The Barchester Chronicles

Dramatised by Alan Plater from Anthony Trollope's novels, The Warden and Barchester Towers, the series was completed in 1982, the centenary of Trollope's death. It is a gorgeous production, made entirely on OB videotape, starring Donald Pleasence as the Reverend Septimus Harding. Among his co-stars Clive Swift, Geraldine McEwan, Nigel Hawthorne and Susan Hampshire, Alan Rickman is excellent as the odious Mr Slope.