A Tale of Two Cities (1980 TV Movie)
5/10
A Tale of Two Cities
16 June 2022
This version of Dicken's A Tale of Two Cities is an American production of a type that was so popular back in the 1980s. The ones with an all star cast and the grimy streets of London and Paris look so clean.

Charles Darnay (Chris Sarandon) is a French nobleman with a dastardly uncle. He gives up his title and moves to England to become his own man. Back in Paris there is decadent drunk lawyer Sydney Carton (Chris Sarandon) who looks like Darnay.

Both men take a shine to Lucy (Alice Krige) an Englishwoman who came to France to be reunited with her father Manette (Peter Cushing) who was imprisoned for years in the Bastille. It is Darnay who marries Lucy while Carton looks on forlornly.

After the French Revolution and the during the reign of terror, the lives of these people criss cross as Madame Guillotine looks on.

Directed by Jim Goddard who was prolific television director in various genres. This is an efficient, concise but stodgy mini series.

It is well acted but Sarandon is rather stiff, Krige is appealing. It isn left to the likes of Kenneth More, Flora Robson, Barry Morse, Billie Whitelaw and Cushing to bring life to a bland script.
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