Acting Different

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Yes, I have to confess it: I’m an occasional daytime television viewer. Well, I’m actually a regular viewer of one programme, 'Bargain Hunt', every weekday lunchtime, but other daytime programmes, with the exception of the News, don’t usually grab my attention. However, I’ve just found out that on BBC2 they are repeating 'The Pallisers', a 1974 series based on Anthony Trollope’s Political Novels, on weekday lunchtimes. (Fortunately, this doesn’t clash with 'Bargain Hunt'.) I enjoy reading Victorian novels, and have read all those on which this series is based. The characterisation is good, with the young Susan Hampshire delightfully cast as Lady Glencora Palliser, Philip Latham equally good as her stodgy but honourable husband, and Caroline Mortimer great as her more serious friend, Alice Vavasor. In fact, the cast comprises a veritable galaxy of stars: Ronald Culver, Anna Carteret, Derek Jacobi and Marin Jarvis to name but a few. What struck me most, however, was how the acting differed from today! In some ways, 'The Pallisers' could be compared with 'Downton Abbey'. Of course, the former is based upon works of fiction contemporary with its setting, but both are lavish costume dramas. However, the acting in 'The Pallisers' seems so mannered by modern standards! In 'Downton', although it is set in the 1900s-1920s, the characters converse very much as they would today. In 'The Pallisers', the whole thing seems to be in dramatic phrases, with pregnant pauses following the most banal comment. I enjoyed it – but… Come to think of it, the whole thing was performed like a stage presentation – television dramas today tend to be more casual. This is how I see it, anyway. Has everyone else who has been around as long as I have seen a change in acting “fashions “ over the decades?