Sometimes when you come across an old movie or TV series, you discover someone you probably have never seen before on screen and immediately become a fan. That is the case of both Susan Wooldridge and Art Malik in the first part of this miniseries based on a classic novel by Paul scott. Malik is a British-raised and educated man of Indian descent, consumed with self-hatred over the fact that he doesn't feel comfortable in his own skin, raised British and returning to his roots to be with relatives in his parents' homeland. The fact that white friends of his from England have snubbed him in India has rubbed him the wrong way, and the fact that he doesn't feel he fits in with native Indians makes him feel completely out of place. When he meets the newly arrived British nurse Wooldridge, he finds an instant friend, someone who likes him for himself and longs to get to know him in spite of the fact that he can be prickly with her when he is feeling sorry for himself and doubting her sincerity in wanting to be with him, even while going on outings to beautiful Indian temples where he should be at peace. It doesn't help that British police sergeant Tim Pigott-Smith has proposed to her, and without even getting an answer, begins to criticize her friendship with Malik. With possible rebellion against the crown occurring, the days of British rule seen numbered and the safety for British residents in India becomes of major concern.
The first of 12 Parts in this wonderful miniseries grabbed me from the start, taking me away from my own setting and transplanting me to a place that I have dreamed of through many classic movies and even on Broadway musical, "Bombay Dreams". Wooldridge plays a character who believes in one of the greatest gifts that anybody can hope to share with people of different backgrounds, hospitality, and her interest in Malik is quite sincere rather than simply patronizing or short-term. It's obvious that a romance between the two would certainly be more long-lasting than a future with the cold hearted Pigott-Smith.
A great cast of supporting players includes some very famous character actors such as Dame Peggy Ashcroft who a year after this first aired would win an Oscar for playing another British lady in India in the classic David Lean film "A Passage to India". The mixture of British and Indian actors creates some memorable characters from the nurses she works with to the supposedly crazy lady on the street (whom she assumes at first is Russian) going around to check on the people dying on the street to the various British nobility Wooldridge encounters. Absolutely perfect in every way, this is a miniseries that will mesmerize you from the start and like a great novel will be very difficult to put down even if you start it late in the evening.
The first of 12 Parts in this wonderful miniseries grabbed me from the start, taking me away from my own setting and transplanting me to a place that I have dreamed of through many classic movies and even on Broadway musical, "Bombay Dreams". Wooldridge plays a character who believes in one of the greatest gifts that anybody can hope to share with people of different backgrounds, hospitality, and her interest in Malik is quite sincere rather than simply patronizing or short-term. It's obvious that a romance between the two would certainly be more long-lasting than a future with the cold hearted Pigott-Smith.
A great cast of supporting players includes some very famous character actors such as Dame Peggy Ashcroft who a year after this first aired would win an Oscar for playing another British lady in India in the classic David Lean film "A Passage to India". The mixture of British and Indian actors creates some memorable characters from the nurses she works with to the supposedly crazy lady on the street (whom she assumes at first is Russian) going around to check on the people dying on the street to the various British nobility Wooldridge encounters. Absolutely perfect in every way, this is a miniseries that will mesmerize you from the start and like a great novel will be very difficult to put down even if you start it late in the evening.
