Beginning in the 1960s, high-end British television productions began finding an audience in the U.S. through the medium of “Masterpiece Theatre” and other PBS programs. Most of them were adapted from literary sources, whether acknowledged classics (David Copperfield) or forgotten period pieces. The latter were often as good on TV as the novels of the great masters. One of them, the 1984 mini-series “Sorrell and Son,” is out now on DVD.
Based on the novel by Warwick Deeping, “Sorrell and Son” concerns a World War I officer returning from service to a world of few opportunities and many troubles. His wife deserts him for a man of means, leaving Captain Sorrell to care for their son. The story follows Sorrell’s quest for employment and the projection of all his hopes on the young boy, whose future becomes his object in life.
“Sorrell and Son” is partly a study of expectations based on class in situations not entirely peculiar to England in the 1920s. Imagine an upper-middle class mid-level manager in today’s America, downsized and reduced to temping, and you’ll see the analogy. Finding no other work than as a hotel porter, Captain Sorrell endures much humiliation but benefits from the kindness of others. The series’ simple production values are buoyed by painstaking historical accuracy and splendid performances all around by a cast that includes Richard Pasco, Stephanie Beacham and Miranda Richardson.
