Strangers and Brothers (BBC-2 1984, Shaughan Seymour, Cherie Lunghi)

Period drama series Strangers and Brothers detailed 40 years in the life of Leicester lad Lewis Eliot beginning in 1927 when he starts a romance with Sheila. A short lived and ill advised marriage follows as Lewis heads to Cambridge and later the Bar before spending World War II in Whitehall.

At Whitehall he meets the married Margaret Davidson and begins an affair with her eventually making her his second wife. By the 1950’s Eliot is a staunch anti-nuclear campaigner but almost has his career ruined by an association with a Tory minister who can’t keep away from scandal.

Towards the end of the series 13 episodes it moved into the 1960’s where Eliot is making inroads as a writer but still being drawn to the world of politics.

A strong series based on C.P. Snow’s sequence of 11 mostly autobiographical novels which these are best remembered for the fact that Snow coined the now in common usage phrase “the corridors of power” to describe the world of those who ran the country.

production details
UK / BBC Two – Primetime / 13×55 minute episodes / Broadcast 11 January – 4 April 1984

Writer: Julian Bond / Novels: C.P. Snow / Music: Kenyon Emrys-Roberts / Producer: Philip Hinchcliffe / Directors: Ronald Wilson, Jeremy Summers

cast
Shaughan Seymour as Lewis Eliot
Sheila Ruskin as Sheila Eliot
Paul Hastings as Francis Getliffe
Nigel Havers as Roy Calvert
Cherie Lunghi as Margaret Eliot
Edward Hardwicke as Sir Hector Rose
Peter Sallis as Leonard March
Carmen Du Sautoy as Ann Simon
Neil Stacy as Herbert Getliffe
Gareth Thomas as Arthur Mounteney (2 episodes)
Anthony Hopkins as Roger Quaife (2 episodes)

THE EPISODES
1. 1927 (11 Jan 1984)
2. 1931 (18 Jan 1984)
3. 1935 (25 Jan 1984)
4. LONDON 1936 (1 Feb 1984)
5. 1937 (8 Feb 1984)
6. SPRING 1939 (15 Feb 1984)
7. LONDON 1941 (22 Feb 1984)
8. 1944 (29 Feb 1984)
9. 1945 (7 Mar 1984)
10. 1946 (14 Mar 1984)
11. 1955 (21 Mar 1984)
12. 1957 (28 Mar 1984)
13. 1964 (4 Apr 1984)