The Bretts (5 Discs)

 

 

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Who says Masterpiece Theatre is boring? One of their most entertaining series has been "The Bretts," a sparkling soap opera set in the roaring 20s. It suffers from some random plot twists (and character departures), but is entertainingly soapy fun.

Charles and Lydia Brett (Norman Rodway, Barbara Murray) were the stars of the 1890s stage, with his costume dramas and their shared romantic comedies. Now they live with three of their kids: party-girl actress Martha (Belinda Lang), not-so-successful actor Edwin (David Yelland) and blooming socialist playwright Thomas (George Winter).

The series opens rather weakly, when Charles and Lydia briefly break up over Charles hiring a sexy secretary, and his new swashbuckler almost bombs. But things stabilize as the main problems arise -- stages are being replaced with silver screens. Soon Edwin has become a hot Hollywood star, with the movie adaptation of his dad's latest play.

Charles is determined to keep the London stages from being overtaken, and refuses to have anything to do with the movies (though he's willing to vacation at Edwin's villa). But the biggest drama is BEHIND the scenes: secret pregnancies, drug addictions, scam artists, rape, murder, heart attacks, trips to decadent Berlin, lawsuits, illegitimate children, the IRA, fatal illnesses, shattered engagements, illicit affairs, and much more.

Basically, "The Bretts" is about packing as much drama as possible into a matter of episodes. And it's even more entertaining, since it's set in the sparkling era between world wars, with plenty of flappers, spangled clothing, communism, and glamorous homes in the South of France.

And the tragedies and drama -- Martha partying to forget her lost loves, Edwin's suspended contract -- are tempered by comedy (the near-disastrous Cinderella play). And just when you think things are going to calm down, some dirty secret or problem arises, and the Bretts are back to slinging witty repartee at one another.

One of the biggest storylines is the elder Bretts resisting the movies, as their kids accept that this is the way of the future. You want Charles to succeed, yet know that ultimately he's going to fail -- or else accept that movies are here to stay, and that he better get involved.

But it's not perfect. The writers seem to have made it up as they went along, causing a previously unknown sister (the rather flat Perdita) to pop up in one episode, when she had never been mentioned before. Two supporting characters vanish with little explanation and are never referred to again, and one adorable character dies for... no reason, really. He just does.

Rodway and Murray are the stars here. Charles and Lydia are strong-willed actors both, which leads to some arguments, and yet Rodway and Murray bring across how much they love and depend on each other -- even due to past transgressions, such as an affair that produced a child.

The supporting actors vary in strength: Lang is languidly brilliant as the sardonic, talented Martha, but Yelland is stiff, and Winter's Thomas is just a naively twerpy Communist. The servant actors are excellent, though, and so are Charles' ancient-but-still feisty parents.

"The Bretts" has a lot of dangly threads and awkwardly dropped characters, but this sprawling soapy drama is loads of fun. Long live the stage!

Like other reviewers, I was not impressed with the first or even the second episode. However, the wonderful acting of all the characters made me move from episode to episode eagerly. I watched it all in a week. You learned to care about all of them, which is interesting, since some of them are very selfish. But they managed to show enough of the insecure human being behind the mask that I was intrigued.

Also, like other reviewers, I was disappointed with the abrupt removal of characters. Whatever happened to Jean? Why did Patrick, a definite addition to the below-stairs staff (well I won't say what happened since you haven't watched it). I don't think people who put on these shows realize that we in the audience care about these (grantedly unreal) characters. And as for Martha's lovers!! Who can believe it? We need more lead-time when a character is going to disappear. I think that's the price you pay when different writers write different episodes.

But the actors marched bravely on, ignoring the impossibilities in the script and giving us laughs and tears along the way. I haven't enjoyed something like this in a long time, so I highly recommend you rent it. (Netflix has it). As for buy? I haven't made up my mind. If the characters haunt me, as I think they will, I will probably break down and buy it.

What an odd series this is. After a weak first episode, "The Bretts" picks up steam. By the middle, I was thinking, this is truly enjoyable. But then the writing loses its wit and goes off the rails in terms of plot development.

Characters start to disappear or die in such a way that one begins to think the actors asked to be let out of their contracts. Other characters pop up out of nowhere (a young daughter appears suddenly, one assumes, to draw in a younger audience).

It's a mess, really. Due to the appeal of some of the actors, the series manages to hold together until it grinds to a close. Still, they are often set adrift by the writers -- who lose their grasp on the characters and the period, and push credibility to the limit. Oddly, the weakest episodes are by Rosemary Anne Sisson, the creator of the series.

"The Bretts" seems to have drawn the curtain closed for a couple of performers. It's the last thing Barbara Murray has done on film, according to IMDB. She's excellent as Lydia, although her role turns suddenly soft at the midpoint and loses its bite. George Winter, who's quite good as her son Thomas, did two productions after this and that's that. Anyone know what happened to him?

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5.0 out of 5 stars Glad to see this fun show available!
I saw the original Masterpiece Theatre broadcast in the late '80s and liked the snarky characters so much that I sought out a copy of the book Sisson wrote (based on the... Read more

Published on May 4 2003 by Delamaine

3.0 out of 5 stars Very Theatrical Theatrical Family
Together with the first Collection of this series, Collection 2 presents an interesting and, for a while, engrossing tale of the ups and downs or a noted British family of actors... Read more

Published on Dec 18 2001

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