Product Description

In an upper-class Victorian boarding school, a loveable schoolboy suffers at the hands of a vicious bully and is inspired by a forward-thinking headmaster. This Masterpiece Theatre classic is a fascinating portrait of the times and a heartwarming story of courage and friendship. Though a son of privilege in a rigidly class-conscious society, Tom Brown is a born egalitarian. What he learns at the famous Rugby School is that breeding really does determine character and scoundrels exist in every part of society.

Based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Thomas Hughes, who studied at Rugby in the 1830s under the educational reformer Dr. Thomas Arnold, this family drama stars Anthony Murphy in an Emmy®-winning debut as Tom with Iain Cuthbertson (Gorillas in the Mist) as Dr. Arnold.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34937 in DVD
• Brand: Tom
• Released on: 2005-03-01
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 219 minutes

Amazon.com
The trials and traumas of boarding school have always given British writers rich material--Tom Brown's Schooldays, based on the classic novel set in the Victorian era, is no exception. In this five-episode miniseries broadcast on Masterpiece Theatre, young Tom Brown (Anthony Murphy) leaves home for Rugby, a well-respected school in decline. His arrival coincides with the appointment of a new headmaster, Dr. Arnold (Iain Cuthbertson), who aspires to reform the school by stamping out bullying, drunkenness, and bigotry. Tom's struggle is more personal: Before his arrival, he offended a wealthy but corrupt man who commissions his equally dissolute son Gerald (Richard Morant), a senior student at Rugby, to make Tom's life miserable. Gerald schemes with relish, finally catching Tom in a trap that threatens to break the forthright boy's spirit. The story could be pure melodrama were it not for the vivid details of life in a boarding school. As the plot moves this way and that, it's always kept real by the hardships of the time (boys sleep five to a bed, younger boys act as servants to older ones), making Tom Brown's Schooldays a keen social critique as well as an engaging story. The adolescent actors are occasionally a little clumsy, but there are some inspired performances; Murphy deservedly won an Emmy. Too often a virtuous hero is a recipe for blandness, but the insightful script makes Tom clever but fallible. He refuses to mistreat those less privileged out of conscious choice, not because of some immutable goodness--the character (and the story) is more compelling as a result. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews

Engaging Victorian melodrama
I was excited to see this title being released on DVD, as I have fond memories of watching it as an 11-year-old with my father when it first aired on "Masterpiece Theatre" in 1973. I was also concerned about how well it would hold up, having been frequently disappointed upon revisiting some of my favorite childhood films as an adult. Well, this one held up just fine, not only for me but for my own 11- and 9-year-old children.

The story is your average Victorian potboiler: young Tom foils the nefarious doings of a wealthy landowner, who tasks his son Gerald Flashman (a schoolmate of Tom's) with obtaining revenge by any means necessary. A parallel and related plot thread deals with the reform efforts of new school headmaster Dr. Arnold, who earns Tom's trust. My kids enjoyed, as I did on that long-ago first viewing, finding out whether Tom would triumph over the bully Flashman, and insisted on watching all five episodes in one day. (As avid "Harry Potter" fans, they found parallels between the characters and relationships of Tom/Flashman/Dr. Arnold and Harry/Draco/Professor Dumbledore. I have to agree that J.K. Rowling might have read Tom Brown once or twice.) I focused more this time on the production values, the performances (young Anthony Murphy won a deserved Emmy as Tom), and of course the memories that were brought back to me.

On the downside, some of the other child performances are pretty awful, and the back-and-forth jumps between film (for exterior scenes) and videotape (for interiors), which was common to "Masterpiece Theatre," are irritating. Still, this miniseries is highly recommended, particularly if you're a sucker for British period pieces (as I am).

Good, but not quite as great as I remembered all these years
I loved this series when it was shown in the U.S. on Masterpiece Theater in 1973 and have looked for it on home video ever since. I was thrilled to see it released on DVD and ordered it immediately. Having seen it again I have to admit I can see why it was not released earlier to home video: it's not really as good as the best Masterpiece Theater series.

This may have been the first British mini-series I was ever hooked on. As I watched it again on DVD I recalled all the great series I watched subsequent to this production of "Tom Brown's School Days" including the 1969 version of the Forsyte Saga (which is older than this series but I did not see until 1975), "Upstairs/Downstairs", or "I, Claudius". All of those series, particularly the Eric Porter/Nyree Dawn Porter version of the Forsyte Saga (which I consider to be the best television series of all time) have aged better than this series.

Much of the acting seems appropriate to a High School play. As far as I know, none of the teenaged actors in this production went on to have adult careers as actors.

I was somewhat surprised to see that it is only 5 episodes. The experience of watching it over five weeks every Sunday night must have made quite an impression on me.

The DVD has nearly no additional material. Those of us who originally saw this series on Masterpiece Theater will miss the introductions and postscripts by Alistair Cooke.

I don't regret spending $30 for the nostalgic value of these DVDs, for me personally. If you loved it in 1973, you'll probably enjoy seeing it again at least once.

A wonderful series returns.
I remember this series from over 30 ago and have been looking for it. It is a wonderful coming-of-age story for those who love the genre. The acting is not as well as I remember and neither is the photography. But Richard Morant as the villain Flashman does a superb acting job and it is he who I remembered the most. Perhaps it should have been he who won the Emmy, although Anthony Murphy was outstanding also. It is amazing the young actors did not continue with distinguished acting careers, but young actors are all too often quickly washed up.