BBC Play of the Month (TV Series) The Little Minister (1975) User Reviews

Perfect BBC Production

[boblipton · 10/10 · 26 April 2010]

James Barrie is best remembered for writing PETER PAN, but he was a highly successful playwright with shows like 'The Admirable Crichton' and 'Quality Street' and this story of a Scottish minister with a flash temper in the time following the '45.

Ian Ogilvy is fine in the title role, but it is Helen Mirren as Babby -- the role played by Katherine Hepburn in the 1934 version -- that makes this special. Before this she was a promising young actress who played Shakespearean roles and was frequently miscast in pieces like Christopher Hampden's THE PHILANTHROPIST. Here she gets to play a strong-willed character -- and she was finally revealed as a star. She has spent the rest of her career elaborating on this type of character with enormous range and subtlety, but it's here where it is all revealed.

Kind attention should be paid to the uncredited camera department, which manages, by some good movement and lighting to disguise the static nature of the play. Treat yourself to a look.

Enjoyable but not faithful to the novel by James Matthew Barrie

[overseer-3 · 9/10 · 7 August 2010]

This afternoon I had the wonderful pleasure of watching something I never thought I'd ever get to see, the 1975 British production of James Matthew Barrie's beautiful Victorian novel The Little Minister.

It is out on a brand new DVD set called Helen Mirren At The BBC, along with other TV shows she appeared in during the 1970's and 1980's.

You have to understand that I have about 10 copies of The Little Minister, I have loved it so for many years, from an original 1889 edition to the gorgeous Maud Adams edition to several Photoplay editions of the lost silent version with Betty Compson and the 1930's version with Katherine Hepburn and John Beal. So I was thrilled when my friend emailed me and told me this version was now available on DVD at last. I looked and Netflix carries it so I didn't have to pay for it! This version takes away several important characters like the mother and the father of the minister (the father is the narrator of the story), and changes the end around to make it more of a drawing room comedy a la Noel Coward. It was entertaining and fun but not faithful to the novel. The original novel had a much more dramatic and serious ending, raising many issues having to do with how a church reacts when its leadership, in this case the minister, disappoints them in some fashion.

Here the new minister at Thrums, Gavin Dishart (played by Ian Ogilvy) falls in love against his will with an apparent gypsy woman named Babbie (played by Helen Mirren). His congregation are very fond of him and when they become aware that he has an attachment to a mysterious woman they are very concerned and the church elders move to fire him.

Later it is revealed that Babbie is really the spoiled, willful daughter of the local Lord Rintoul and not the gypsy she made herself out to be. This is also a change: in the original novel she was the ward of Lord Rintoul and not his daughter and had actually been the daughter of gypsies.

In the original story she is at first toying with his feelings and then slowly she realizes she has fallen in love with him.

Gavin: "Can a man fall in love with a woman against his will?" Babbie: "Of course he can. That is the nicest way to fall in love." I love the original story because the minister is shown to be a good man with deep moral convictions, yet he isn't stuffy but makes decisions out of compassion and love. A far cry from the ministers one sees in other books like Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, or the Jane Austen novels like Emma, which make ministers out to be buffoons or evil people. Gavin is a romantic figure but strong and reliable, principled, and a true believer.

In this TV version they make Gavin out to be more of a clown, especially toward the end. I really prefer the way John Beal played him in the Kate Hepburn version. Plus Ian Ogilvy towered over much of the cast and he is supposed to be the **little** minister, short in stature and slightly sensitive and embarrassed by it. That point was missed entirely with Ian's casting. Remember in real life James Matthew Barrie (author of Peter Pan) was very short and was sensitive about it, so this is just one reason why he wrote the character the way he did.

But Helen played Babbie with a lot of flirtatious joy and I really enjoyed her performance. She has said that out of all the TV shows she made that are included in this box set that The Little Minister is her favorite.

9 stars out of 10. It's not perfect but it's enjoyable for what it was, a TV production from the 70's and not a major feature film.

Perhaps someday now that the novel is public domain again someone in the UK will have the bright idea to make a truly romantic and serious film out of this wonderful story, and next time try to make it more faithful to the beautiful novel.