Brideshead Revisited (1981) - theme

[Cool2BCeltic]

Interesting to see the picture of Sebastian and Charles in front of the stairway at Christ Church, decades before Harry, Ron and Hermione climbed it to be sorted into their houses.

[bodsnvimto]

The programme was/is wonderful, that's a given.

But I love the ambiguous quality of this theme tune: it sounds optimistic in the early days but so very despondent in the last few episodes.

[Giovannisenzaterra]

english faggots

[dezboss]

@Giovannisenzaterra Grow up and say something worth listening to.

[xxxmicamicaxxx]

@Romanticdance You are very welcome - enjoy!

[xxxmicamicaxxx]

If you like this music you'll love: the second movement of Thomaso Albinoni's Concerto for Oboe op.9 in D Minor. Or the 3rd. Movement of Mozart's Serenade for Wind K.361.

It is worth seeking them out.

[Romanticdance]

@xxxmicamicaxxx Thank you so much for this information

[creolelady182]

The best that television has to offer. great television and I am so grateful that I saw this great series and bought the DVD.

[meritcross]

Ah- Brideshead Revisted! Evelyn Waugh's 1943 [semi-autobiographical] masterpiece of a 'dysfunctional' aristocratic family [based on Waugh's real life experience] in the 'halcyon years' of the 1920's and '30's became the DEFINITIVE benchmark for Television period drama in 1981. An ensemble of the greatest actors of the 20th Century along with an unparalleled cinematography; perfectly adapted screenplay [John Mortimer] and sublime music track [John Burgess] it really hasn't been surpassed since!

[mspatrat]

I saw the series when it first played. I have always loved the music.(Everything!!!) It certainly evokes the tears. Such beauty. Everything about it is beauty Rain in Venice is breathtaking..I do like your comment about European heritage ozirion.I will write it down and ponder my sadness my grace my sensitivity and refinement. thankyou

[luvplant]

Just got the set on dvd...my favourite tv show ever...just perfect!! music, acting, characterssettings,...so emotional and perfectly beautiful!!

[mspatrat]

@luvplant I want to get the dvd. is that the original?

[MyDomonation]

Does anyone know where I can download the full CD for this? (1981 Version)?

[niffler09]

@MyDomonation amazon has it

[MeLittleAbbey]

@MyDomonation I have some of the 1981 songs on my channel. I'm probably going to put them all up. Please subscribe =)

[syrka2000]

I first watched this series when I was only 7 or 8 years old. I didn't understand a thing of the story at that age, but I always kept it in my memory, and remembered that I liked it. Now I'm 36 and I've received the DVD set as a Christmas gift. It's one of the most beautiful gifts they've I've ever been made.

[catnipnbone]

Why can't I find the piano sheet music to this anywhere? It's so beautiful. I watched it for the first time in England and couldn't wait to see each episode!

[sleehlove]

I remember this tv serie when i was 16 years old and i was in the secundary school,i had a friend and we used to watch this after the shcool day. Then we went out, to smoke a cigarette and have some tea. Those were glorious days of our childness and we never forget charles and sebastian and alloysious....

[shykaizen]

Anthony Andrew and Jeremy Irons? I've never seen this before but I love it already :) btw what's up with the teddy bear? 

[niffler09]

@shykaizen The teddy bear belongs to Sebastian (Anthony Andrew's character) and he takes it with him to Oxford when he goes there to study. I assume it's supposed to emphasise Sebastian's eccentricity, maybe also childishness. It's called Aloysius btw.

[VFDbranch13]

@shykaizen You don't know who the bear is? You absolutely have to read the book, it's brilliant. And then see the serial :) Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews are fantastic.

[shykaizen]

@VFDbranch13 Thanks for your comment! Right after I posted the question I looked up the series and have been dutifully watching it since. I've come to love it very much! I agree that Jeremy and Anthony are fantastic. They are so great together :)

[VFDbranch13]

@shykaizen Oh really? I'm so glad! I love it too. They really are. Well I'm glad you started watching, and Enjoy! :D

[G216A911]

@shykaizen Anthony Andrews and Jeremy Irons, just no one can their place !

