"The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" (1978 miniseries)
"The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" (1978 miniseries)
#1"The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" (1978 miniseries)
Posted: 9/19/12 at 9:09am
This is an obscure one.
In 1978, Scottish Television did a 7-part serial based on the characters of Muriel Spark's novel. It doesn't tell the same story as stage adaptation (and subsequent film that won Maggie Smith an Oscar), which itself took liberties with the plot, but rather extrapolates events and incidents that occur between Miss Brodie and her pupils and peers during her tenure at the Marcia Blaine School for Girls.
By its very nature, it doesn't have the condensed tempestuousness of the play and could be seen informally as a prequel (though the timeline would not bear that out literally). But episode to episode, it's really compelling stuff, with Geraldine McEwan at the height of her powers, giving one of the most acutely focused, sexy, and in some ways scary performances I've ever seen. The actors -- especially the girls -- are uniformly excellent, but McEwan is truly in the stratosphere.
It's getting a DVD release soon, but only Region 2.
Anyone remember it?
#2"The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" (1978 miniseries)
Posted: 9/19/12 at 10:26am
This has been my holy grail of British TV for years; I've never seen it!
I think McEwan is an extraordinary actor, and there's often something slightly (sometimes not so slightly) terrifying about her work, from Mrs. Proudie to Lucia to Sister Bridget.
#2"The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" (1978 miniseries)
Posted: 9/19/12 at 10:45am
It's her inherent intelligence combined with the sharpness of her features, I think. No matter what, you feel as though she's several steps ahead of you or will be very soon.
Well, Reg, if you have a region-free DVD player, you've found your grail.
http://www.acornmediauk.com/the-prime-of-miss-jean-brodie-1.html
#3"The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" (1978 miniseries)
Posted: 9/19/12 at 11:09am
This thread prompted me to check in on my other grail--the 1980 version of "Love in a Cold Climate," starring Judi Dench--and I found it was released on region 1 DVD a few months ago!
That gives me hope for "Brodie."
(On an unrelated note, every time I try to reply to this thread, it deletes the subject line and won't post my reply until I type it in. Just this thread. Weird.)
#4"The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" (1978 miniseries)
Posted: 9/19/12 at 11:13am
I had the same problem, Reg...very strange!
I was only going to post that I'd never heard of this and it sounds amazing! Thanks for the heads up!
"In Oz, the verb is douchifizzation." PRS
#5
Posted: 9/6/13 at 11:39am
This was released on US DVD back in the spring. I watched episdoe one last night (which shows us how she got to Marcia Blaine). She's really wonderful, and quite different from Maggie Smith.
She's more overtly sexual, which surprised me, and far nuttier, which didn't. She's a big ol' ham and banana sandwich, but so far I'm loving it.
Here's a clip
#6"The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" (1978 miniseries)
Posted: 9/6/13 at 12:48pmShe replaced Maggie Smith in the West End production of LETTICE AND LOVAGE. I can only imagine how wonderful she would have been in that role, too.
#7'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' (1978 miniseries)
Posted: 9/6/13 at 1:51pm
This is the most wonderful thing ever! THANK YOU!
The reason the system deletes the thread is that BWW subject lines cannot cope with double quotation marks.
I have changed them to single quotation marks, which the system can handle. (This is also true about other Internet chat boards. It's a Linux thing or something like that...)
#8'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' (1978 miniseries)
Posted: 9/6/13 at 1:57pm
Huh, good to know--thanks for the tip!
PJ, you're going to love this series (if I can judge from the first episode).
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