By
Leonard Buckley
The
Times
January
1972
Do you shudder at what somebody once feelingly called those bleeding
chunks of Wagner? Does the mention of a significant German novel dismay you
with its reminder of wars you would sooner forget?
Are you, in short, not much of a one for the teutonic culture?
It would be a pity if any such considerations put you off this serial.
Heinrich Mann’s indictment of Kaiser Wilhelm’s Germany certainly
exposes its flaws. It gives us the
bombast, the antisemitism, and other food for thought.
And certainly there is violence enough in it to bring Professor Katz and
his researchers running. But first
and foremost this dramatization by Robert Muller satisfies the basic requirement
of television. It is thunderingly
good to watch.
Diederich Hessling, the paper merchant’s son and our anti-hero, is by
any standards a squirt. He hides his cowardice by ranting. He is a toady, a bully and a fool. In the first episode we see him in his university days in
Berlin. And if you think that the
stage and the screen have already given us enough of the beer-swilling student
corps it must be said at once that Martin Lisemore’s production goes into its
rituals with a detail that makes it fresh.
And all the while incident after incident lets us see Hessling for what
he is. Too frightened to get his
duelling scar, he is also too frightened to avoid it.
For his creed he embraces the Emperor worship in which he can puff
himself up.
Derek Jacobi, who plays him, is a man whose features alone are canvas
enough for his acting, and Herbert Wise’s directing gave us closeups in which
his face was a study. It was a fine
performance. If, however, this
serial is going to put Mr. Jacobi on the television map he is joined in it by
others who are already firmly there.
In this first episode, for instance, the wretched Hessling tried to avoid
his military service and John Phillips had some delicious moments as the family
doctor who was blandy unconniving. Then,
too, Derek Francis was delightfully and fussily pompous as the head of a German
household to which young Hessling comes visiting.
The overheated atmosphere of the household seemed exactly right and the
pincushion stuffiness of its spinster members was matched, when food was
announced, by the alacrity with which they got stuck in.
Last night’s first course of the serial is announced again for next
Saturday. So, if you missed it, you
can still do as those ladies did.
Back to Articles Index