The Buccaneers- 1995

The Buccaneers 1995

The Buccaneers is a BBC miniseries based on Edith Wharton's last, unfinished novel. I count it as one of my favourite miniseries in my DVD collection. After perusing reviews on both Amazon and IMDb, apparently most viewers agree with me but a significant number do not. If you have not yet seen this miniseries, I will try to help you decide whether you will love it or whether you should skip this one.

Laura Testvalley and Nan St. George in The Buccaneers

The story, adapted from Edith Wharton's novel, follows four spirited girls from the Americas, ostracized by New York high society as nouveau riche, who decide to venture to London for “the season” to improve their chances of acceptance and marriage when they get back to America.  What happens, of course, is that they all end up making matches in England and mayhem ensues...

Carla Gugino as Annabelle St. George (Nan) in The Buccaneers

Let's just say for starters that this is NOT Jane Austen.  Although the girls start out as fresh naive teenagers out to conquer the English aristocracy, what they encounter when they cross the pond comes as a bit of a shock to them. Rather in the manner of Lady Diana, these girls thought they were marrying for love, and all but one of them found out too late that it wasn't that simple.

The Buccaneers in front of Castle Howard (or Longlands, the seat of the Duke of Trevennick)

So prepare yourself for a Victorian soap opera (and I love a good melodrama I must say) including adultery, homosexuality, syphilis, domestic violence and all manner of bad behavior.  This story is a pretty good taste of what was actually happening in England in the late Victorian age, portraying marriages of convenience with American money meeting English titles and estates.  Some of these marriages ended happily but many did not and there was no shortage of scandal.  If you are interested in the history of this time period, the marriages of Consuelo Vanderbilt/Duke of Marlborough and Jenny Jerome/Randolph Churchill were the models for Edith Wharton's characters.

The Duke and Duchess of Trevennick- The Buccaneers

So if you like your period drama a bit less gritty, then give this one a pass. If you are interested in how many of the upper classes on both sides of the Atlantic really lived in the Victorian era, then you will be transfixed. Plus the scenery and the costumes are heavenly. Castle Howard is used for the country home of the Duke and Duchess of Trevennick and it looks like they had full use of the house when filming.

Nan and Guy- The Buccaneers

As a personal note, I gave this miniseries to my sister a year ago and she still has yet to watch the entire thing. So this is really an appeal to her to watch it, or pass it on to one of her period drama loving friends who will adore it as I do! Perhaps when she watches it she will leave a comment below to tell my readers how she liked it?

By the by, does not Greg Wise look quite heavenly in the white tie and tails and the magnificent mustachio above? (Michael Kitchen is pretty easy on the eyes as his father too if you like your men a little older). And if you can't picture yourself swishing around in one of those amazing dresses, then you are on the wrong blog!

P.S. If you would like to watch this online (although it is well worth owning), the website Enchanted Serenity of Period Films has a list of period dramas online here and it's under YouTube Playlist 1. The whole website is a treasure trove of period drama and although Cheryl is no longer updating it, she's keeping it online for us. Thanks Cheryl!