Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

Adapted from the nonfiction biography of the same name by Stella Tillyard, this is a sumptuous, three part miniseries produced by the BBC, and shown in America on PBS. For those of you that are interested, as of this writing, this series will be reshown begining on June 3. Check it out, it's surprisingly both personal and lavish, with plenty of period details, and strong acting.

This film was like a novel, in the vivid lives of the four protagists, but all of this actually happened, there's plenty of documentation for these women's lives in family chronicles and letters.

Portraying the lives of four of the daughters of the second Duke of Richmond, it is a very personal veiwpoint of their childhood, romances, marriages, sucesses and defeats. Each of these four women were vividly different but united in their loyalty to each other. Covering the fifty year period from about 1744 to 1793, it is a remarkable portrait of the life and style of those who occupied the highest positions in life and society in England and Ireland.

Caroline, Emily, Louisa and Sarah Lennox were the great-granddaughters of Charles II, and each one was expected to make a brilliant marriage. But it is with the surprise elopement of the eldest, Caroline (Serena Gordon), with the politician Henry Fox (Alun Armstrong) in defiance of her family that opens the series, and we know from the start these four girls are anything but ordinary.

It is through Caroline's eyes that we see the begining of the story, of her happy if lonely marriage. The second daughter, Emily (Geraldine Sommerville, and later, Sian Philips) makes a match with Earl of Kildare and goes with him to his vast estates in Ireland. Their marriage too, was happy, and Emily makes a lavish life for herself and her numerous children (17 in all), until she makes a scandalous marriage of her own after being widowed, to her children's tutor.

The third daughter, Louisa, is possibly the most good-natured of them all, making another Irish marriage and becoming the mistress of the wealthiest estate in Ireland, but her marriage to Tom Connolly, despite the wealth, was unhappy in that she was not able have any children.

However, it is the youngest sister, Sarah, who gives the fire to the series. Outspoken, outrageous, Sarah (Jodhi May and Sheila Ruskin) first flirts with the young George III (there were rumors that he might marry her), then makes an ill-decided move to marry Sir Charles Bunbury, a marriage that ends in disaster after Sarah has a long string of affairs that culminate in her having an illegitimate child. Cut off from her family, Sarah endures ostracism and loneliness when love sudden appears and her life just might change...

This is a grand series, with each sister being given a turn in the spotlight, but for me the fire came out when the story focused on Sarah, and later, Emily. Filmed on location in England and Ireland (some of the houses are those lived in by the Lennox sisters), and given close detail in furnishings and details, this is a look into a luxurious past, and a surprisingly intimate view of lives that were on public display.

If this series interests you, I recommend a companion volume to the series: Aristocrats: the illustrated companion which goes into great detail over the lives and surroundings of these women, and is filled with stills from the series, and contemporary portraits and pictures.

Suitable for children of all ages, and a real treat for fans of history.

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older