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27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Please Please Please, April 26, 2004
This review is from: The Norman Conquests Boxed Set [VHS] (VHS Tape)
These three plays are among the most brilliant ever conceived by the Great Performances series on PBS. Tom Conti, Penelope Keith, Richard Briers, and the rest are amazing, as are the plays themselves. My only over-riding question is -- WHEN WILL THEY BE AVAILABLE ON DVD??? Considering all the junk that is available, it seems a shame that this extraordinary trilogy is not. ARE YOU LISTENING??
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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Finally available on VHS!, January 1, 2001
This review is from: The Norman Conquests Boxed Set [VHS] (VHS Tape)
In the late 1970s PBS presented a hilarious trilogy of plays called "The Norman Conquests." I've been trying ever since to find them again. And here they are! The production (the same as on PBS) stars Tom Conti as an unforgettable Norman. The premise of these three amazing plays: Norman is a real charmer who seduces (not necessarily sexually) everybody he meets. Each of the three programs takes place in a different room (in one case, the "room" is the garden). It's the same story and the same six characters (all beautifully performed), but each time seen from what happens only in each room. It's an amazing accomplishment for the writer, who explains in the introduction to the screenplays (also available on amazon.com) that the plays are meant to be seen in any order. These videotapes are presented in this order: "Table Manners" (in the dining room), "Round and Round the Garden," and "Living Together" (the sitting room). But I prefer "Table" first and "Garden" last. If you haven't experienced it, and you're a fan of British productions, you really won't want to miss it.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A pleasant surprise indeed..., July 22, 2001
This review is from: The Norman Conquests Boxed Set [VHS] (VHS Tape)
And now, to counter rumors that I may possibly be an excessively negative person, here is a review of something that I liked very much. Unlike seemingly everyone else here, I have no nostalgic attachment to these films, but I still think they're pretty great. I got the set as a gift this past xmas, and I initially greeted it with baffled incomprehension: what the hell is this, and why would I be interested? However, after my parents (god bless 'em) finally forced me to watch it earlier this Summer, all becomes clear: this is about as good as television gets. Indeed, seeing something this good really forces you to recognize that most movies (and TV shows) are, when you come right down to it, pretty damned bad. TNC, on the other hand, is pretty damned good: the characters and their relationships are well and subtly-developed, and there are no facile, all-encompassing 'solutions' to the conflicts therein. All six characters are real, wholly believable people, with no fatuous moralizing on the part of the writer, implicit or otherwise, to be seen. They're occasionally screamingly funny, but never at the expense of character--everything flows naturally out of who they are. At the end of the third film I felt a distinct sense of melancholy that I had to leave these people--and that's about the highest praise I can give.
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