Summer’s Lease (British TV Mini-Series)

 

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

 

 

Wife and mother Molly Pargeter (Susan Fleetwood) lucks out in the deal of a lifetime when she gets to live in a beautiful Tuscan villa for a few months as a nice alternative for her family.  Her husband and daughter are not as thrilled about it, but her wild dad (Sir John Gielgud) started packing the first second he was not invited in Summer’s Lease, a terrific 1989 British Mini-Series that offers a fine combination of comedy and drama we rarely see.

 

Molly cannot believe they got the place, so much so that she decides to find out why so cheap and what other secrets the place has.  Dad, who is more hip than he realizes, is going out to have some fun of his own, but helps her to find out more of what is also going on.  In the meantime, she is trying to improve her relationship with her daughter and her husband, the latter case of which has a mystery or two of its own to uncover.

 

This is a well-cast, well-acted program written by John Mortimer of Rumpole Of The Bailey (reviewed elsewhere on this site) fame.  Gielgud got some of the best reviews of his long, prestigious career here and one can see why.  The great thing about his character is it gives him a chance to take his classical gentleman persona and go wild with it, being more mischievous than he ever had before.  His Emmy Award was well deserved, in part because he got to show more of his amazing comic sensibility.  Fleetwood is also deserving of more praise, playing the nature mother trying to find the happy future she thought her family would promise.  This is in four hour-long parts and Martyn Friend’s directing is on target.  Jeremy Kemp and Gabrielle Anwar also star.

 

The full frame image looks like it was shot in the PAL format and transferred to film, or was shot on film, then put on PAL, but either way has a lack of fine detail and color poorness.  Whether these are the best copies of the show is a question, but it sadly may be the case, but cinematographer Remi Adefarasin does a fine job of shooting the actors as much as the locations.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 is stereo boosted mono, which is good as the sound is a bit weak from the source.  The few extras include a text section on teleplay writer John Mortimer, Gielgud and six filmographies on the cast, including Gielgud, all on DVD 1.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo