1 9 8 7 (UK)
7 x 60 minute episodes
The BBC’s £6 million Fortunes Of War was based on Olivia Manning’s story set in Bucharest at the outbreak of World War II.
The series acquired a deft delicious script from Alan Plater and the world’s most irritating hero, Guy Pringle (played by Kenneth Branagh).
It also had Emma Thompson, struggling under some awful wigs, as his sensible wife Harriet, finding to her anguish that her husband – a naive lecturer working for the British Council – was all things to everyone but quite insensitive to her needs.
As Harriet and Guy reaffirmed their love high on a pyramid (with a friend he’d invited along for good measure) you knew this was the Harrods class of drama.
In a prime case of life imitating art, Branagh and Thompson later married in real life.
Guy Pringle
Kenneth Branagh
Harriet Pringle
Emma Thompson
Prince Yakimov
Ronald Pickup
Dobson
Charles Kay
Inchcape
James Villiers
Sasha Drucker
Harry Burton
Bella Niculesco
Caroline Langrishe
Lord Pinkrose
Alan Bennett
Simon Boulderstone
Rupert Graves
Edwina Little
Diana Hardcastle
Toby Lush
Christopher Strauli
Castlebar
Robert Stephens
Dubedat
Mark Drewry
Angela Hooper
Ciaran Madden
Galpin
Desmond McNamara
Lawson
Richard Clifford
Aidan Pratt
Greg Hicks
Sophie Oresanu
Elena Secota
Despina
Magdalena Buznea
Hadjimoscos
Vernon Dobtcheff
Horvath
Mischa De La Motte
