The Forsyte Saga is often cited as the first television miniseries; it wasn't, but there is no question that it was a singular, powerful cultural phenomenon that deservedly got under the skin of viewers in 1967. Today the 26-episode production, based on several novels and short stories by John Galsworthy, seems like a more timeless enterprise than many of the protracted TV dramas that have followed. While it would be wrong to consider The Forsyte Saga high art, it is certainly a mesmerising and inspired mix of theatre, sprawling Victorian narrative, thinking man's soap opera and some finely tuned, 1960s black-and-white production values that (especially when shot outdoors) are strikingly handsome.

Above all, Forsyte is driven by its characters--perhaps to an extreme, though the two-generation story line makes no apologies for creating compelling people whose capacity for short-sighted blundering, bursts of grace and slow-brewing redemption make them recognisably human. Eric Porter towers over everything as Soames Forsyte, a humourless attorney whose guiding principles of measurable value cause great heartache but slowly evolve, leaving him a greying, good father, arts patron and sympathetic repository of memory. From the cast of 150 or so, other standouts include Susan Hampshire as Soames's troubled daughter, Nyree Dawn Porter as the wife of two very different Forsyte men and Kenneth More as the family's artistic black sheep. --Tom Keogh

I highly recommend this wonderful drama full of intrigue and family secrets.
Its fantastic.

When this series was first broadcast by BBC Television over 26 Sunday nights in 1967, before the days of videotapes, people would turn down dinner invitations on the nights it was shown, and clergymen would alter the times of their services. I wondered how this enthralling series would stand up some 40 years later. I need not have worried: I was as hooked now as I was then. It is true that some of the minor characters are caricatures, but all the major ones are absolutely brilliant and fully rounded, and one becomes very much involved with them. Some splendid characters die relatively early in the series: Old Jolyon (Jospeh O'Conor) and Young Jolyon (Kenneth More); but others are with us throughout the 16 instalments, notably Soames Forsyte, the crusty, old fashioned and materialist character, so much the son of his father James (John Welsh). We see him ageing convincingly over the span of 47 years; we dislike him for his crass behaviour and are appalled by his marital rape of Irene (Nyree Dawn Porter) in the early episodes, but we also pity him for his aridity (at that time nobody loves him except his sister Winifred, played by Margaret Tyzack), and later we warm to him for his integrity and for the inarticulate love he shows to his daughter Fleur (Susan Hampshire). Hers, too, is a brilliant performance. She steals evey scene in which she appears (somewhat masking the flagging pace of some of the later episodes), and she has us veering from being charmed by her quicksilvery nature to being appalled by her selfishness and irresponsibility. We can understand why Jon (Martin Jarvis) and her decent husband Michael Mont (Nicholas Pennell) are so captivated by her, and we suffer with them because of her wayward nature.

All this is played out against the changing social background as we move from 1879, the age of Gladstone and Disraeli, to the period of the General Strike of 1926. Perhaps the weakest part in the series are the actual portrayals of the working class; while one of its strong aspects is the meticulous attention given to the Victorian and Edwardian interiors. Galsworthy was interested in the challenge that modern architecture and modern painting represented to that world; and the series, in black and white, is also a visual treat.

The Forsytes are a very large and complicated family. The books on which the series is based have a family tree with which one can remind oneself of the relationships between the members of the younger generation. They are sometimes hard to remember; but that it doesn't really matter very much is another tribute to this quite outstanding series.

This was a timeless classic that covered four generations of Victorian family values into the 20th century. Fantastic acting by the Great names of films from the 1960's through to 2003 hence a very young and agelessSusan Hampshire (Monarch of the Glen. This masterpiece was a joy to watch and far superior to the coloured updated version.
If you have a female member of your family over 50 then this is a must as a special present for those that like family sagas

Watching the original episodes of the Forsyte Saga is a true experience -- of drama and television. On the dramatic side, there is a good combination of plot and characters, those old fashioned ingredients that rarely seem to be used anymore in many novels and dramas. On the television side, watching a series in black and white reminds us of a fedw things: that imagination is as important to viewing as it is to reading; that an interesting narrative can be displayed in many forms; and that people like me -- who rarely watch television now, but remember loving it years ago -- are right. Television used to be better, and watchable.

Forget the Sixties eyeliner and occasional cardboard sets: this series is superbly written and well acted, making eahc 50 minute episode a great experience!