup that Sir Lawrence Olivier, an icon of the British stage so identified with it, occurs early on before he disappears.

 

The full frame color image is interesting for trying to emulate a past time beyond the fine reproductions of the great stage days of Britain’s past and sometimes surreal portrayal of wartime and the fields of war itself.  One cannot help but see this as a “straight version” of films like Alan Parker’s Pink Floyd – The Wall (1982), Terry Gilliam’s Brazil (1984) or other portraits of how a young British man survives war, especially World War I.  This one is not as challenging or critical a look.  The Dolby Digital sound is available in a 2.0 Stereo with Pro Logic surrounds and a much more impressive 5.1 AC-3 mix.  Stills and weblinks are the only sparse extras on the set.

 

British TV, like its American counterpart, went into decline in the 1980s, but British TV held up better before the bottom fell out.  Lost Empires is one of the best mini-series of the decade from both areas of TV combined.  This 3 DVD set is available from its distributor Goldhil at www.goldhil.com along with other hard-to-get British TV classics and more.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo