The mini-series is awful, but the soundtrack is brilliant

Yes, the television mini-series was a terrible missed opportunity and fans have a right to be angry at the way in which "The Missing Years" departs from both the novel and the first mini-series.

But despite the poor quality of the script, the soundtrack that was composed for the mini-series is a delight to listen to as a standalone piece of music.

Henry Mancini's original "Theme From The Thorn Birds" and "Meggie's Theme" reappear here in lush, full-bodied orchestral arrangements that are no less stirring than the original versions.

The original music by Garry MacDonald and Lawrence Stone is no less impressive. Especially haunting are the darker cues for the World War 2 sequences, such as "Prayers" and "Hiding The Jews". The motifs associated with the character of Luke are also very interesting, and I like the way in which they are intertwined with the themes for Ralph, Meggie and Dane for the scenes showing the interaction between these characters.

So yeah, the mini-series was awful... but the soundtrack is brilliant and makes for a superb album, either turned down to easy listening volume or blasted from the speakers of your stereo system. I've left it playing as background music whilst reading the book a few times.

So try and put the mini-series out of your mind and just enjoy the album as a piece of music - it's amazing that as of this writing (11 October 2009), you can still buy this album from Amazon. Snap it up before it goes out of print, it is truly a buried treasure.