[jarkko100]

Probably the best TV-series made in Britain, definitely the best theme song ever.

[byronds777]

thank you and god bless you.

scotland 2010

[Aqene1000]

If you love this mellow music, check out Mozart's " Elvira Madigan ", it is in a similar vein

[celestineforest]

Beautiful music. This video reminds me of watching the series in 1981. I was hooked. It was a fantastic TV show.

It still brings a lump to my throat every time i hear this music. Maybe it will always remind me of a certain time in my life - when i wasn't very happy but this TV programme helped me escape!

[e5acf4]

i was so sorry to hear of the great composer's death last week - i hope perhaps to compose something in his memory, with a wistful oboe to carry the melody of course

[Kenipedia]

So sad that Geoffrey Burgon has passed away.



[levanter1M]

I gather he died yesterday. Thats gods music - beautiful

[MkVII]

The death has been reported of Geoffrey Burgon, who composed the music, (and many other pieces).

[Anjoucat]

RIP Geoffrey Burgon.....a great talent...and this series..marvellous as it was, was really made and stade in the public imagination because of his music.

[RaleighDawlishRaynar]

Just heard. Quote "Internationally renowned British film and television composer Geoffrey Burgon has died at the age of 69, his publishers have confirmed"

RIP Mr Burgon.

[Kenipedia]

@RaleighDawlishRaynar So sad.

[iandavros]

I think I've watched this show, going on 25 years or so now. I think I will always love it, and thank the person who first showed it to me, all those years ago.

[joel1923]

The original is the best. I remembering reading the book in 1997 and then heading off to the public library to borrow the VHS episodes ( three at a time). The series was the most accurate adaptation of a novel I have ever seen. The remake was, well, I don't even want to discuss it...

[Vennegoor10]

Anyone who watched ITV now would never guess they made this. From Evelyn Waugh to Simon Cowell.......

[joel1923]

@Vennegoor10 Oh how true. I can't believe how far civilization has fallen...

[GTOUGH]

Top stuff...

[FireLightBB]

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful! I loved this series and the music was inspired!

[MargotOverbeeke]

The best serial I've ever seen. It touches so many themes and the music is beautiful

[1969tero]

If I was ever going to marry, this would be the music while I would be walked towards the aisle ...

[9292Percival]

@Dezboss wtf has this got to do with the miserable dump that is oxford uni in 2010

[dezboss]

@9292Percival Excuse me?

Well the fact that this story is set in Oxford for the first half for a start! Charles and Sebastian are undergraduates themselves at Oxford, Evelyn Waugh based it to some extent on his time in Oxford and also the fact that this story is highy celebrated in Oxford!!

If you aren't keen on Oxford university fair enough, that doesn't bother me but kindly don't be so flaming obnoxious about it to someone who it does matter to!!!

[dezboss]

@9292Percival Also, what the hell do you know about Oxford anyway? My guess is that you've never bloody been there in the first place.

[dezboss]

I adore this story, I love the book, this series and the also the film. I have a special interest in it because I'm going to Oxford myself in October.

[Thorheld]

@dezboss

That's delightful! What college are you going up to? I'm at Cambridge myself, reading History at Magdalene.

[dezboss]

@Thorheld Good god, I'm going Magdalen College at Oxford myself!!! Sister colleges, in a way that makes us Oxbridge college counterparts. I'm going to read modern languages (French and Spanish), and believe it or not I was considering History to study, then I started thinking about English before settling on languages.

I'm delighted to hear it. Are you looking forward to it?

[Thorheld]

@dezboss

Magdalen's an excellent college, you're quite lucky. I'm actually entering my third year already, so unfortunately most of it is behind me. It does go by quite quickly. fortunately Modern Languages is a four-year course, isn't it? Here our MML students take a year out aborad.

[BernardProfitendieu]

@dezboss oh! what a delight! you delightful people will simply delight each other constantly during your delightful time in that delightful place!!

