Forsyte Saga (1967)


After 41 years I get to see it again. I was obsessed by this. I read the first three books in one night before it started. In those days, all I could do was to tape it on reel to reel. I watched it one day (it was rebroadcast the same week) taking notes on what scenes I wanted to tape. then taped just those scenes later. This demanded absolute silence from my daughters. I have one episode, when you can hear me going to the bottom of the stairs and whispering, "shut up! I am taping!" and giggles from them. At one point, You can hear me running up stairs and the girls saying, " No! Mom! Oww, Wanh!" When I heard THAT tape, I realized I needed to back off from that obsession. But I loved the series, best TV I ever saw. To actually get the tapes and see them again is thrilling. By the way, the rape episode was repeated every night for a week on the Washington, DC PBS channel. THAT was weird, I gave up after the second night. Besides all he did was expose a strapless bra! Ho Ho.

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So, back then who was your favorite actor/actress and what was your favorite scene? How popular was the show in the US then?

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I first discovered The Forsyte Saga back in 1967 on PBS. I was just a kid in high school at the time, and I'd never seen anything like it before. It was very popular throughout the US, I recall. After each weekly episode people would discuss the characters and the storylines, often quite passionately. There was an ongoing debate about the Forsyte family feud, and viewers divided into two main camps: those sympathetic to Soames and, conversely, those who favored Irene. The series had a multi-generational appeal, with my parents liking it as much as I did. And it left a deep and lasting impression, back in a time when most television was bland, formulaic and mediocre. In contrast to those other shows, The Forsyte Saga stood out as a shining example of how good TV potentially COULD be. It had quality acting, along with well-written and compelling scripts. A winning combination.

My own favorite actors were Eric Porter (Soames), Nyree Dawn Porter (Irene), Susan Hampshire (Fleur), and Nicholas Pennell (Michael). I also loved the actor who played James Forsyte, the one with the tag line of "Nobody ever tells me anything!" That old guy was a hoot from start to finish. Annette Lamotte---and her conniving mother,too---were equally wonderful, and ditto for the actress who played Marjorie Ferrar. And I just loved Marjorie's grandfather, the Marquess of Shropshire, who wanted to electrify everything!

Once the series ended I had major withdrawal symptoms. I wanted more! So I bought Galsworthy's two trilogies---The Forsyte Saga and A Modern Comedy----on which the TV show was based. Over the next 40 years I continued to read and reread these wonderful books. And last year I bought the original TV series on DVD! It has been my pleasure to watch the series all over again, and being conversant with the books now I can appreciate, as never before, what a faithful adaptation was done back in 1967. The 2002 remake can't begin to measure up, either in quality or interest, to the original show.

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As the old adage goes, if it aint broke... you could NEVER top the original series!

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Eric Porter defined Soames. I can't imagine any actor doing as well or a better job. I probably will never see the newer one, simply b/c of that...

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[deleted]

I completely agree. I thought Damien Lewis gave a good performance in the remake but that Gina McKee was horribly miscast. I don't think the book describes Irene as a blonde, but I think she should have been more curvaceous.



The Fabio Principle: Puffy shirts look best on men who look even better without them.

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"The gods had given Irene dark brown eyes and golden hair, that strange combination, provocative of men’s glances..."

Still, if you prefer 2002 version - mind you, it's TFS-1967 board.

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Found the book online at the Gutenberg project and saw that description. BTW, I think the 2002 version is absolutely inferior to this one.



The Fabio Principle: Puffy shirts look best on men who look even better without them.

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The 1967 FS enchanted me as a ten year-old, when it finally aired on PBS. I purchased the box set nearly a decade ago, and I never tire of watching it. That original cast makes the books come alive, even in black and white. The ridiculous remake felt as though it were strangling the characters, as well as Galsworthy. If you loved John Welsh, who played James to perfection, you should get hold of some of his other performances, such as in The Moonstone (1972), The Duchess of Duke Street, and To Serve Them All My Days. What a marvelous character actor! The leads remain indelibly stamped in my memory banks, as do the supporting characters. Talk about pitch perfect!

Put puppy mills out of business: never buy dogs from pet shops!

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John Welsh was also wonderful as Sir Pitt Crawley in Vanity Fair, starring FS vet Susan Hampshire. He has a small role as a barber in the first episode of Brideshead.

Completely agree with the prior poster's assessment of Gina McKee in the FS remake. It's a problem that male characters react to her Irene as if she were possessed of a powerful sexual magnetism - since that's something McKee utterly lacks. Her Irene is sullen and distracted - McKee seemed at sea in the part. Bizarre performance that throws the film out of whack.

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McKee's portrayal also suggests a character who has zero energy, as though she has an iron deficiency or chronic fatigue syndrome or something. (very unlike the Irene of the 1967 series.) I kept thinking, does she need some caffeine? Or a little sugary pick-me-up? She just dragged...

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LOL!

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Ha-ha! I was just thinking about this when I saw her in some BBC production -- she is a "Nanny", but not the sort you would ever want to keep!

While thinking of her "Irene" so critically, I thought, well, maybe she just cannot play "nice", and certainly not "pretty" (exc. in "Notting Hill"), but no! Here she is nasty, brutish and "short", much like Hobbes' description of life itself.

If I were to cast "Great Expectations", GINA would be my 1st pick for Mrs Joe Gargery! It's exactly how I pictured her, long before I had read the Forsyte Saga.

She deserves her revenge, and we deserve to die.

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Well put! I am no Damien Lewis fan (regardless of his acting ability, which I find...well, questionable...he is even more repulsive to me than Soames was to Irene--so in that sense, he was well-cast, but that's not enough).

And Gina McKee was not the Irene of Galsworthy's Saga! As you said, Irene wasn't just curvaceous, but a blonde, whose hair color ("feuille mort" or "dead leaves"--a dark gold) was intoxicating next to her pale skin, dark eyes and delicate features. Gina McKee is the diametric opposite of this! She is dark-haired, tall and thin, bony, and with a soulful yet rather rough-hewn face, love (some have said) by Pre-Raphaelites. NOT the "Heathen Goddess" that Galsworthy described!



She deserves her revenge, and we deserve to die.

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I think the reason Eric Porter made such a strong impression on me and US audiences as Soames back in the late 1960s was that he at the time was a new face to us. We had not previously seen him in lots of film and TV roles. By comparison when the 2002 version of FORSYTE SAGA was made I for one had already seen Damien Lewis numerous times in film and TV roles and as a result had a hard time - actually impossible for me - picturing him as Soames. Also Soames is a dark character - dark soul - and Eric Porter's dark hair and eyes made him appear the perfect characterization of Soames. By comparison Damien Lewis's bright red hair and bright blue eyes made too "colorful" if that's the right word to be convincing as Soames. After watching both the 1967 version and the 2002 version, the thing that struck me most was that the actors of the original version had what I call screen gravitas whereas the younger prettier actors of the remake all came across for the most part as seriously miscast lightweights. Particularly the main characters of Soames (Damien Lewis), Jo (Rupert Graves) and Irene (Gina McKee).

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I discovered the DVD set a week ago. I saw the series in 1972 in Canberra and loved it, but was really stirred up to see it again after the remake. I've got the books and am going to re-read them all now.


Love is never having to say you're sober.

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