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MovieMail's Review
David Parkinson is thrilled to see this 1979 BBC adaptation of Vera Brittain's autobiography available at last. Cheryl Campbell stars as the woman attends Oxford before becoming a nurse in the Great War.
First broadcast in 1979, when British period mini-series were indisputably the best in the world, Testament of Youth - a BAFTA-winning, five-part adaptation of Vera Brittain's first volume of autobiography - remains compelling, poignant and powerful.
Cheryl Campbell excels as the daughter of a paper tycoon, who defies family expectation to take her place at Somerville College in 1913. But while Oxford excited her intellect, Brittain learned more about life as a Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse in the Great War, when she had to endure the deaths of her brother Edward (Rupert Frazer) and fiancé Roland Leighton (Peter Woodward).
Scenarist Elaine Morgan and director Moira Armstrong strive to show the growing social significance of women in a changing world (as the BBC had previously done in Shoulder to Shoulder, which is long overdue a DVD release). But this is also a deeply moving rite of passage, as Campbell channels the rage and grief of her loss into a new romance and the start of her literary career.
First broadcast in 1979, when British period dramas were indisputably the best in the world, this BAFTA-winning, five-part adaptation of Vera Brittain's first volume of autobiography remains compelling, poignant and powerful. Cheryl Campbell excels as the daughter of a paper tycoon, who defies family expectation to take her place at Somerville College in 1913. But while Oxford excited her intellect, Brittain learned more about life as a Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse in the Great War, when she had to endure the deaths of her brother Edward (Rupert Frazer) and fiancé Roland Leighton (Peter Woodward). As well as showing the growing social significance of women in a changing world, this powerful drama is also a deeply moving rite of passage, as Campbell channels the rage and grief of her loss into a new romance and the start of her literary career.
