Anna Massey

A sprawling BBC saga of wealth, passion, and power, set in the palatial country houses and grand Mayfair salons of mid-Victorian England. Chronicles twenty years in the life of an aristocratic dynasty moving through high society in the heyday of Queen Victoria's reign. Based on Anthony Trollope's six political novels-called the finest sequence of fiction ever written about British Parliamentary life.

When the beautiful and innocent Tess Durbeyfield is driven by family poverty to claim kinship with the wealthy D'Urbervilles and seek a portion of their family fortune, meeting the manipulative Alec proves to be her downfall.

Algernon is a gentlemen from a wealthy family. Algernon's close friend Jack, has a ward, Cecily. Both Algernon and Jack have created alter egos to make life more interesting. Algernon arrives for a weekend visit in the country posing as Earnest. Having heard of Earnest's misadventures, Cicely has developed an infatuation with the rogue, and Algernon's impersonation of him works famously on Cicely. Meanwhile, Algernon's cousin, Gwendolyn, arrives for...

Mrs Palfrey has moved from Scotland to London to be closer to her grandson, Desmond, and takes up residency at the Claremont Hotel. Her high hopes for the cosmopolitan life of living in a busy city are soon lost as her grandson makes no effort to visit her. But fate steps in when Mrs. Palfrey, who stumbles and falls in the street, is rescued by Ludo, a struggling young writer. To thank Ludo properly for his kindness, Mrs. Palfrey invites him to dinner...

Worshipped as a national savior, Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson masterminded the naval victories that thwarted Napoleon's plans to invade Britain. Yet, in the midst of public adulation, rumors swirled about his private life. Nelson took a friend's wife as a mistress and even fathered a child by her in secret. Seen through the eyes of four people close to him: his wife, who feels bitter and betrayed; his friend, who helplessly loses his wife to a hero;...