Delightfully yours (as well as delighted by your delight!),

BP

[dezboss]

@BernardProfitendieu There's something wrong with you.

[BernardProfitendieu]

@dezboss what a delightful response! (even if it is three months old and no one gives a damn about a three month old youtube response)

[augustomariante]

Thanks so much for the video! I love the Granada TV serial. The best novel of Evelyn Waugh. The music is sweet with a baroque touch! Antonio Augusto from Brazil

[manuelherrera777]

thanks for proving my point that you are a an ethnocentric ass.

now do the rest of us a favor and go negotiate oblivion.

[Sibyl3n3]

Diana Quick is so lovely in this.

[dezboss]

she is gorgeous.

[manuelherrera777]

IRAP1 said it best regarding that idiot whitekudu's comment.

[whitekuduone]

You know I'm right, which is why you react the way you do.

[Jimmiwimmiwimxxxzzz]

@whitekuduone .... We may disagree with what you say, but will defend your right to your opinion. That's what makes democracies great. Thankfully you're in a minority of one. Play nicely.

[manuelherrera777]

@whitekuduone I smell your soul rotting

[ILike1981]

I would have been four/five months old when this series came out.

One of the greats of 1981.

[StokeCity71]

Superb piece of music.........

[Lennii]

This TV mini-series came out when I was a teenager... I didn't care about what my wedding looked like, or what kind of house I would grow up to own..... I only wanted to name my first son Sebastian. ... and I did...

[LONDONER01]

oooh Charles Ryder, so hot ;)

[Londonfogey]

To me, 'Brideshead', along with the other great TV miniseries of the 1980s such as 'The Jewel In The Crown' and 'The Far Pavilions' represent the pinnacle of British televisual achievement. The writing, acting and production values reached a peak which have never been surpassed, thanks mainly to the spreading of budgets over a greater number of channels, but also the creeping rot of political correctness and national self-hatred which the generation of 1968 brought us.

[joel1923]

@Londonfogey I wish they still made shows even half as good as the original Brideshead Revisted.

[anonUK]

@Londonfogey

Your nomenclature is apposite, my good sir.

[Londonfogey]

@anonUK

Most kind, sir/ma'am!

Although I note that the televisual empresarios have recently come up with some reasonable facsimiles of the Brideshead genre, namely 'Downton Abbey' and 'Any Human Heart'. Needless to say, of course, they are not on the BBC...

[Thorwald88]

@Londonfogey Thank you. Masterpiece Theater started going downhill around this time and has changed course. Perhaps I should be using the moniker of Memphisfogey. Was Rebecca Eaton part of the 1968 generation? I think the feminist fascism of the early seventies is probably more to blame than your comment suggests but otherwise you are spot on.

[LeonardaDaReicholl]

i'll always remember this series <3

[bozo828]

when i watch brideshead revisited i forget that once this country was a class society,the majority of the population were working class,then u had the middle class who aspired to mix with the upper class quote me if i m wrong.I think britain then was a country that was secretly jealous of the ruling class,was britain better then or now,then they had the empire,i don't know just discovering

[jgonnerman85]

There was nothing "secret" about it; wherever you've had a middle class and visually prominent upper class, the middle classes have wanted to be the upper class. That's where they came from originally: burgeoning merchant classes who started to imitate the nobility, which is where phrases like "nouveau riche" come from.

For an interesting discussion of a class society vs. a (relatively) class-less one, read de Tocqueville's Democracy in America.

[ozirion73]

This vignet emotes the strong sombre feeling of sadness, grace, sensitivity and refinement that also is our European heritage.

[demonliberal]

@ozirion73 Or morbidness, elitism, sentimentality, and philistinism.

[ozirion73]

@demonliberal Maybe those feelings, too, for you.

[moopable]

the best tv show EVER...apart from skins

[NachoMachoxxx]

best TV series ever, and best adaptation from a novel. who can read it again without thinking about their faces?

[Cielamouroux]

Evelyn Waugh's prose is incomparable. "Work Suspended," written just before Brideshead, is also a wonderful piece of writing.

