Lady Chatterley (1993) (Episode 1)

Part 1 of 4 of the 1993 TV period drama. Sir Clifford Chatterley has returned to his ancestral home after World War One paralysed from the waist down and the last of the Chatterley line. His dutiful wife Connie struggles to raise his spirits and begins to find life very lonely at the estate. She is also somewhat perturbed by awakening sexual feelings, but with her husband somewhat cold regarding sex it is then that she encounters his rough and somewhat abrupt gamekeeper, Oliver Mellors one day in the woods... Starring Joely Richardson, Sean Bean, James Wilby, Shirley Anne Field, Hetty Baynes, Ken Russell, Roger Hammond, Jo Powell, Melanie Hughes, Michael Turner, Joseph Sterne, Pat Keen, Joanna Crowther, Judith Paris, Breffni McKenna, Ben Aris, Charlotte Avery, Nicholas Hutchison and Liam De Staic. This is a recording of a repeat on BBC4 about a week ago. I did have the original recording when it was first broadcast on June 6th 1993, but that got lost in the move, so I was glad that the BBC finally decided to repeat it. Adapted from the D.H. Lawrence novel by regular adaptor (and director) Ken Russell - who also appears in this as Sir Michael Reid - this is a beautifully adapted and sumptuous adaption, which may surprise some used to some of his usual overheated adaptations he became famous for. However, what you won't be surprised is that it contains the usual nudity that appears in his work, but it remains a marvellously restrained work from Ken Russell and benefits from a good lead performance by Joely Richardson, as well as lovely support by Shirley Anne Field, who sadly died late last year.