Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10961 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-11-07
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 149 minutes

Synopsis
This is a story of unrequited love, passion, ambition and disappointment, set in 1930s London, revolving around The Midnight Bell, a bar off the Euston Road. The three part mini- series follows the lives of three different people with three different backgrounds but all connected by love. First there is the barman Bob, who hankers after Jenny, a penniless girl who has been forced out of her home. Then there is his colleague, Ella who is flattered by the love of a mature gentleman but also is in love with Bob. And finally there is Jenny...

Customer Reviews

Superbly acted 1930s costume drama
This is a superb three-parter, played back-to-back, adapted from the semi-autobiographical 1930s trilogy by Patrick Hamilton.

Apart from the fine performances in the lead roles by Bryan Dick (Bleak House and The Virgin Queen), Zoë Tapper (who played Nell Gwynne in Stage Beauty) and Sally Hawkins (what a gifted actress she is - she just seems to get better and better every role she takes), there's great support from all the cast as the Beeb does what it does best - costume drama. There's an authentic feel to the whole thing as three very ordinary people are caught up in a twisting melodrama based on unrequited love.

Here Auntie has transported us to the thirties and you do feel you're really there (there are nice little touches like the can of Brasso on the bar for cleaning the pumps etc.- the unsung heroes of BBC dramas are its production designers and set dressers.)

My very favourite scenes (and that's up against some strong competition from other scenes) are when Ella (played by Sally Hawkins) deals with the amorous advances by one Ernest Eccles (Phil Davis, very good as ever) - The scenes are funny, poignant, tragic, realistic; the lot, and these two make it seem so easy. It's like watching a how-to acting lesson.

I won't put in any spoilers at all. If you like excellent acting and first-class costume drama, set aside a Sunday afternoon for this one. I think you'll enjoy it.

Excellent drama.
This programme is based on three novels written by Patrick Hamilton in the 1930s and who would go on to write the Gorse Trilogy which the Nigel Havers drama The Charmer was based on.

The three episodes involve all the three main characters but with one being the main focus of each programme. Very well acted and nice to hear colloquial accents for a change in a BBC period drama. This is one series that is definately worth watching.

The best television drama of the decade.
Made on a small budget, though it doesn't show, this is as good as you get from television drama. Subtle, intimate and telling.