[tefilobraga]

A monument of a series!

[jpandyaraja]

i cant stand toffs , but this series was

something really special.....

[dogssteve]

an epicurean feast of writing, acting ,photography, production etc, scrumptiously served with one of the most moving tv themes of all time. pure beautiful decadence.

[helnyw]

I guess I have to plug in my old VCR. I havent used it for six years but I did record all the episodes when it was on tv!

[andyb2707]

For me, this series has to be one of the top five things ever on television. Everything about it - the writing, production, acting, sets, music, costumes, etc. was done so superbly. One of the best adaptations of a novel ever...once seen, never forgotten.

[augustusgl]

Its a beautiful house!

[tiernot]

i gave my second son Flynn, sebastian as his middle name, i have loved this series for years and have the box set

i hope my son doesn't end up like him but he is showing signs

lol

[DyNaMiiKz1]

hahha

[VilleValofreakfan]

0:58 is the best pic... i <3 Sebastian, and his teddy ^^

[GTOUGH]

Brilliant, as good as it was over a quarter of a century ago. When England was still England...

[Theodoxia]

Opps hadn't realised that England was gone!  I wonder where I am?

[AngloAmalgamated]

Newlabouristan

[MartinPadderborn]

Agreed, but don't forget it was old Labour that set the ball rolling in1945.

[hwndoor]

que gran serie en chile la daba el mega en los 90 ,que excelente produccion inglesa, desde chile sudamerica.

[Bix12]

Is the series available here anywhere?

[brownies4you]

An awesome miniseries. The sound track was exquisite. My favorite musical score is when (in Venice) Cara and Charles leave the hotel to meet Sebastian and his dad on the beach.

While watching this movie, it's better if you don't chat on the phone, read, or write letters. Patient attentiveness will be richly rewarded. This movie doesn't have a trite plot. Not recommended for action/adventure/special effects lovers.

[glitterjag]

I must watch this, the soundtracks's beautiful, this aussie loves it, thank you, Jag

[rockchick80s]

Remember watching it on TV and thinking that it was so far removed from the World I inhabited, yet I found it fascinating and enchanting.

[win3108]

oooh !!!!.. such a haunting piece of music! evokes that period of 'England'so very well.. the upper niche class.. of yesteryear..

[nicceeo]

I love Brideshead Revisited ! Nice :)

Were did you get the music? :P

[niffler09]

from the soundtrack cd ;)

[neriku2]

typical english........  excellent

[Scridar]

Fantastically written piece of music.

[jfbeeza]

What a great production,series . I remember being 19 living at home with my mom,sister, little nephew when it first aired. I was just so into this series, just the theme song brings back memories. I was strugglin with my sexuality, just looked forward to watching the next weeks episode......

[7teenf]

Castle Howard is a place worth visiting.

Waugh's English is a thing of value. If only

Thinking of You

[aenigmate]

Geoffrey Burgon... this song is glorious. By the way, what manor is that, where is it? Are there more like this in Britain? This is all si superb...

[niffler09]

The manor is Castle Howard, it's near York in North Yorkshire. And yes, there are more manors like this but this is one of the grandest.

[aenigmate]

So there are even greater ones...

[staudtwerner]

and please do not forget, that it is not Britain, but it is England. England is the land Rule Brittania! I admire England for what they were, are and will be. Without England we never would be what we are in Europe right now. "BBC Worldservice, this, is London!" - just terrific. The Empire is still alive!

[win3108]

not it's not.. it's just full of underaged and teenage pregnancies.. the highest in the whole of europe or EU.. not much to be proud of there I think.. and everyone living off benefits system.. all lazy so and so's .. land of the spongers.. not Empire state but 'mamby pamby state'.. that's why you've got so many people living off the state .. and tax payers have to foot the bill for all these lazy slothful overweight fat couch potatoes/spongers to support them all ..

