1942: Indian-born Hari Kumar, raised in England and Cambridge-educated, returns to Mayapore but feels stranded between two cultures. He meets gauche Daphne Manners, living in India after her father's death, and a shy but intense relationship develops but one night, during independance riots, they are attacked while making love, and Daphne is raped.
Kumar is arrested by racist police chief Ronald Merrick who despises Hari's privileged airs and Daphne's relationship with him as she once turned down Merrick's marriage proposal.
Kumar is falsely jailed on political charges while Daphne dies in childbirth.
Merrick is seconded to an army position but cannot escape the shadows of "The Manners Case" which also reach Sarah Layton, her family and friends as India's Independance looms...
Shelf or charity shop? SHELF!! An extraordinary achievement considering the two directors Christopher Morahan and Jim O'Brien create a marvellous consistancy of tone despite having different working methods. It is helped immeasurably by George Fenton's atmospheric score and how the the production moves seemlessly from location work in India to studio filming in Granada's Manchester studios. And what a cast... it launched Tim Pigott-Smith, Charles Dance, Geraldine James and Art Malik deservedly into major success but not Susan Wooldridge, so effective as Daphne Manners. The older women of the Raj are wonderfully played by Rachel Kempson, Zohra Sehgal, Janet Henfrey and Fabia Drake but Peggy Ashcroft is transcendent as missionary Barbie Batchelor, losing her mind as she loses her faith and place in society. The upper-class wives are memorably played by Carol Gillies, Rosemary Leach, Rowena Cooper and Anna Cropper but Judy Parfitt is fantastic as the cruelly snobbish, glacial Mildred Layton, while Wendy Morgan is affecting as Susan Layton, starting as a spoiled daughter and ending up a shell-shocked victim of circumstance. Excellent work too from Nicholas Farrell, Nicholas Le Prevost and Warren Clarke (hilariously playing against type as a gay nurse), but it's Eric Porter who steals every scene he is in as the enigmatic Russian Count Bronowsky.
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