Added: 5 years ago
From: LenKenny
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  • Just to say the cast list is on IMDb. Michael Bryant and Rosemary Leach amongst others. I wish BBC would show the series again. Start a Facebook campaign?

  • First of all a big thanks for uploading this song of another era! I mailed BBC more than 5 years ago enquiring serial's availability in DVD & I got an answer reffering me to BBC's eshop. As this great serial reminds me of my youth days in London could Len or anybody updated BBC willingenss to put it on the market? Or is there any other source to find it?

  • A haunting song beautifully sung by Georgia Brown. It sent shivers down my spine when I first heard it over 40 years ago as a young man when I watched the BBC 'Roads To Freedom' in black and white, and now it fills me with nostalgia and longing. I have the 45rpm somewhere stashed away but it is good to hear it via Youtube.

  • Thank you for uploading this fantastic song. I watched the series many year's ago and just loved it. Had the song in my head and never thought I would hear it again!

    Zemmeron

  • Like many others, I was totally captivated by the TV series and then read all I could find by Sartre. I would buy the box set if it ever appeared. It was a wonderful and powerful TV drama which went deep into my consciousness and has stayed there to this day.

  • I am fluent and Georgia sings very well in French. Had no idea she recorded this.

  • Can we get a petition going to get Roads to Freedom back on the box? The restaurant scene still haunts me as does the theme tune.

  • @chris176739 I'll sign a petition. This song has been haunting me for the last few days, don't know why. I saw the original BBC series when I was a teenager.

  • @BATTY2011 It is really haunting isn't it. I have seen a lot of tv but this still stays with me. The tune is a pure lament.

  • I will never forget this song, and Georgia Brown (who was Nancy in one of the original productions of the musical "Oliver"). I will also never forget this series which I saw on public television here in the USA many years ago. After I saw it, I read through all of Sartre's "Roads to Freedom" novels. Thank you for posting this song. I would love for this series to become available on DVD.

  • Daniel Massey played Marcel as I remember and some one else as Ivich,

    I forget , never forget Georgia Brown though.

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  • Sorry for short notice but just spotted 3 espisodes of this series to be shown at the NFI on the 3rd October 2010 - I knew in my heart it still existed lets hope for a DVD soon -

  • @grim3845 I can't make it the NFI for the 3rd October, but I'm hoping my son will. I'd like to know what his generation would make of it.

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  • @LenKenny Very good news - at the BFI screening on the 3/10/2010 James Cellan Jones the original director said that 2 copies exist of the complete series held at the BBC and BFI. The quality of episodes 7, 8 and 9 projected was excellent including the colour. Not my favourite episodes, but thoroughly enjoyable to watch again after all these years. We are encouraged to write to the BBC for a complete airing.

  • @grim3845 I've always been confident that one day I will see it again.

    The next step is persuading the BBC to show it again. Is it too obvious to assume that BBC4 might be the perfect outlet for it??

  • @LenKenny Agreed BBC4 is the place for it, one wonders why it has not already appeared? James Cellan Jones said there had been an official instruction for the tapes to be wiped, but someone thought better of it and "put them in a cupboard". So we just need to get past some official bureaucracy about their existance?

  • @grim3845

    I remember this trilogy very well. Great actors, great acting and a great story. This theme tune is one of the most haunting melodies I have ever heard and sung so well by Georgia. I'd often hoped that the BBC would do a remake but if they have the originals (which I was told that they did not) this is one repeat I would pay to see. BBC drama at its best!

  • fantastic. i hope they do have the tapes to the tv series and somebody with access releases them!

  • This song has been haunting me for 40 years. Thank you for posting it.

    The BBC series was also shown in the US on PBS in approx. 1970.

    An amazing series. Captivating.

    The Roads to Freedom. Age of Reason. Troubled Sleep.

    What a powerful series that was for us to remember it and search for parts of it almost half a century later.

  • @ThroughTheEons I have also been haunted (good word) by this song and am so pleased to have found it so quickly on You Tube.

  • Spooky, 40 years since I heard this song. I totally agree with tabbysnark. My gut feeling is that the BBC wiped the tapes. That's what happens when accountants run things. The closest I got was to see Michael Bryant at the National...and that only emphasized the fact that his portrayal of Mathieu was his life's work.

  • Amazing ! 30 years since I have heard this song, still remembered . Going to look out my old Roads to Freedom penguin books !

  • Have always loved this. I wish the TV series would be made available on DVD.

  • Thank you so much for posting this. It brings back memories of one of the best drama serials in tv history. Funny I was watching Star Trek: The Next Generation with her in it last night and decided to look her up on imdb and found out she died in 1992. It made me so sad.

  • Wow! Thanks very much for this. I sing this to myself quite often - I really love it. Somewhere I have the single. Ms Brown's voice is perfect for this. Also... she SO should have played Nancy in the movie of Oliver (just thought I'd chuck that in!).

  • Great to hear this again. I have a copy or the original record but very scratchy and damaged. On the side with La Route est Dure there is a second track entitled Wheatfield. On the flip side of the 45 is and extended English version of The Roads to Freedom version. Good news - the BBC series still exists - BFI have shown it in recent years.

  • are you sure that the BFI has shown this. All best evidence is that the original tapes were lost by the BBC

  • I love that song but never thought I would hear it again. Thanks so much for posting it.

  • Do you have the song which was on the flips side? I loved that one too.

    have just posted a video of Georgia singing.

  • Thank you very much for posting this, just as hauntingly beautiful as I remembered. Like many others, I have been trying to find out what the BBC has done with the tapes of the Roads to Freedom, but so far without success. If they have wiped them, then they have destroyed a work of art, and I just wish someone would have the courage to come out and admit it. If there is one dramatisation that would have stood the test of time, this is it.

  • Outstanding. Poignant. Unforgettable. Youtube is like a time machine. Thank you so much for posting. Wish the BBC would show again.

  • I was in my early teens when this was broadcast and it made a great impression upon me,it was f**king magnificent! his relationships with the students, his pregnant girlfriend,his bourgios brother,his gay s/m friend Daniel, his communist friend whose name i cant remember.for those who have not seen it i will not tell the great ending when he finds his road to freedom.with all the stations nowadays surely one of them could put it out pleeeeeeeeease!this music is lovely and apposite to the series

  • Any chance you have a mp3 version of this song LenKenny?

  • Any shots of Ivich Serguine floating about? Really want to see what the BBC made of her.

  • kletzmer49

    Be patient, somebody out there has got this on tape, possibly the BFI. It will be worth the wait.

  • I regret that I never really watched the series, but I was struck by the haunting theme tune at the time. So struck in fact that I purchased the single - which I still have (somewhere). It was on the Fly label and had an unpleasant dark mustard coloured label (serial Bug 5) I think.

  • wonderful song that introduced a brilliant BBC series that has been lost

  • Superb song and superb singer

  • Isn`t it great to find anything by this great singer ,much underated.

  • Is there any way to see this again?

  • During its original presentation this I remember, at eight, being intigued by this when I waited for 'The Goodies' to follow.

  • Excellent. Haven't heard this for 30 years. I worked on the series with "filthy" Bryant and Simon Ward, lovely guys. Dan Massey though was the best of the lot with a great sense of humour and his comments on the BBC catering arrangements hilarious.

  • @BarryAustinLynch Maybe you could put us all out of our misery and tell us what you think happened to the tapes. And why "filthy" Bryant. I'm intrigued.

    P.S. I've worked in the BBC canteen.

  • At last! This is one of the best signature tunes for a TV serial EVER! HOORAY!

  • breathtaking

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