Reviewing Movies

When newly graduated Nick Guest arrives at the opulent London home of his Dorm mate Ted he commits a faux pas that betrays his Middle Class sensibilities in mistaking the housekeeper for his hostess. This is just the beginning of a series of social gaffs around which Nick must navigate; nimbleness of mind being no substitute for an ingrained sense of noblesse oblige. On another occasion that same housekeeper reacts when Nick tries to clear the table after lunch with, “What else would I do?” When a fellow dinner guest confidentially advises him that he should never speculate with more than 12% of his capital he is forced to admit that he doesn’t have any.

Although Nick has been put up in the garret in what were obviously meant to be servants’ quarters he is accepted into this upper crust home as a privileged guest. He gets to use the locked private gardens; rub shoulders with knights, lords, and ladies; and attend lavish parties. Evening clothes are de rigor. This is the Mid-Nineteen Eighties and openly gay Nick is learning about the ‘marriages of convenience’ of his new upper crust liaisons. Even members of the aristocracy die of Aids, suffer from manic depression, abuse cocaine, and get drunk.

This is a BBC series based upon the Booker Prize winning novel by Alan Hollinghurst. It would appear that “the love that dare not speak its name” is now considered appropriate fare for public television though in polite society such liaisons are still conducted in the closet. This mini-series is accorded the full BBC quality treatment. Although we are made vaguely aware of the nastiness that goes on in the background for the most part we are treated to the good life and everything glows with a golden patina until Nick’s world comes crashing down.