[slodgeleaver06]

England is & always will be a country to be proud of- we changed the face of the world, without England, the world would not be what it is today. & while there maybe lazy members of society, England still offers much to the world- one example great education (people send their kids from all over the world to be educated here) . As a country we have great stamina eg first woman to sail sole around the world was English. As Cecil Rhodes said, To be born an Englishman is to win the lottery of life.

[miky24]

fairly certain that the world would not be the same without any country in existence now

for example,

without france, england would have no one to look up to all those years and then finally defeat and the world would not be the same

or without china we would not have such inventions as eye glasses or gunpowder

all essential

so to say that england is so essential is somewhat redundant

every nation is essential in the world being the way it is today

[Weepingwine1]

Sounds like you "write" for the Daily Mail win3108. I'm a tax payer too - but I don't work myself into a rage about people on benefits - enjoy that beautiful music, life is too short..

[levanter1M]

@win3108 unfortunately you have a valid point.

[canadianfreespirit]

I was still in my teens when I saw this the first time. I didn't get all the nuances then-but I understand it all much better now.

one thing I DID get then was that the musical score is superb. far too good for a TV series-it deserves to be a symphony of its own. magnificent orchestration.

I loved Charles and Sebastian, and always thought it was a rip-off that Sebastian disappeared. but I've read the novel by Evelyn Waugh, and surprisingly, this is almost true to it word for word. amazing.

[stevenpo]

Definitely the best. So moving. Such a quality program, they don't make them like this anymore

[nabodrengen]

Second to none. By far the most beautiful piece of music made for television. Ever!

[carole131]

I have the Video set. I love that series & the music is for me also, "By far the most beautiful piece of music made for television. Ever!" Thanks for your comments.

[violetfieldflorence]

Thank you. Anthony Andrews will always be Sebastian Flyte to me.

[LONDONER01]

The only element of Brideshead that I like is the portrayal of the friendship between Charles and Sabastian. I agree with readerliz in the sense that I wasn't really so sure what Sabastian was so distraught about, his family didn't seem so bad that it drove him to drink

[readerliz]

me thinks he was just a spoilt brat either that he was an alcoholic.... he spent most of his time feeling sorry for himself.. sorry.. but I have noooo simpathy wiht that character.. thus story of BR is thumbs down for me.. I just like the theme tune that's all..

[newmark401]

This is, of course, the theme to the tv series, not the film (which you say you've seen). I can't bring myself to see the film because the reviews have been so bad, but I have the tv series on DVD and have read the book. I would recommend reading the book, then watching the tv series. Do both at least once and you will understand what Waugh was writing about in what is a flawed but fascinating work.

[readerliz]

haven't seen the film and nor would I go to see it.. (even if someone paid me to go and see it..).. I still stick by my point of view.. story of a privileged way of life of certain people in that era.. and a spoilt brat of a young adolescent who had nothing else better to do than to squander his idle lazy affluent free time and then turn to alcohol.. and then even worse to drown in his own sorrows and feel feebly sorry for himself and only for himself.. horrid pathetic creature or character..

[readerliz]

haunting beautiful music.. however.. still haven't a clue what the film was about although I watched it .. some poor spoilt toff feeling sorry for himself and being befriended by a Mr Charles Ryder.. and then going away to some far flung place and then drinking himself to a drunk stupour.. that is just about it!!

so silly to make a remake.. there really isn't even a story to tell!! just privileged people and how they lived in England in a bygone era..

[Aberforthette]

I disagree... even though I'm not going to Oxford and I've never lived in a stately home, Brideshead is very meaningful to me- As I see it the gorgeous, sumptuous setting is kind of like a certain /way of feeling/ that you might have at a particular time in your life, made concrete. I think the story is about how a part of you (or Charles) might always be anchored in that time, although your life may become extremely unhappy, like Sebastian's. It's a sort tale of paradise lost.

[lisparkhus]

This must be among the most beautyful melodies ever made. Sends shivers down my spine :-) Music like this is magic.

[taffboy72]

Thanks for posting. Shame the upcomming film looks a complete travesty.

[newmark401]

Even the music for the series was perfect. What a nice selection of pictures. Brings back a lot of memories.