Amazon.com: The Jewel in the Crown, adapted from Paul Scott's Raj Quartet novels, tells the story of the final years before India gained independence in 1947. It is rare for a filmed adaptation to successfully preserve the richness and complexity of a great novel, but this epic miniseries succeeds both as personal drama and historical panorama.
In 1942 Daphne Manners, a naive young woman newly arrived in the town of Mayapore, befriends Hari Kumar, an Indian-born journalist who has spent most of his life in England. With his dark skin and educated English accent, Hari feels like an outsider wherever he goes, but Daphne understands his plight and they become romantically involved. Their developing relationship is jealously observed by local police chief Ronald Merrick, a man haunted by his own demons. When the lovers are attacked in the gardens of the ruined Bibighar palace and Daphne is raped, Merrick seizes his opportunity, pins the crime on Hari, and has the young man jailed. Distraught, Daphne flees to her aunt's home in Kashmir, where she dies giving birth to a half-caste child. The focus then shifts to Sarah Layton, a young Englishwoman who becomes fascinated by the story of Daphne and Hari, and who will have her own encounter with Ronald Merrick.
The events in the Bibighar gardens become a symbol of the violent struggle for Indian independence, and other symbols--Daphne's bicycle, a length of butterfly lace, a picture of Queen Victoria on an Indian throne--appear and reappear, linking people and events. This helps to give coherence to the plot even as it spans five years and expands to include many characters whose lives intersect in complex and unexpected ways.
With a huge cast and breathtaking location photography, The Jewel in the Crown was an enormous undertaking when it was made in the early 1980s. Twenty years later it has lost none of its power, and it remains one of the best films ever made for television. --Simon Leake
Old VHS quality, unfocused story w/too many characters Yes, I agree that this transfer is terrible at best. I was shocked with the old VHS quality of this, there wasn't much effort to clean it up.
The second point I have is that only the first 3 hours based on the first book in the series seems focused and comprehensible to me. After that I found myself seeing too many characters that come and go and it not really continuing the story after that, what happened to the baby or the main heroines Indian lover? I think devoting 14 hours to just the first book would have been a better route.
I admit I have only watched the first disk so far but I almost completely have lost interest due to all the many forgettable and numerous characters with no real central story, who are these people and will any of this carry into the next episodes? It seems to be some mishmash about Indian independence in general after the first 3 hours.
Again I have not watched the whole series so it could be better and based on the overwhelmingly positive reviews it probably will come back to a coherent narrative, but I think they could have cut a lot of the characters and subplots and made this even better or more clearly delineated which novel each saga is based on.
A mere two cents............ A few years ago, seeing an advertisement for a low cost tour package of London and a number of other locations in UK, I very nearly took advantage of its great price.
While I was mulling over the idea, one of the things that came into my head was how much I would enjoy a side trip to visit Sarah Layton, whose location is revealed in "Staying On", another DVD people who loved the Jewel should find and watch. It was only some hours later that I remembered that Sarah was a fictional character, so real did those people who lived in the Jewel In The Crown become to me, through the genius of Paul Scott's Raj Quartet and the superlative production of the film on these disks.
I didn't take the trip, sadly, and, somehow, it would probably have left me somewhat unfulfilled, without Sarah there.
For me, there never has been nor ever will be a production to match this true Jewel. Would that American films could be one tenth so great!
Deep, Dramatic History The Jewel in the Crown depicts the last few years of the Raj, Britain's Indian Empire, through the lives of a few characters and families. Central to the story is the fate of Hari Kumar, a British-educated Indian who has the temerity to fall in love with Daphne Manners, a British girl who is new to India and doesn't understand or accept the racial mores of the Raj. Although Daphne and Hari virtually disappear after the first couple of episodes, their story has a huge impact on the other main characters: Ronald Merrick, the policeman who thought he loved Daphne, the Leyton family, with whom Merrick took up, Ahmed Kasim the secular Muslim, and countless others.
The story can be a bit confusing if you aren't too familiar with the story of India's move towards independence, but the main love story and its attendant sub-connections are pretty clear, and the ending is quite satisfying. Above all, the scenery and the background music are entrancing.
It's the "unfulfilled promise." Watch it and have a good laugh with the acting... Judy Parfitt is always in her classic mood. Peggy Ashcroft is such a camp and a half. And everyone is an alcoholic, practically. No wonder, it's not drag-ing. But could you PLEASE explain to me the meaning of the Jewel in the Crown (for the billionth time)??? All kidding aside, it's extremely entertaining and informative, "indeed."
A new perspective Admittedly, I'm not a history buff and probably, like most Americans, what I do know about WWII is solely from the American perspective. The Jewel in the Crown was highly recommended, but I honestly wasn't enthused about getting a history lesson of the British occupation in India. I'm happy to report, however, that this series had me hooked. Not only was it brilliantly written and acted, but I came away with such respect for Paul Scott, the author of The Raj Quartet on which this series was based. A virtual lifetime of work went into this project, all gained from his experiences in India. There is so much detail, so many interesting, fully developed characters and intriguing, interwining plots, it's absolutely unbelievable how all of it blended so well. After watching 12 hours of these DVD's I had to read all four novels of The Raj Quartet. The DVDs were wonderfully satisfying, but getting more character background from the books was a treat. Like most A&E & BBC productions, there's always a wealth of remarkably trained British actors in this series. We get to see a very young Charles Dance-who was recently in "Bleak House" as the unmerciful Mr. Tulkinghorn. I do have to say though that I was most impressed with Tim Pigot-Smith as Ronald Merrick and Eric Porter as Count Bronowsky. Smith gives a very layered performance of Merrick who is so intensly disturbing. The payoff is finally understanding what makes him tick. This doesn't happen till the end, but all the pieces fall into place. Count Bronowsky is a very interesting character. He seems to be a delightful man and oddly seems to know everything about anybody. I've watched the series in full a few times and each time I hear or see something new from Bronowsky. Fortunately he's played by an actor who doesn't squander the time he's given. After reading the novels and viewing the DVD's I'm glad I finally have a general understanding of the British and Indian experiences during WWII. It's interesting to watch these cultures interact, their general distrust of one another, and how vastly different they can view a single, shared incident. It's heartbreaking, too, to see the damage that was done to India, not only from the War, but the toll British (and some Indian) extravagance had on the land, it's animals, the subjugation of the Indians and it's lasting effects on their government and justice system.
P.S. Try and avoid reading Amazon's product description for this DVD series. It reveals way too much of the plot. Also, there's several complaints about the sound & picture quality. True, it's not the quality that that I'm used to, but it didn't interfere with my enjoyment. When I'm watching a story this good, the picture quality is the least of my cares.
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