IMDb user comments for
"He Knew He Was Right" (2004)

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18 out of 19 people found the following comment useful :-
Ranks with the better Victorian soaps, 14 February 2005

Author: George Parker from Orange County, CA USA

"He Knew He Was Right" is a 4x55 minute TV miniseries adaptation which is very much like the usual Victorian melodrama fare from such notables at the Brontes and Austen. The backbone of the story is about a young man of property who marries and then becomes obsessively jealous of attentions paid his wife by her Godfather. Crisscrossing the main plot are several subplots involving the societal clockworks of middle and upper class Victorian society with all the usual scheming for peerage and property, premarital posturing, courtship and affairs of the heart, and busybody bickering among the staid and stuffy pomp of the times. Although "He Knew He Was Right" has a darkish central theme, it never takes itself too seriously and manages a very subtle and wry sense of humor as it cavorts among the many characters with charm, wit, grace, and beauty. A worthwhile watch for anyone into Victorian melodrama. (B)

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20 out of 24 people found the following comment useful :-
He Knew it was a good TV series, 9 May 2004

Author: AdamJezard from Ascot, UK

Brilliant adapatation of Trollope's long novel. The actress playing Dorothy is particularly luminous, although all the cast perform well (especially Palmer and James as parents of poor Emily). The social norms and rules may seem strange to a modern audience, but this sort of thing kept Victorian readers on the edge of the seats. The setting was moved from Exeter to Wells for the serial as Wells is more unspoilt (a beautiful Cathedral City in Somerset for those unfamiliar with the UK). Vicars' Close, unchanged since Victorian times, and the Cathedral Close are used particularly well by the production crew.

Trollope wrote some 49 novels, although few would adapt as well as this to the small screen. Hopefully the DVD release will follow soon.

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14 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :-
Another triumph from the BBC., 10 March 2005

Author: kenneth groom (keng5@mac.com) from United Kingdom

The BBC have done it yet again; they have taken us back in time in a marvellously convincing manner. It is difficult to find fault with any aspect of this production; settings, locations, costumes and casting are all near perfect and the acting is admirable throughout. From the beginning to the end my attention never flagged for a moment; it is so jam-packed with human interest that I couldn't have enough of it. This is not a melodrama as some have said; taking into account the mores of the time it is totally realistic, with nothing over-played. Yes, it was annoying that the central character should allow his happy marriage to be destroyed by unfounded jealousy and a bit difficult to accept, until you you remember that that wasn't his only source of complaint; he was also annoyed that his spirited wife refused to submit to his unreasonable demands, something which as a Victorian husband he felt he had a right to expect. And she was not entirely blameless; she didn't have to behave in such a flirtatiouus way as to excite her husand's jealousy or to appear to enjoy so much the attentions of her philandering God-father. However, the anger and strife of the two central characters was offset by two other very happy relationships. With so many characters so well realised, well acted and convincing, I was left wanting more - much more.

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10 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
Unusual Trollope adaptation, which almost succeeds, 4 May 2004

Author: gray4 from Somerset, England

This latest period drama, written by Andrew Davies, takes a minor and rather unusual Trollope novel and applies the full Davies/BBC costume drama treatment. The sets are sumptuous, whether in a London still with fields and footpaths, the cathedral city of Wells or Italy. The acting is excellent, with outstanding performances by some of the older generation of British actors - notably Anna Massey, Geoffrey Palmer, Bill Nighy and Geraldine James.

But the novel itself is not the usual Trollope of politicians and clergymen (although both are featured). It is rather a psychological study of a man consumed by jealousy, and its effects on all around him. The problem in the 21st century is that the bases for the jealousy, the responses and the social mores which shape them, are so deeply rooted in Victorian England's peculiar class structure that they are hard to comprehend, and even harder to sympathise with. So that this viewer is irritated rather than involved, wanting to ask "what is all the fuss about?" But the director, writer and cast keep the action moving briskly through the four hours of the mini-series, and it is only in the final hour, when melodrama turns farcical, that the irritation overcomes the involvement.

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Perfect., 18 July 2008

Author: selffamily from New Zealand

Let me say before I go any further that I have not read the book, but I shall. As with all adaptations, Gone with the Wind aside, there will be butchery to fit into time constraints and productions needs. Having said that, the acting was flawless; what brilliant casting. I start to think of Geoffrey Palmer as the bewildered Victorian parent whose daughters, and almost wife too, ignore his rulings, and then I think of the two French daughters in their pursuit of the naughty vicar and then I am distracted by Aunt Stanbury.... it goes on and on. Trollope's skill for me was in the drawing of his characters and the BBC have captured this perfectly. The only fault I could find, although I didn't look too hard, was that Dorothy seemed to wear the same frock throughout, and I did wonder about the smell. The main story became almost irrelevant at times.

Love Trollope - loved this. If I had read the book first would I still? Hard to say, but this is quality TV mate, and it's a rare bird.

