Brideshead Revisited is a 1981 British television serial created by Derek Granger based on Evelyn Waugh‘s novel of the same name. Starring Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews, it was produced by Granada Television for broadcast by the ITV network. The serial is considered one of the 100 best TV shows of all time by Time magazine.[1]
The serial is an adaptation of the 1945 novel Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh. It follows, from the 1920s to the early 1940s, the life and romances of Charles Ryder, with special focus on his friendship with Lord Sebastian Flyte and his family of wealthy and titled English Catholics, who live in Brideshead Castle, a palatial Baroque mansion in Wiltshire in the South West of England and shot at Castle Howard, in Henderskelfe. The screenplay was written by the series’ producer Derek Granger and others, as the credited, original one written by John Mortimer was not used.[2] Charles Sturridge said that 95% of the dialogue was from Waugh’s novel.[3] The 11-episode serial premiered on ITV in the UK on 12 October 1981; on CBC Television in Canada on 19 October 1981; and as part of the Great Performances series on PBS in the US on 18 January 1982.[4]
In 2000, the serial was tenth on the list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes compiled by the British Film Institute, based on a poll of industry professionals. Significant elements of it were directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who handled the initial phases of the production, before Charles Sturridge carried on with the series. The first episode is credited to both men equally. In 2010, it was second in The Guardian newspaper’s list of the top 50 TV dramas of all time.[5] In 2015, The Daily Telegraph listed it at number 1 in its list of the greatest television adaptations, writing, “Brideshead Revisited is television’s greatest literary adaptation, bar none. It’s utterly faithful to Evelyn Waugh’s novel yet it’s somehow more than that, too.”[6]