Review of The Roads to Freedom

I've just come from watching all 13 episodes over the weekend at the BFI. The new prints from the BBC were good, even very good. The whole series was subtle and intelligent and wonderfully directed. It did not feel to me to have dated at all. It should be shown again on the BBC at the earliest opportunity. The acting is uniformly excellent, and it was so moving to see Michael Bryant, Georgia Brown, Daniel Massey, and so many other great actors who have now left the stage, as the French put it. Great too that James Cellan Jones was with us for the screenings, as were Rosemary Leach, Roger Lloyd Pack and Vernon Dobtcheff. What an honour to view it in their company! I was too young to watch it when it was shown in 1970, but it had a huge effect on my father and consequently on me. Michael Bryant's and Daniel Massey's acting turned my father on to the theatre and we subsequently saw almost everything that they appeared in on the stage. Thank you BFI, and come on BBC!