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4 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
So what if he was right?, 2 April 2006

Author: Sherazade from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

He wasn't was he? Let me start off with saying that I never read the book from which this telly mini series was made. I liked the acting but the premise/plot was just ridiculous. A man thinks that his wife is carrying on an affair with a man friend of hers, and drives himself insane because of it. I mean, come on! The plot was just dreadful. The more he accused his wife, the more the man friend's ego was being fed and the wife's just like this fraud puppet who acts like a dummy instead of just giving up her extra-marital nonsense for her hubby. Hey! you don't need to be sleeping with the guy to make your husband jealous! I watched this 4-hour-two-part mini series for the simple fact that it was very engaging and very well acted. The plot made me just want to go jump in a lake. Maybe, I'm just too modern, or I should have read the book first, I dunno but I just wasn't buying the premise. I appreciated the sub-plot of the young lass who fell in love with a stuck up grand-aunt's nephew better. This film is another pure example of how people from the Victorian era purposefully plagued themselves with such frivolously mindless things. Much ado about nothing, would be putting it mildly.

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6 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
V.Gud!, 4 May 2004

Author: smoothl3k from Lancashire, England

I havent read the book but I plan on reading it. This movie is very interesting and the main characters Louis and Emily played by Oliver Dimmsdale and Laura Fraser are played very well and are very convincing. I luved this and i would recommend it to anyone. The other story lines within the movie are very interesting as well, the liason between Nora and Mr Stanbury, the two French girls and the Clergman and Dorothy and Brooke.

Overall very gud movie/series well worth watching!

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5 out of 16 people found the following comment useful :-
Pitiful modernization of a Victorian masterpiece., 16 December 2005

Author: httpmom from San Francisco Bay Area

Has the BBC, like American News programs, suddenly suffered a lack of viewer ship and in an attempt to connect to a dumbed down audience...decided to hip up (bastardize) the classics? You may think so after watching this rendition of "He Knew He Was Right." This mini series suffered from a severe split personality. It was as if the director couldn't decide if he wanted to make a classic or try to appeal to preteen girls. While watching this production I felt torn with what I sensed as a considerable gap between the Old World BBC and perhaps a New World BBC and unlike our current president...I like the Old Europe BBC.

On the one hand there were wonderful veteran players like Anna Massey, Bill Nighy ,Geoffrey Palmer, Geraldine James, and Ron Cook devouring up the screen with memorable performances...on the other... we are asked to accept a mere child actor, Oliver Dimsdale as Louis Trevelyan the main character. He was so out of his league as to be painful...why not enlist someone like Hugh Dancy or James D'Arcy to rally some real bite into the character of Trevelyan. Dimsdale came off as inept and weak rather than tragic or sympathetic. I wanted to push him off the highest peak at the earliest chance! Then we had to suffer scenes with the terribly miscast Misses French's...although David Tennant portrayed Mr. Gibson...the rivaling young women's love interest or "catch" with a great deal of humor.

Again a schizophrenia...the set design, cinematography, and costumes had the vigor of a traditional BBC production but the script seemed too contemporary for a Victorian classic...surprising from Andrew Davies who usually surpasses himself with a sharp talent to bring an audience into a different era. There was sufficient time to built the characters (the show is 240 min in 4 parts) but most fell terribly flat. I certainly hope this is not a harbinger to the next generation at the BBC because I will miss the old as much as I miss what used to be American news programs.

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4 out of 16 people found the following comment useful :-
Not bad for another costume drama...., 11 May 2004
Author: the_unc (the_unc@hotmail.com) from London, England

Once again I find myself sitting in on a Sunday night and what happens, my mum puts on BBC 1 at 9 and i think: "not another period drama...". But actually, this one wasn't so bad...

Not because it had a decent plot or any particularly good character development but because Laura Fraser was in it. I couldn't place her at first but i soon realised it was none other than Kate the blacksmith from A Knights Tale. Not only is she considerably more beautiful than anyone else in the film (especially the french sisters...), but she can act a hell of a lot better than most of them as well. I appreciate that most actors find it difficult to act in the pretentious voices, but why do it then? Is there really a shortage of people who can speak pretentiously? Who knows, point being, Laura stood out around the rest of them.

That piece of sycophancy aside, I think the problem with this period drama, like so many others, is its willingness to include so much plot at the expense of character development. Perhaps if there was only one girl trying to marry each man instead of half a dozen, we might understand better why she wanted to marry him. Or maybe I'm missing the point. It just seems to me that the girls always one day decide they love someone they've never spent any significant amount of time with, and thats it.

Anyway, as I say, its better than most, so if you like this sort of thing, You'll love this one.

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9 out of 34 people found the following comment useful :-
Absolutely dreadful!, 10 January 2005

Author: inframan from the lower depths

Chopped up Trollope is worse than no Trollope at all in my view. There is barely enough exposition for a complex set of characters but there are plenty of climaxes and assorted running gags which are hard to get unless you've read the book. It's basically is a series of punch-lines with no lead-ins.

This isn't even directed on decent soap opera level, which might have satisfied the time constraints. Why oh why must so many of the characters mug as they address the camera. With the exception of Anna Massey, the acting is dreadful, particularly the leading men, who look like they long to be in a rock opera or at least an early Disney Opus. A spoonful of medicine isn't enough for this travesty, I'm afraid.

As usual for Masterpiece Theater, the settings are lovely & the music is very loud.

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