A reader who read my enthusiastic review of the Tony-winning Broadway revival of Alan Ayckbourn’s The Norman Conquests sent me the following e-mail:
My piggybank is long broken and since I have a two-year-old, I couldn’t get to see the three plays anyway. But I vividly remember the incomparable Tom Conti in the role from maybe thirty years ago on PBS, and would like to see the plays again on TV. I can’t find the DVDs on Amazon or Netflix.
A post on ALN might kick start the effort to reissue–and if you could somehow noodge the University of Chicago Press to speed up the re-release of the Parker books, all the better.
My correspondent is referring to the televised version of The Norman Conquests that aired in England in 1977 and in the United States shortly thereafter. It was released on videocassette and, later, on Region 2 DVD, but is not currently available in this country in any format. Used copies of the VHS version are thin on the ground. I’d love to see it reissued, though I’m not hanging by my thumbs.
In the meantime, you might want to take a look at Coeurs, Alain Resnais’ 2006 film version of Ayckbourn’s Private Fears in Public Places, which is available on DVD and is also shown fairly often on the Independent Film Channel. It’s a surprisingly faithful French-language adaptation of the play, different in tone from the original but very effective in its own way.
As for Donald Westlake’s Parker novels, they’re on the way, three at a time, with the next batch coming in August. Be patient!
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Here are excerpts from all three installments of the TV version of The Norman Conquests.
Table Manners:
Living Together:
Round and Round the Garden: