A Dance to the Music of Time

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This is the TV adaptation of Anthony Powell’s novel, A Dance to the Music of Time. The original novel contained 12 volumes and is described by Wikipedia as “an often comic examination of movements and manners, power and passivity in English political, cultural and military life in the mid 20th Century”. Time magazine has included the novel in its 100 Best English language novels from 1923 to 2005. The TV adaptation distilled the novel into 4 episodes of around  two hour each.

Nicola guest starred in the first episode, titled The Twenties, and played, Gypsy Jones, a young companion to a well known painter who was popular with the high society crowd depicted in the novel, St. John Clarke, who was played by Sir John Gielgud. Although Nicola was not in too many scenes, she is shown in a rare “scene of an intimate nature” with the lead character, Nick Jenkins, towards the end of the first episode. (The only other known instances of similar scenes were in Moll Flanders [TV] and one episode of Touching Evil [TV].)

Screencaps

You can view screencaps of Nicola’s performance in this TV mini series HERE.

Six degrees

Simon Russell Beale, who plays one of the principal characters of this TV mini series, also appeared as the new Home Secretary in series 9 of Spooks [TV]. He did not have any scenes with Nicola in either this TV mini series or Spooks [TV].

Oliver Ford Davis, a cast member, also guest starred in episode 204 of Spooks [TV] when he played banker, Sir Richard “Dickie” Bowman. He did not have any scenes with Nicola.

James Fleet, a cast regular, also appeared in Four Weddings and a Funeral [Film], Cows [TV], Milner [TV] but other than Cows [TV] did not have any scenes with Nicola in those movies or TV shows. He has appeared with Nicola in Cloud Nine [Stage].

Andrew Havill, a cast member, also appeared as Nicholas Maynard in episode 805 of Spooks [TV]. He did not have any scenes with Nicola.

Nicholas Jones, a cast member, also appeared in episodes 501 and 502 of Spooks [TV] as one of the heads of MI6 who was plotting to overthrow the government. He did not have any scenes with Nicola in either TV show. Nicholas is also the younger brother of Gemma Jones, who played Connie in series 6 and 7 of Spooks [TV].

Paul Rhys, a cast regular, also appeared in episode 705 of Spooks [TV] when he played the rogue financier, Alexis Meynell, who was under investigation by the Spooks team.

Adrian Scarborough, a cast regular, appeared with Nicola in The Big Town All Stars [Radio] and was a guest in Cows [TV].

Trivia

Zoe Wanamaker, one of the leading actresses working in Britain today and a cast member in parts two and three of this TV mini series, originated the role of Paula in Mrs. Klein [Stage] when it was first brought to the stage in 1988 at the National Theatre’s Cottesloe Theatre. 20 years later, Nicola played the same role in the revival of Mrs. Klein [Stage] at the Almeida in 2009.

Availability on DVD

You can buy the Region 2 DVD of this mini series from Amazon UK.

You can buy the Region 1 DVD of this mini series from Amazon US.