Favorite Mini-Series

[Peter_Suciu]

There has been a lot of discussion about favorite movies, but I thought I'd throw out favorite mini-series/limited run TV series. No doubt Band of Brothers will top many lists, but there are many series I never knew about such as the recent Island at War. This like The Sharpe's series originally ran in America on PBS. I'd love to hear about some others I may have missed.

I particularly enjoyed the early Sharpe's episodes/TV movies. But my favorite is probably the BBC mini-series The Fall of Eagles, about the events leading up to World War I.

Any other faves?

[kev105]

I have two favourites from the 1970's:

Secret Army (the BBC produced 3 excellent series) - check out http://www.survivorstvseries.com/Secret_Army.htm

and,

Danger UXB (An ITV production) - http://epguides.com/DangerUXB/guide.shtml

[David S]

Some of my favorites:

Danger UXB

Piece of Cake

Reilly-Ace of Spies

Winds of War

War and Rememberance

Holocaust

for non-military related have to be the George Smiley ones.

[Si1964]

Peter, if Island at War was the Jersy/Gurnsey thing I saw the first one which I thought was very good and then I though it tailed off .


Hoever, a lot of the ones mentioned I was going through its on too late to watch, my parents didn't watch it or my punk rock then mod phase when telly was the last thing on my mind

However, yes, B.O.B is one and Sharpe is another, also I think Hornblower is another modern day good mini.

[Patrick Dempsey]

I'll have to bend the rules a little here .

I urge you to track down a copy of a 1992 British TV movie called:

"An ungentlemanly act"

It deals with the first 36 hours of the invasion of the Falkland Islands/Islas Malvinas.

It's superb (and just released in the US at the end of January i think).



Patrick.

[Si1964]

Patrick

Missed that one, who made that the BEEB or ITV

[coastie]

Another thread I've been missing.


I'm glad to see there are other Sharpe's fans out here (Got all the DVD's and 1st editions of the books, brag brag )

There is one mini series that has never been out on video . That is Once An Eagle It aired about 1978/79 with Sam Elliot in the lead role. It's based on Anton Myrer's book of the same name. It's a classic study of leadership good/bad and it's required reading at West Point and the War College I think as well.

I go for in this order

Sharpe's - Rifles, Eagle, Company, all of them except Sharpe's Gold was lame.
Once an Eagle
Shogun
Winds of War
War and Remembrance
Danger UXB

[Si1964]

Very old, getting like me, but as a kid I did like Colditz, it made very good telly viewing

[Patrick Dempsey]

Patrick

Missed that one, who made that the BEEB or ITV

Simon,

If my fragile memory serves, i think it was originally aired on BBC2.

If you shop around you can pick it up for £5-6.

Try to find it if you can .


Patrick.

[Bill Grist]

Another thread I've been missing.


I'm glad to see there are other Sharpe's fans out here (Got all the DVD's and 1st editions of the books, brag brag )

There is one mini series that has never been out on video . That is Once An Eagle It aired about 1978/79 with Sam Elliot in the lead role. It's based on Anton Myrer's book of the same name. It's a classic study of leadership good/bad and it's required reading at West Point and the War College I think as well.

I go for in this order

Sharpe's - Rifles, Eagle, Company, all of them except Sharpe's Gold was lame.
Once an Eagle
Shogun
Winds of War
War and Remembrance
Danger UXB

If I remember correctly ONCE AN Eagle.. Had production problems and there was never a ending it got to the Pacific where Cliff Potts and Sam Elliot were Generals and the Japanese were breaking through to the HQ and there was a real problem between the two Sam the Good General and Potts the bad one that did not take care of his men...Danger UXB was a good one also but ONCE AN EAGLE was really good...BILL

[coastie]

If I remember correctly ONCE AN Eagle.. Had production problems and there was never a ending it got to the Pacific where Cliff Potts and Sam Elliot were Generals and the Japanese were breaking through to the HQ and there was a real problem between the two Sam the Good General and Potts the bad one that did not take care of his men...Danger UXB was a good one also but ONCE AN EAGLE was really good...BILL

There was an ending, after the Japanese were repulsed through General Damon's(S Elliot) counterattack, Damon found his best friend dead from it. Later Damon met with Gen. Massingale (bad General) and accused him of fouling the whole thing up and was going to wreck his career and walked away, pretty much the end of it, never got to the Viet nam part of the book.

[Marc Garlasco]

You all may find this odd, but Black Adder Goes Forth. The final scene when they go over the top is priceless. The whole series speaks to the absurdity of the whole war. And I love the portrayal of British Generals!
Marc

[Peter_Suciu]

I'm glad to see there are other Sharpe's fans out here (Got all the DVD's and 1st editions of the books, brag brag )

I had the VHS tapes, and while I buy EVERYTHING on DVD (I have 1500+ DVDs) I put off getting these until they were in one collection. Finally last fall they came out in a limited edition wooden box. That's very impressive. I rewatch these when I travel. Good DVDs for the plane.

I agree Sharpe's Gold is kind of weak. I like the early ones and the latter ones the most. I do wish they had done the one Sharpe's book where he goes to South America. That would have been kind of cool.

[coastie]

I had the VHS tapes, and while I buy EVERYTHING on DVD (I have 1500+ DVDs) I put off getting these until they were in one collection. Finally last fall they came out in a limited edition wooden box. That's very impressive. I rewatch these when I travel. Good DVDs for the plane.

I agree Sharpe's Gold is kind of weak. I like the early ones and the latter ones the most. I do wish they had done the one Sharpe's book where he goes to South America. That would have been kind of cool.

I know or done some of the early ones like Sharpe's Tiger, or Sharpe's Trafalgar would have been good especially they could have used the ships and crew from the Hornblower series - The weapons guy Richard Rutherford-Moore on the Sharpe's series also did the weapons on the Hornblower series, E-mailed him a few times and he was kind enough to answer back even during production of the Sharpe series.

[Peter_Suciu]

The next HBO series will be about the lives of a couple of Roman soldiers during the final days of Caesar. That should be interesting. And HBO is also working on a Pacific story that will be similar to Band of Brothers.

The "dream" series for me would be a Great Escape series set in a POW camp. That would be cool. Well, I can dream. Likewise a mini-series about the Zulu War of 1879 would have been brilliant.