Brideshead Revisited is without a doubt my favourite British television series, based upon the book 'Brideshead Revisited, The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder.' To be specific the first 3 episodes. As I watched it many times over and then went on to read the book, what struck me most when I compared the two is the richness of the characters, storyline and set design that was created sometimes from only two descriptive sentences in the book, is absolutely incredible.
Below is a link to a very interesting article in Vanity fair written by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, the show’s original director, as he recalls the epic achievement of the 11-part series based on the Evelyn Waugh novel. To me, the way the article is written by Lindsay-Hogg shows where the base of that brilliance came from.
"Sebastien's eyes on the leaves above him, mine on his profile, while the blue-grey smoke rose, untroubled by any wind, to the blue-green shadows of the foliage, and the sweet scent of the tobacco merged with the sweet summer scents around us and the fumes of the sweet, golden wine seemed to lift us a finger's breadth above the turf and hold us suspended."
"That day was the beginning of my friendship with Sebastian, and thus it came about, that morning in June, that I was lying beside him in the shade of the high elms watching the smoke from his lips drift up into the branches."
Reading Recommendations & Cotent Considerations
by
Evelyn Waugh