
1 9 6 5 (UK)
7 x 45 minute episodes
Debuting on Saturday 30 October 1965, this BBC2 production (recorded in the BBC’s Glasgow studio) was an adaptation of the 1901 Thomas Mann novel – one of the numerous victims of Adolf Hitler’s pyromania.
The story chronicled the effect of the changing commercial and philosophical climate of the 19th century on the Buddenbrooks – a rich merchant family in a North German seaport.
The family had prospered in the first half of the century, and now Johann (William Fox) had inherited and expanded the Buddenbrooks business.
He and his wife, the Frau Consul (Jean Anderson), had three children: Thomas (Nigel Stock), his eldest son, was a serious boy who quickly showed interest in the business and a proper sense of family responsibility; Christian (Kenneth Griffith) seemed to lack these and many other qualities, while his daughter Antonia – known as ‘Tony’ (Elizabeth Shepherd, pictured below) was an intelligent, strong-willed girl.
It was in her fortunes, as the years rolled on towards 1900, that the fate of the Buddenbrooks was reflected.
Elizabeth Shepherd – who had been selected as the new female sidekick, Emma Peel, in The Avengers but then replaced by Diana Rigg after shooting an episode and a half – had a demanding role in which the character of Toni passed from spirited girlhood to gloomy middle age.
Annette Carrell played Thomas’ wife, Gerda, who brought artistic values into a materialistic family.
Christian Buddenbrooks
Kenneth Griffith
Thomas Buddenbrooks
Nigel Stock
Tony (Antonia) Buddenbrooks
Elizabeth Shepherd
Ida Jungmann
Selma Vaz Dias
Consul Johann Buddenbrooks
William Fox
Frau Consul
Jean Anderson
Pfiffi
Rosalind Knight
Gerda Arnoldsen
Annette Carell
Frederike
Ellen Pollock
Henriette
Joan Hart
Sesemi Weichbredt
Anne Pichon
Erica Grünlich
Vivien Heilbron
Pastor Pringsheim
Richard Bebb
Clara
Tamara Hinchco
Pastor Tiburtius
Andrew Sachs
Herr Permaneder
David Swift
Hermann Hagenström
Gertan Klauber
Grobleben
John Barrett
Grünlich
Roger Croucher
Erica Grünlich
Janet Hannington
Hanno
Martin Norton
Babette
Margaret Nolan
Episodes
Tony | Homecoming | Children’s Day | Tony Again | Lengthening Shadows | Tom | Silent Night
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