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By FRANK BEHRENS
From September 23 to
December 9 in 1979, watchers of Masterpiece
Theatre were all excited over a dramatization of
H.E. Bates' jazz-age novel, "Love for Lydia." The
title character, played flawlessly by Mel Martin,
was an utterly self-centered young girl, who was
brought to live with two aged aunts (Rachel
Kempson and Beatrix Lehmann) and their parasitic
brother (a great characterization by Michael
Aldridge). She wanted only to have men cater to
her every whim ("I will hate you if you don't")
and enjoy herself to the fullest.
For several evenings, I have been watching the DVD
release of this 13-part series, now available from
Acorn Media in a boxed set of 4 discs (AMP-8648)
with a running time of 650 minutes. So vivid were
the characters that my wife and I fell into a
disagreement as to how likable several of them
were. (I voted that some man would have done her a
favor by telling her to get stuffed -- as one of
them finally does but too politely; my spouse
thought she was a very sad character who deserved
pity.) Such was the quality of the acting.
There is little plot but a good deal of character
interaction. A would-be writer Edward Richardson
(played by Christopher Blake) is a sullen
creature, always misunderstanding motives, is
jealously in love with Lydia and cannot see how
much he is loved by the farm girl Nancy (Sherrie
Hewson, looking very much like Shelley Winters in
"A Place in the Sun"). Her brother Tom (Peter
Davison) and Richardson's best friend Alex (Jeremy
Irons) are drawn to Lydia, as is the seemingly
anti-social but actually terribly shy taxi-driver
Blackie (Ralph Arliss). Her enjoyment of being
vied for leads to the death of one of them,
possibly another by indirection, and her own bout
with near death towards the end.
Mel Martin was quoted as saying, "She was an
innocent, untutored in the ways of the world [and]
behaved instinctively." I have yet to read the
book to see how closely it follows the novel, but
the scriptwriter, Julian Bond, pointed out that
given 13 episodes, he had 50 minutes to devote to
every 17 pages of the original. (In the Penguin
paperback, the novel runs 301 pages, making that
23 pages per episode.) So there is lots of time
for lingering on the English countryside, the
1920s dresses, the dances and music, and most of
all the complex characters.
Grab this one as soon as you can and hold "Lydia"
parties to see and discuss it all with your
friends. |
