This comes on a DVD together with the 1986 TV release of The Importance of Being Earnest by Stuart Burge. After we watched the latter for English class, I asked our teacher if I could borrow the disc and watch this, and she was kind enough to agree to it. I haven't read the novel, so I don't know how much justice this does to it. The concept, however, I've known and been intrigued by for years. This is the first adaptation I've seen. I love the wit and poetry of Oscar Wilde, and at least some of it clearly made its way into this(much of it spoken by Gielgud, including my summary; nearly every word of what he says is excellent). Perhaps I should point out that this is not "funny", albeit it is quite clever and can be amusing. It isn't meant to be. This uses the die-hard myth of sins altering one's physical appearance to the worse(or if one is already ugly, that it is as a result of "evil"), through the experiment of negating that; would one be able to stop oneself? The script is well-written, and every character is credible. All of the acting performances are solid, and often powerful; the three leads in particular, with a stunning Firth showing that young age(23!) doesn't have to equal less talent. I don't know if the homosexual undertones in this are in other version in this medium, but I can imagine that, intentional or not, they were somewhat present in the original book, and it was interesting to go for them. Kudos to British television for having the guts to go with that. This is technically well-produced. There is a bit of moderate(if not graphic) violence and disturbing content in this. I recommend this to any fan of the author. 7/10