This is a little gem, capturing the book beautifully. Although not that popular when it came out, suffering from comparison to an earlier ITV production, there is little to fault it. I watched it on TV when I was a teenager and I am delighted it is finally on DVD, as it stayed with me all this time.

Why this wasn't popular on telly at the time, I'll never know. Immaculate acting by everyone - including Rosamund Pike before she was Jane Bennett, or a Bond girl, for that matter.

The story is of three friends - three girls - in 1930s England before the second world war. It is a tale of how they came out (in to Society, as it was then), married and settled down. Yet it is so much more. It portrays the eccentricities of the British upper classes, with their whims and `individual' moral standards. After all, the author, Nancy Mitford, was in a good place to see all this first hand with one sister, Deborah, marrying the Duke of Devonshire and another marrying Oswald Mosley. So there are doves that are "dyed pink and dried in the airing cupboard" and a baby that "looks like a howling orange in a black wig - really, it is kinder not to look!" The wit is razor sharp, cutting deepest at the those who deserve it most, such as the indomitable Lady Montdor.

Overall, if you enjoy people watching, you'll love this DVD.