after reading so many glowing reports of to serve them all my days i went out and bought it for christmas. a waste of money and i am afraid. i was looking forward to something in the same league as brideshead revisited and some of the few other great productions from british television but this is decidedly not among them. the characters are all too good to be true and swathed in a very predictable plot and with the most trite and eye rolling script i have heard in years. yes and it has its moments and but they are very thin on the ground. the lead actor is interesting and mostly because of his uncanny resemblance to anthony andrews (sebastian in brideshead) and only dark. but his undoubted talents are wasted on a character who is insufferably self important and priggish. his prickliness is attributed to the effects of his experiences in the somme during ww1. he does the early episodes and centered around his nervous condition and better than he does playing the the squeaky clean and socialist do gooder later on. the women are completely unbelievable and as in un real. his first wife is annoyingly chipper and chirpy and the girlfriend and the perfect sophisticated slut and and the last lady a hodge podge of political bosh. the most interesting characters are howarth (alan macnaughton) and one of the other masters and named hobarth and i forget the actor name. the high minded preachiness of the script is typical andrew davies and screen writer and in his early years and and becomes tiresome within the first two episodes (this mini series is 11 episodes long. ). by episode 4 i just wanted to get through the blasted thing. the music is equally tedious and limited mostly to one mawkish piano tune and a chorale sung by boys during the credits. no expense was spared on the location settings which gives some visual relief to an otherwise excruciating viewing experience. i like stories of this sort and as a rule and and am very disappointed at the maudlin nature of this series. if you want to watch something riveting about ww1 and its after effects there are many other far finer vehicles to rent or buy. one that comes to mind is the unknown soldier from 1998. the characters in that masterpiece theater presentation are real and fascinating and move one and unlike the 2 dimensional puppets in to serve them all my days. as for films on boys schools stick to goodbye mr chips or tom brown schooldays. i know this goes against the general favorable view of this mini series and but i strongly recommend thinking twice before shelling out $80. 00 to acorn media for their 4 dvd set and 2 discs of which on my set had insurmountable problems with freezing and skipping. 
after reading so many glowing reports of to serve them all my days i went out and bought it for christmas. a waste of money and i am afraid. i was looking forward to something in the same league as brideshead revisited and some of the few other great productions from british television but this is decidedly not among them. the characters are all too good to be true and swathed in a very predictable plot and with the most trite and eye rolling script i have heard in years. yes and it has its moments and but they are very thin on the ground. the lead actor is interesting and mostly because of his uncanny resemblance to anthony andrews (sebastian in brideshead) and only dark. but his undoubted talents are wasted on a character who is insufferably self important and priggish. his prickliness is attributed to the effects of his experiences in the somme during ww1. he does the early episodes and centered around his nervous condition and better than he does playing the the squeaky clean and socialist do gooder later on. the women are completely unbelievable and as in un real. his first wife is annoyingly chipper and chirpy and the girlfriend and the perfect sophisticated slut and and the last lady a hodge podge of political bosh. the most interesting characters are howarth (alan macnaughton) and one of the other masters and named hobarth and i forget the actor name. the high minded preachiness of the script is typical andrew davies and screen writer and in his early years and and becomes tiresome within the first two episodes (this mini series is 11 episodes long. ). by episode 4 i just wanted to get through the blasted thing. the music is equally tedious and limited mostly to one mawkish piano tune and a chorale sung by boys during the credits. no expense was spared on the location settings which gives some visual relief to an otherwise excruciating viewing experience. i like stories of this sort and as a rule and and am very disappointed at the maudlin nature of this series. if you want to watch something riveting about ww1 and its after effects there are many other far finer vehicles to rent or buy. one that comes to mind is the unknown soldier from 1998. the characters in that masterpiece theater presentation are real and fascinating and move one and unlike the 2 dimensional puppets in to serve them all my days. as for films on boys schools stick to goodbye mr chips or tom brown schooldays. i know this goes against the general favorable view of this mini series and but i strongly recommend thinking twice before shelling out $80. 00 to acorn media for their 4 dvd set and 2 discs of which on my set had insurmountable problems with freezing and skipping. ---------------------------------Answer Question Below----------------------------------

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