Customer Reviews
Outstanding, moving adaptation - By: Job, 04 Mar 2008 
This is reallly a great adaptation of the novel - true to not only the plot but as often as possible to Hardy's very conversations. The actors are uniformly excellent, assisted by the subtle, well-paced script, gorgeous scenery & involving plot. I don't think a better version of FFTMC will ever be made & absolutely recommend it to anyone who is a fan of Hardy - or of just sitting in front of an absorbing, fascinating, passionate & sexy costume drama for a few hours!
delightful dramatisation of a wonderful book - By: J. Rogoff, 02 Dec 2007 I have watched this so many times that my original VHS-format is fallling to pieces! One of Hardy's most accessible novels, this story quite daringly (for its time) deals with such issues as love, patience & the -- often devastating -- effects of human sexuality. It is alll done, though, with great humanity & even the villain has some redeeming features. There's little black-and-white in Hardy's portraits of the three men alll humming around Bathsheba like bees. Nor is she herself a simplistic character.
As with the best of British television costume dramas, this 1998 version features some very well-known & -loved actors, although I believe that Paloma Baeza may not have been so well-known when she was cast as the female lead. Nathaniel Parker is simply stunning -- & irresistible -- as the superb Gabriel Oak (a more appropriate name for his character could not have been devised), & Jonathan Firth is very fine indeed as Sergeant Troy -- this may be his best role yet on the smalll screen.
The music is charming; the settings & costumes are perfect... Sit back for a few hours, & simply bask in the the warmth of this production. I can't recommend it highly enough.
