Gormenghast

This is, perhaps, one of the most lavish productions I've ever seen on the BBC and certainly the most visually stunning. It's quality all the way through - the cast is stellar with the likes of Christopher Lee, Stephen Fry, Richard Griffiths, Warren Mitchell, John Sessions and other sundry comedians (including Spike Milligan!); the script is sublime, witty and fast moving (without losing sense of the story) and the music is lush and suitably grand.

The thing I like most about Gormenghast is that it's tremendously quirky -all the characters have their own excessive idiosyncrasies and this highlights just how trapped they all are in their own little worlds. Their trapped by the weight of the past and tradition, whilst Steerpike, who hearkens from the kitchens, wishes he could be more like them. (the irony is that, if given a choice, they would probably wish to be free... or would they?)

Nothings ever what it seems to be - all the characters undergo dramatic changes, and those that are able to adapt to those changes are able to survive -and it's not always the obvious ones. The character of Steerpike is multi-faceted and Jonathan Rhys Meyers' performance captures all of these brilliantly. It's difficult to know whether to loathe or pity him. His actions are dastardly, but in relation to the yoke of tyranny that the Royal Family it becomes harder to judge.

This is a really great tv series and I'm really proud that the BBC gave the novels, by Mervyn Peake the treatment they so rightly deserved.