Barchester Chronicles

Laura's Review

Last night I watched The Barchester Chronicles - ALL 6 HOURS OF IT!! - which I had borrowed from my local library. I only borrowed it because of Alan Rickman and really wasn't looking forward to it as it is a period costume piece - not my bag, baby! - but I really enjoyed it!! It was quite funny and very touching. Other than AR the cast includes Donald Pleasance, Nigel Hawthorne, Phillyda Law and Susan Hampshire.

The amazing thing - for me at least - was that it was filmed right here in Peterborough (England)! It begins with a watercolour painting of a cathedral and I thought to myself "that looks like our cathedral" then I notice a painting inside the building that clarifies that it is indeed Peterborough Cathedral! So then I'm thinking, "that means Alan Rickman has been in the same city as me!" albeit I was only eleven at the time but I can't help thinking this has some kind of significance...but I digress, the story - i don't know if any of you are familiar with the books "The Warden" and "Barchester Towers" by Anthony Trollope (please forgive me if you are and I over simplify things) that the film is based on - centres around a church warden, Septimus Harding (Pleasance). When the Bishop dies, a new bishop, Mr Proudie (Clive Swift) is appointed and he brings with him his domineering wife (Geraldine McEwan - the hag from Prince of Thieves) and his chaplain, the sinister Mr Obadiah Slope (who else but AR!). Pretty soon the town has decided that Mrs Proudie is actually the Bishop as she makes all the decisions. Mr Slope spends his time trying to rise through the ranks of the diocese and marry a rich widow - who happens to be Mr Harding's daughter.

This is a very amusing film. AR is hilarious as the sinister Slope, who's plans continually get thwarted, and the rest of the cast are fantastic. If you can find it, watch it! I definitely recommend it.

Fausta's Review

Rickmaniac rating: 2 hands, since he only appears in the second half

This BBC miniseries is loyal to the two Anthony Trollope novels on which it is based: The Warden and Barchester Towers (the first two Barchester novels). Trollope is one of my three most favorite writers (Vargas Llosa and Maupassant are the other two), and this miniseries does not disappoint.

The cast is wonderful: Donald Pleasance as the warden is a quiet, honest man who finds himself in an untenable position. Nigel Hawthorne plays his political son-in-law in a constant bad hair day (which back then must have been quite the fashion), and Susan Hampshire is the lovely Marchesa. Into this claustrophobic small-town clergy society storms Mrs. Proudie, the hellion wife of the new bishop. Geraldine McEwan plays Mrs. Proudie in all her righteous anger, and she's a force of nature.

Arriving with the Proudies is their assistant, Mr. Slope, played by Alan Rickman. This Rickmaniac was surprised to see just how skinny he was 15 years ago (at first I did not recognize him). His Slope is as smarmy and oleaginous as it gets: anyone who's worked for a large organization has come across Mr. Slope sometime. Mr. Slope is a great comedic character in the novels and remains so in the series. Mr. Rickman was his usual brilliant self with the added plus -- as my husband put it -- that for once he didn't outshine everybody else in the terrific cast.

As a Trollope fan, I enjoyed Barchester Chronicles very much.

Rickmaniacs are advised that Mr. Slope does not enter until several hours into the series since the character appears only in the second novel.

PS: I would love to hear Mr. Rickman read The Last Chronicle of Barset (unabridged) on tape. He'd do a magnificent characterization of the heroic Mr. Crawley.

Obadiah Slope's C.V.

Slope, Revd. Obadiah, Obadiah Slope is the evangelical domestic chaplain to Bishop Proudie in Barchester Towers, and a special protégé of the Bishop’s wife, with ambitions to rule the diocese. As a sectarian controversalist in the national press, he’s already crossed swords with Francis Arabin. He has earlier successfully wooed Olivia Proudie, but has given her up because her father was not rich, and subsequently attempted to rekindle the flame on the latter’s preferment. His first act in Barchester is to preach a sermon in the cathedral deliberately offensive to the majority of the clergy. In affairs of the heart he switches his attention to Eleanor Bold and her income, tot he consternation of Archdeacon Grantly’s party, and on the death of Dr. Trefoil persuades Tom Towers of the Jupiter to propose him unsuccessfully, as dean. He becomes entrapped by the Signora Neroni’s sexual charms, to the horror of Mrs. Proudie, who expels him from Barchester. He returns to London, marrying a rich widow and obtaining a living near New Road. He is said to be lineally descended from Dr. Slop, "who assisted at the birth of Mr. T. Shandy:, and has "added an ‘e’ to his name, for the sake of euphony, as other great men have done before him" – a joke on Trollope/trollop (BT IV). The Christian name, Obadiah, derives from a servant of Tristam Shandy’s father. Slope is presented negatively throughout, the fact of having been a sizar at Cambridge being held as a social disgrace, his family’s conversion from Roman Catholicism contributing to the impression of hypocrisy, and his personal appearance – red hair, red face, thin bloodless lips, prominent pale brown eyes, and a spongy red nose, sweaty palms, and (cut from the manuscript at Longman’s request) bad breath – completing his unattractiveness.

Anthony Trollope, from the Encyclopaedia Britannica

Donald Pleasance

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