The Jewel in the Crown

A friend lent me the DVD boxed set of this famous TV series from the early 80s and I've just finished watching it. Of course I'd seen the original when it was first broadcast, so I was familiar with it, but that was over 20 years ago, so it was an interesting experience to revisit it.
I suppose the first thing that strikes one is that it was an ITV series. It's inconceivable now that the channel would be remotely capable of making a prestigious series like that. They'd recently produced Brideshead Revisited which was an enormous success, redefining British television drama and Jewel was another sign that the mantle of prestigious British TV drama had moved away from the BBC.
One of the most crucial points in both series was the use of eye-catching locations and film, as opposed to studio production recorded on videotape, which had been the Beeb's standard mmode of production ever since recording had begun in the early 1960s. They'd invested heavily in their studios at the newly-built BBC Television Centre, and filming on location had been sidelined. So the ITV series, both produced by Granada which was fast becoming a powerhouse of production, were a serious challenge to the BBC's hegemony.
Jewel is graced by marvellous performances, notably from the peeless Peggy Ashcroft. Her portrayal of Barbie Batchelor, the elderly missionary who has spent most of her adult life in India, and is now thrust aside as so much useless detritusas the country edges towards independence, is heartbreaking. Her lower-middle-class origins, her lonely spinsterhood, her gradual exclusion from British Raj society as everyone jostles for survival, is one of the greatest performances I have ever seen on television. I must also mention Judy Parfitt, lurching genteely around the comfortable bungalows and terraces of the Raj, glass in one hand and cigarette in the other, all the time ruthlessly disposing of anyone whose face doesn't fit, is frighteningly plausible . And Geraldine James and Susan Wooldridge, who play the young women caught up in it all - part of it, yet seeing all too clearly what is happening, are both superb.
I suppose I found myself thinking - how could I not? - that, not only would it be impossible to produce anything on this scale - certainly not without American money - but where would you find the actors who would be capable of depicting the British in India. For a start, the accents - is there anyone under the age of, say, 50, who could produce the sort of cut-glass accent that would be essential. Estuary would surely creep in, however hard anyone would try.
And of course, the subject. It's the story of the British, so, while Indian society is very much there, it's always peripheral to the main action. It could not be made now, however much money anyone came up with, because of that. A shame, but I guess that's progress for you. We're different now, and, while we've lost something, we've gained as well. We now have The Wire instead, which is a pretty good deal in my book.
Anyway, I still enjoyed it enormously, relishing the slow unfolding of the story, the camerawork, the locations, the acting, the lack of jittery camerawork, and the fact that I didn't have to switch the subtitles on to hear the dialogue - perfect diction all round!