The BBC are still refusing to release this superior production of 'Rebecca' officially, but I have finally been able to view a copy, many years after first hearing about it.
So, does it match up to all the discussion and speculation? Close to the book, and well-cast (Jeremy Brett as Maxim, Joanna David - whose daughter Emilia Fox appeared in another Rebecca twenty years later - as the second Mrs De Winter, Anna Massey - the former Mrs Brett - as Mrs Danvers, and Julian Holloway as Jack Favell), it certainly does not disappoint. In four episodes it involves the viewer while making a good stab at translating a complicated book to the screen.
Not broodingly Gothic like Hitchcock's version with Olivier, or convoluted like the Emilia Fox/Charles Dance version, the 1970s Rebecca stands up well against a selection of other period dramas made at the same time by the BBC. Certainly it seems unfair that it is suppressed from view in the UK - the US has had TV repeats, although no video or DVD.
So, does it match up to all the discussion and speculation? Close to the book, and well-cast (Jeremy Brett as Maxim, Joanna David - whose daughter Emilia Fox appeared in another Rebecca twenty years later - as the second Mrs De Winter, Anna Massey - the former Mrs Brett - as Mrs Danvers, and Julian Holloway as Jack Favell), it certainly does not disappoint. In four episodes it involves the viewer while making a good stab at translating a complicated book to the screen.
Not broodingly Gothic like Hitchcock's version with Olivier, or convoluted like the Emilia Fox/Charles Dance version, the 1970s Rebecca stands up well against a selection of other period dramas made at the same time by the BBC. Certainly it seems unfair that it is suppressed from view in the UK - the US has had TV repeats, although no video or DVD.