Coming Home (TV serial)

Coming Home
DVD cover
Genre	Period drama
Directed by	Giles Foster
Produced by	Rikolt von Gagern
Written by	John Goldsmith Based on the novel by Rosamunde Pilcher
Starring	Emily Mortimer Peter O'Toole Joanna Lumley
Music by	Carl Davis
Editing by	Colin Green
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Original channel	ITV
Original run	12 April 1998 – 13 April 1998
Running time	202 minutes
No. of episodes	2
Followed by	Nancherrow

Coming Home is a 1998 British serial directed by Giles Foster. The teleplay by John Goldsmith is based on the novel of the same title by Rosamunde Pilcher. Produced by Yorkshire Television, it was broadcast in two parts by ITV in April 1998.

Plot

The story focuses on Judith Dunbar, who is enrolled in St. Ursula's, an English boarding school, when her parents and younger sister move to colonial Singapore. She is introduced to a world of wealth and privilege by her classmate, Loveday Carey-Lewis, whose family owns the magnificent Cornwall estate known as Nancherrow. Although Judith enjoys the company of her doting Aunt Louise, who has been named her legal guardian during her parents' absence, she prefers to spend as much of her school holidays as possible with Loveday's parents and siblings, who welcome her as one of their own. When Aunt Louise is killed in an automobile accident, she leaves her considerable estate to Judith, who will be independently wealthy for life if she handles her inheritance wisely.

Judith becomes increasingly attracted to Loveday's older brother Edward and eventually succumbs to his gentle seduction. When she realizes she was foolishly naive to think he was committed to a permanent relationship, she departs Nancherrow and enlists in the Royal Navy at the onset of World War II. The ensuing years wreak havoc on her life and those of the people she loves. Edward, blinded in battle, returns home and commits suicide rather than be a burden to others. When Loveday's fiancé Gus goes missing in action and she realizes she is pregnant with his child, she agrees to marry her friend Walter. Judith reunites with Carey-Lewis family friend Jeremy Wells, a doctor who has loved her since the day they met, but unexpected circumstances tear them apart. Further complications arise when Judith's sister Jess is placed in her care after the ship on which she and their mother were returning to England is bombed by the Japanese and Jess is placed in an internment camp. With their father missing and their mother lost at sea, Judith must learn to interact with a grieving young girl emotionally scarred by her wartime experiences.

Production

The serial was shot at numerous locations in Cornwall, including Godrevy, Lamorna, Lelant, Marazion, Penzance, Porthgwarra, Prideaux Place, and St Michael's Mount, as well as Wrotham Park in Hertfordshire.

Cast

• Emily Mortimer ..... Judith Dunbar
• Peter O'Toole ..... Colonel Edgar Carey-Lewis
• Joanna Lumley ..... Diana Carey-Lewis
• Katie Ryder Richardson ..... Loveday Carey-Lewis
• Penelope Keith ..... Aunt Louise
• David McCallum ..... Billy Fawcett
• Paul Bettany ..... Edward Carey-Lewis
• George Asprey ..... Dr. Jeremy Wells
• Heikko Deutschmann ..... Gus
• Patrick Ryecart ..... Tommy Mortimer
• Susan Hampshire ..... Miss Catto
• Brooke Kinsella ..... Jess
• Keira Knightley ..... Young Judith
• Poppy Gaye ..... Young Loveday

DVD release

Acorn Media UK released the serial in fullscreen format on DVD on 28 March 2000. It includes excerpts from a documentary about Rosamunde Pilcher.

References

External links

• Coming Home at the Internet Movie Database