The Cazalets (2001)

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The Cazalets is the moving story of one large and disparate family set against the backdrop of the Second World War. It is based on the original novels The Light Years and Marking Time by Elizabeth Jane Howard, and adapted for BBC ONE by Douglas Livingstone.

Hugh Bonneville, Anna Chancellor, Stephen Dillane, Anastasia Hille, Lesley Manville, Joanna Page and Paul Rhys star in this tender, funny and serious portrayal of family life.

At the outbreak of the Second World War, the Cazalet brothers and their families retreat to their parents' country home where, in normal times, they spend their summer holidays. Sometimes shocking, often amusing, always engrossing, the world of The Cazalets deals with love, loss, passion and death in a Britain that

A powerful portrayal of family life in The Cazalets

The Cazalets offers a powerful, passionate and poignant study of a family transformed by the tumultuous times in which they lived. As the storm clouds of war gather across Europe in 1938, tensions are also simmering beneath the surface of the seemingly ordered lives of the Cazalet family in England. Resisting his autocratic father "The Brig" (Frederick Treves) and his attempts to bring him into the family timber business, the youngest of the three Cazalet brothers, Rupert (Paul Rhys), is struggling on two fronts. His effervescent, new wife Zoe (Joanna Page) is impatient with his artistic lifestyle while his daughter from his first marriage, Clary (Florence Hoath), resents her stepmother's arrival in their London home.

At the family's country house, Home Place, the eldest brother, Hugh (Hugh Bonneville), remains scarred by his experiences in the First World War. He and his loving wife, Sybil (Anastasia Hille), are constantly trying to protect each other. Meanwhile, Edward (Stephen Dillane), the second son, risks his marriage to the elegant Villy (Lesley Manville) with a series of clandestine affairs. Even the most selfless of the Cazalet children, Rachel (Catherine Russell), is wrestling with a secret that could devastate the family.

When Britain lurches towards conflict, the Cazalets' lives grow even more complex. Will the Brig's wife Kitty, known as The Duchy (Ursula Howells), once more guide them through the testing times ahead? What effect will the looming crisis have on the youngest member of the family, Rupert's son Neville, and the three cousins, Clary, Polly (Claudia Renton) and Louise (Emma Griffiths Malin)? Can life at Home Place ever be the same again?

Elizabeth Jane Howard is a novelist, playwright, TV writer and former actress and model. Her first husband was the naturalist Sir Peter Scott (son of Scott of the Antarctic) and her third husband was Sir Kingsley Amis. After a career spanning over 50 years in publishing, radio and television, Elizabeth Jane Howard is currently writing her autobiography.

The Cazalets is a Drama programme that first aired in 2001.

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