In 1942 Daphne Manners, a naive young woman newly arrived in the town of Mayapore, befriends Hari Kumar, an Indian-born journalist who has spent most of his life in England. With his dark skin and educated English accent, Hari feels like an outsider wherever he goes, but Daphne understands his plight and they become romantically involved. Their developing relationship is jealously observed by local police chief Ronald Merrick, a man haunted by his own demons. When the lovers are attacked in the gardens of the ruined Bibighar palace and Daphne is raped, Merrick seizes his opportunity, pins the crime on Hari, and has the young man jailed. Distraught, Daphne flees to her aunt's home in Kashmir, where she dies giving birth to a half-caste child. The focus then shifts to Sarah Layton, a young Englishwoman who becomes fascinated by the story of Daphne and Hari, and who will have her own encounter with Ronald Merrick.

The events in the Bibighar gardens become a symbol of the violent struggle for Indian independence, and other symbols--Daphne's bicycle, a length of butterfly lace, a picture of Queen Victoria on an Indian throne--appear and reappear, linking people and events. This helps to give coherence to the plot even as it spans five years and expands to include many characters whose lives intersect in complex and unexpected ways.

With a huge cast and breathtaking location photography, The Jewel in the Crown was an enormous undertaking when it was made in the early 1980s. Twenty years later it has lost none of its power, and it remains one of the best films ever made for television. --Simon Leake

The Jewel in the Crown (25th Anniversary Edition)

• Brideshead Revisited (25th Anniversary Collector's Edition)
• A Passage to India
• The Far Pavilions
• Staying On
• I Claudius & Epic That Never Was (4pc)
• The Flame Trees of Thika
• Upstairs, Downstairs - Collector's Edition Megaset (The Complete Series plus Thomas and Sarah)
• Cranford
• John Adams (HBO Miniseries)
• Heat and Dust / Autobiography of a Princess - The Merchant Ivory Collection

DO NOT BUY this series. Maybe if you knew some of the history of India's emerging independence, the story would make sense to you, but to us, it was all muddled and obscure. The best DVD reproduction in the world couldn't save this film. And what's with the author's obsession with homosexuality. After hearing for years about the vaunted "Jewel in the Crown" series, my wife and I checked out the tapes from the library and watched the whole thing. And the characters and their stories were equally disappointing. Too often, at the end of a scene or an episode, we'd look at each other and say, "Huh." That's probably not the reaction a filmmaker is looking for from his audience. Characters we cared about just disappeared from the story, with little or no explanation.

About the only person you get to know is Merrick, and he's so reprehensible that you wish he would just go away. We thought maybe we'd learn a little history while getting caught up in the stories of the characters, but we were wrong on both counts. Good thing we didn't pay any money for the experience. It was awful. All in all, it was a huge waste of our time. We kept watching episode after episode, hoping that the endless mess of loose ends would get tied up in the end, but it never happened. Others who were thrown in for no apparent reason stayed on screen way too long.

I started watching The Jewel In The Crown via Amazon's Video On Demand around 8pm last night and I just finished up. You can read other people's reviews to find out more about the story and the cast.just, whatever you do, watch this series. It's now 10:30 in the morning. I literally could not stop watching this fascinating story of India's independence and how the actions and reactions (and non-reactions) of a huge cast of characters are interwoven with beauty and dignity. The casting was superb, the filming was beautiful, and the stories were mesmerizing. To top it all off, I saved about $15 off the DVD price.

Back in 1982 I bought in Abu Dhabi the Jewel in the Crown in 12 VHS and I am happy I have seen it in only 4 DVDS at Amazon. Thanks. The quality of the reproduction, so far, (who can see 4 x 3hrs each DVD in such a short time) is excellent and it is a pleasure hearing a good english speaking after so many american slang movies we see everyday at TV. Mauro

I wonder if anyone else's copy was defective. Disk 4 was a duplicate of Disk 3. Couldn't even watch the end of the series.

Quite simply, it doesn't get better than this. If there was ever evidence of perfection on the small screen it's here in "The Jewel In The Crown". It's been 24 years since I last saw the show and I'm here to report that time has polished this jewel to a magnificent shine. Don't deprive yourself of experiencing drama at its finest. The DVD transfer may not be up to today's standards but the acting is beyond reproach and Tim Pigott-Smith gives a performance of a lifetime.