Kay Stevens I have been enthralled by Peake and the Groan trilogy since the 1960s. When Gormenghast came up in conversation recently I decided to watch this BBC series again after twelve years, to refresh my memory of it and see how it held up.I thoroughly enjoyed it. Sure, it's flawed, and anyone hoping for a 'faithful' adaptation (is such a thing possible?) will be disappointed. But the stellar cast, superb performances (by most), exhilarating costumes and imaginative hand-made sets (would so hate to see this rendered by state-of-art CGI) make it a very watchable four hours. It's also worth viewing the 'Making of' short if you can.Not having read the books for a while, I found most of the characters lived up to my memory and mental image. Some didn't quite ring true, but on the whole I think was a valiant effort at condensing a three-volume epic into a short TV series.Special praise for Celia Imrie as Gertrude and John Sessions as Prunesquallor - both excellent...but then so was Christopher Lee, Warren Mitchell, June Brown, Stephen Fry, Richard Griffiths, Lynsey Baxter, Zoe Wanamaker...

slapdab This was a good dramatisation of the book but was not dark enough in any sense. Gormenghast (the place) was too bright and airy although it looked right otherwise. Also the sinister side of the story, which is most of it, was underplayed. When I read the book I hated Steerpike more than any other character I have read but this did not come out on the screen enough. Perhaps it is the restriction of turning such a long, detailed story into a drama. Nonetheless it looked good and all the performances were excellent. If you haven't done so yet - read the book. It is one of the greatest stories I have read and there are a couple of extras not included in the dramatisation. These are the third book "Titus Alone" which is very different from the first two books, and a separate episode in the life of the young Titus called "Boy in Darkness". Again, different from the first two books and quite surreal.

dr_foreman I'm normally a lover of British fantasy (Harry Potter, Doctor Who, etc.), so I've been interested in checking out Gormenghast ever since it was first released. I happened to catch the first two episodes on PBS last night - and realized that I was better off skipping the rest of it! Gormenghast is a distillation of everything I find irritating about BBC productions, without any of the usual benefits of their house style. The acting is ludicrously over-the-top; after a few minutes, I got sick of watching normally respectable actors making stupid grimaces, shouting, whooping and generally carrying on like twits. The direction is rigid and unimaginative, and the film quality is cheap-looking, particularly in the bright outdoor scenes.Perhaps unusually for a BBC production, the sets and the costumes look great. However, the special effects are predictably woeful (I've seen better-looking models on Blakes' 7!) I was hoping that the script might contain a whiff of wit or social satire, but I'm afraid it failed to impress me. The jokes are pretty predictable, particularly those involving the university professors, who all fall asleep during their lectures and speak in mock-academic language. Talk about taking potshots at an easy target! As for the other characters, they tend to have dull and portentous dialog, such as "There is much that needs to be done." In fact, I think that particular phrase is uttered about six times in the first two episodes.I can't say if the original book is better. But I can say with confidence that this miniseries (or at least the first half of it) is rather rubbish. Unless, of course, you really relish the idea of watching venerable character actor Richard Griffiths attack venerable character actor Christropher Lee with a meat cleaver, while simultaneously making funny faces and snorting like a pig. Pfft!

Jan Kjellin I've read Mervyn Peake's books over and over again. To me, the story of Titus Groan, 77'th earl of Gormenghast, is one that can actually compete with Tolkien's "The Lord Of The Rings".So what do I think about the mini series? Well, obviously no one would dare do what Peter Jackson and New Line Cinema did with the aforementioned movie, so I guess a four part mini series was the next best thing. (Although I would have loved to see this in a cinema!) Good actors and an excitingly stylistic production makes this a worthwhile four hours. Some has been left out, of course, but there's still plenty of material left to build the characters of the story.This is not a fantasy movie. It has no or few classic fantasy elements at all in it. I would rather see it as a fantastic movie, where the laws of the "normal" world aren't broken - just a little bent out of shape...Gormenghast will provide a glimpse into our own world, and even though it's not always pretty, it's always done in beautiful colors.