1982 - The Barchesters Chronicles

Alan as Obadiah Slope

Quote :

This BBC miniseries is loyal to the two Anthony Trollope novels on which it is based: The Warden and Barchester Towers (the first two Barchester novels). Trollope is one of my three most favorite writers (Vargas Llosa and Maupassant are the other two), and this miniseries does not disappoint.

The cast is wonderful: Donald Pleasance as the warden is a quiet, honest man who finds himself in an untenable position. Nigel Hawthorne plays his political son-in-law in a constant bad hair day (which back then must have been quite the fashion), and Susan Hampshire is the lovely Marchesa. Into this claustrophobic small-town clergy society storms Mrs. Proudie, the hellion wife of the new bishop. Geraldine McEwan plays Mrs. Proudie in all her righteous anger, and she's a force of nature.

Arriving with the Proudies is their assistant, Mr. Slope, played by Alan Rickman. This Rickmaniac was surprised to see just how skinny he was 15 years ago (at first I did not recognize him). His Slope is as smarmy and oleaginous as it gets: anyone who's worked for a large organization has come across Mr. Slope sometime. Mr. Slope is a great comedic character in the novels and remains so in the series. Mr. Rickman was his usual brilliant self with the added plus -- as my husband put it -- that for once he didn't outshine everybody else in the terrific cast.

As a Trollope fan, I enjoyed Barchester Chronicles very much.

Rickmaniacs are advised that Mr. Slope does not enter until several hours into the series since the character appears only in the second novel.

http://www.rickmanistareview.com/barchester.html

I loved him in there!!! I have currently watched the four first parts.